5 month old nap problems

[Millie2]

I'm having nap issues with my five month old baby.
 
I've only just read the book and gone from a three hour to four hour routine and she is fine with waiting for her feeds but its getting hard to keep them four hours apart when she only sleeps for 45 minutes (max) each nap time!

She is a good night sleeper going down easily at 7pm and sleeping till 5 or 6am.  At that time she wakes up and talks to herself until she goes back to sleep (sometimes up to an hour) then I get her up at 7. 

She is up for 1.5 to 2 hours each time and goes down very easily.  But at the 45 minute mark (or sometimes as early as 30 minutes) she wakes up and starts chattering away to herself.  She doesn't cry or grizzly - just talks!  There are no toys in her cot so she's not playing and sometimes she's facing a blank wall and still happily talking away.  I've tried going in to resettle her (reswaddling, shush/pat) which can take up to 40 minutes and sometimes works but only for another 10 minutes or so of sleep.   I've tried not rushing in and leaving her to sort it out herself - sometimes she'll talk for 30 minutes and go back to sleep but often she doesn't go back at all!  I figure PU/PD isn't going to help since she isn't crying and therefore doesn't need calming.

She is perfectly happy when she wakes after 45 minutes so I'm tempted to say that its all she needs but how do I stick to four hourly feeds if she is up for 1.5 hours before the feed is due?

[cazao]

if she`s happy on the 45 minute naps then i wouldn`t stress about trying to lengthen them. it seems that all babies go through periods of doing the 45 minute napping thing, it seems to be developmental and this seems to normally resolve itself once they`re a bit older....for us it was around 7 months when she could handle a long enough awake time to just have 2 naps a day. in the meantime, you could either do EASAE as you`re doing, or feed her when she wakes so the EASY cycle is shorter than 4 hours. either can work. and you may want to experiment with increasing her awake time by 10 minutes or so every few days....she may be able to manage slightly longer now and then will be more tired and sleep longer. don`t go too far and get her overtired though (what a fine balance  :roll: ) you`ll probably know if she`s overtired as she`ll cry and have difficulty getting off to sleep...that`s why only extend by 10 minutes or so at first so you get her in bed before the overtired point. when i was extending dd`s awake time i did a very lowkey activity like walking outside with her for those few extra minutes. anyway, hope some of this helps...

[Millie2]

So do I scrap the whole idea of four hourly feeds and just feed when she wakes?  Or continue feeding three hourly so that she doesn't have so long to wait when she wakes?  She is usually awake (but in bed as I hope that she'll go back to sleep) for about an hour before I feed her and then is up for two hours afterwards so I don't think I can extend her awake times!!

Today I went in during her nap time just before the 30 minute mark and tried Wake to Sleep.  I started patting her and every time she stirred I patted until she stopped.  She sleeps on her side and sucks her thumb so it wasn't too hard to pat her!  I had a book with me so that I wouldn't get bored and give up and I stayed until it was 1 hr since she had gone to sleep.  She had been pretty still and breathing heavily, etc so I was sure she was asleep.  Not so!  I leaned over to look at her and her eyes were wide open!!!!  She'd just been lying there looking at the wall and sucking her thumb.  As soon as I left the room she rolled onto her back and started chatting away!

[Millie2]

Now I'm ready to scream!!  She went to sleep at 8.10am, I went in at 8.40am to do the wake to sleep trick, I left the room at 9.10 - as I said above she wasn't asleep and she immediately started talking, I just checked her and she is asleep again!!!!!  So, do I stay longer when I go in or do I stay for less time and let her get the talking out of her system so she goes back a bit faster? 

By the way, she got up at 6.30am as I've decided that works better for us then her getting up at 7.

[Matthew's Mommy]

Okay.. let's change the game on her.

Definately continue onto the 4 hour EASY cycle.  It sounds like she needs a longer awake time, if she is waking up happy and alert.  So, aim for her awake time to be 2 hours in length (if it's not there yet, then you will need to extend it slowly by 15 min. increments over 2 days)

Make sure she is falling asleep independently in her crib, so make sure you aren't winding her down too long, and she is going into her bed awake but drowsy.

Now, if you are finding the wake to sleep isn't working for her, and is actually interfering, then I don't think you should do it any longer. Instead, I would just hold back and wait.  If you hear her over the monitor at the 45 min. mark, then hold back.  If she is hysterically crying, then definately, support her (patting her back, pu.pd).  If not, then just hold back and give her a chance to settle on her own.

Hope this helps!

[Millie2]

Thanks Jane.  I'll hold back again today.  I've done it before and she has spent an hour talking to herself and hasn't gone back to sleep at all!  Like this morning - she woke at 6am so I thought I'd let her sort herself out - she talked for ages and then it was all silent for awhile so I thought she'd finally gone back to sleep (this is 45 mins from when I first heard her) so I went in to peek and she was wide awake!  She saw me and then started crying so I got her up and started her day.  I'm trying to keep her up longer by distracting her when she starts to get a little bit tired and so far its working.  I went back through my diary of the last week and she is getting about 3 hours in naps during the day but its broken ones - 45 minutes then up for an hour then another 30 minutes, etc.  I guess as long as she is happy I just have to deal with it!!!!