Afternoon Nap problem

[jingers]

Hi, my 8 weeks old baby girl always have problem to have a proper afternoon nap. She either didn't sleep well which results very grumpy late afternoon,(crying a lots) or sleep too long which makes her hard to go down around 7pm. It seems getting worse and worse and make us very hard to keep a good afternoon and evening routine. Can please anyone help me? Thanks, Jingers

[Meg's Mom]

Hi

Sorry for the late reply, how are things...better the same?

Can you post your schedule and we will see if we can help.

[jingers]

Hi Michelle,

It is still the same.

Her schedule is like this:

6:00 am eat
6:30 am to 7:30am Activity
7:30 am sleep

Usually she sleeps between 45minutes to 2 hours

10:00am eat
10:30am to 11:30 am Activity
11:30am sleep

She usually sleeps around 2 to 2.5 hours (but sometime, only 20 minutes to 1 hour, if she slept more than 1.5 hours in the morning nap)

2:00pm eat

That's when problem comes, her afternoon nap is all over the place. If she slept more than 2.5 hours in the lunch nap, it is very hard to put her down for a nap. But if she slept not very well during the lunch time, than she will usually sleep over 2 hours in the afternoon. I have tried to wake her up around 5pm, if she sleeps pass that time. She would be either very upset or very hard to wake up... Sometime she does sleep at all in the afternoon, then by late afternoon, she would be very very grumpy.

5:30pm bath time
6:00pm feed
6:30pm~7:00pm, put down to sleep

She usually wakes up once during the evening. But because her afternoon nap problem, the time for her to go to sleep in the evening are  also all over the place.


Thanks!

Hi

Sorry for the late reply, how are things...better the same?

Can you post your schedule and we will see if we can help.

[Meg's Mom]

A few things come to mind when i look at your schedule:

-you are on a 4hr schedule and i think that maybe to much for your wee girl...she is still really young and maybe waking early due to hunger.  Do you bf or bottle?

-i think if you keep her sleep a bit more regular/even throughout the day she may have a better afternoon/evening.  At her age she needs her sleep to be more consistent, even if that means waking her up so she doesn't pack in all in at once.  If you think of her sleep as a total for the day and she is packing it all in before noon time.

IMO - Don't let her sleep more then 1.5-2.0hr at a time and move her to a 3hr or 3.5hr EASY schedule.  Wake her up if needed for feeds and to spread out her sleep and see if that helps.

If you need ideas for a schedule let me know.

[jingers]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. I will try the 3.5hours EASY schedule to see how it goes. Sometime it is very hard to wake her up. If I tried, she would wake up crying. Does that mean she needs more sleep? Do you have any good method to wake the baby up? At the moment, I am trying to unswaddle her gently, then open the curtain up. Sometime it works, sometime it take about an hour for me to wake her up without upset her too much.

[jingers]

I forgot to mentioned before. I am breast feeding her.

[Taylor's Mommy]

I think moving her to the 3 hour EASY will also help with the A time.  At this age I found that Taylor could not stay up longer than 45min without getting really over tired, that includes feeding.  I see that your dd is staying up close to 1.5 hours, which I think is a bit long.

To wake her from a nap, try gently stroking her head and unwrapping her from her swaddle.  Also, try to time her nap so that you go in when she is changing sleep cycles so you don't catch her in deep sleep.  I always found that if we tried to wake Taylor in the middle of deep sleep, she would get very startled and upset.  So if you put dd down at 8 am, try waking around 9:45-10 am, as she should be transitioning right about that time.  Do you know what I mean?

Let me know if you have any questions.
Andrea

[jingers]

Hi Andrea, Thanks for the reply. I have tried 3.5 routine today, found that she doesn't appear hungry when the time for feeding. She usually take 20 minutes on first breast, then 10 minutes on second breast. But today, all day, when I feed her she only took 15 minutes on 1 breast. By the end of the day, I am a bit worried that she didn't take enough milk during the day. How do you adjust the feeding if go with the 3 hour easy schedule? Thanks for the advices, I really appreciate it.

[Meg's Mom]

Makes sence that she takes less per feed, but keep in mind she gets an extra feed in on a 3hr schedule.  And it will take a couple days for you both (your milk supply and her tummy) to get used to the new routine. 

Always give a new schedule, sleep method, etc at least 3 days to see it helps or not.

[jingers]

Thank you, Michelle. I will try to see how it goes.