newbie - 9 wk old won't nap

[charlibabes]

Hello there, I am a new Mother who had some great intentions before the birth! I had read Babywise and had the whole 3 hour routine in my head.. then along came Kate.

Kate was 2 weeks late and have never acted like a newborn.  She has been very alert and active since birth and has only slept 12-14 hours a day since day one!  I tried the Babywise 3 hours eat/play/nap routine but found she needed to eat more often.. and never seemed to sleep in the day.

have just been given BW,  which is more flexible and seems much more sensible, and am now trying to implement proper nap times... without much joy.

Although Kate is about 13lbs at 9 weeks she still seems to eat every 2.5-3 hours, every 2 in the evening!  her feeds are typically 25 mins (bf).

She sleeps 9 hours through at night, which is great, but during the other 15 hours of the day she only sleeps anything from 1.5 to 4 hours in total.  She can go 6 hours without a nap and has done from day one!

She was very contented, a textbook baby until she got a cold 10 days ago, although it has mostly gone (a bit chesty still) she seems to be very gripy and crying more than before...  I put it down to the cold, buit she has not improved even though it has.

Any observations or advice welcome!

[Aarismom]

First of all, congrats on the long night of sleep! 9 hours is wonderful!

Ok, now for the naps. It sounds like your lo might be overtired by the time you put her down for naps. Could you post her schedule for us? At 9 weeks I'd say no more than 1- 1hr, 15mins.  of "A" time total, including "E" time. Wind down should begin prolly 15-20 mins before the nap actually starts, keeping your wind down the same every time, and you'll want to keep ALL "A" time low key at this age. They can't do much at this age anyway but stare at black and white lines

Nap training with shh/pat actually begins when your lo can sleep through the night like she is, but it may take a few days to get the hang of, unless you got lucky and she knows how to fall asleep independantly already

Feeding wise, let her feed as much as she wants, but try not to let her snack between meals. It's common for her to be eating that much, especially since you say she's pretty spirited.

Hope this helps a little!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[charlibabes]

. Could you post her schedule for us? At 9 weeks I'd say no more than 1- 1hr, 15mins.  of "A" time total, including "E" time. Wind down should begin prolly 15-20 mins before the nap actually starts, keeping your wind down the same every time, and you'll want to keep ALL "A" time low key at this age. They can't do much at this age anyway but stare at black and white lines

Thanks for the reply.  Her schedule is pretty crap really  an average day would look something like this...

7.00 wake and feed then sit in chair whilst Mummy gets breakfast/ has bath etc
9.30 am feed (no sleep time yet)
10.00 chats with mummy
10.30 sleep (2.5hrs)
13.00 wake and feed
13.30 baby gym or chair
14.30 sleep (1 hr)
15.30 wake and feed
17.00 feed
19.00 feed
21.00 feed
22.00 sleep (9 hrs)

Her daytime naps vary, sometimes she goes down at 8.30am for an hour and a half, then won't sleep again until the afternoon for perhaps another hour.  Today it is now 16.50 and she has only had 2 naps since 7am!!  one of 30mins and one of 40mins!

When she is active and awake she seems interested in much more than just staring, she bats at toys or chats to her musical mobile.

What I would like to achieve is a bed time of 7pm with a df at 10.30.  As she only sleeps 12-14 hours, and 4 of those can be daytime naps, I am not sure she would do this... I am thinking that she might start waking at 4 or 5 and be ready to party if she has been down since 7.

[charlibabes]

today I am having no more joy   she woke at 6 after 8 hours, had a morning df and slept until 8.  I fed her at 8 and by 9.30 I saw yawning, and got her into her crib... so far so good... but she would not go past 20 mins despite patting, shushing etc

My MIL came over whilst I packed to go away and Kate went to sleep in her arms for 1 and half hours... once she left I tried her crib again when I saw the signs, same thing as this morning and now she won't stop crying no mater what I do, it's only been an hour and a half since she last fed, but is trying to get a feeds from  my T shirt

[Taylor's Mommy]

Hi Charlibabs, First let me tell you been there done that with the Babywise book!  Thank goodness I ended up reading baby whisperer!

So from just briefly looking at your routine, I really think 1.5 hours is a little long for a 9 week old.  At this age Taylor could really only stand to be up for 45minutes to 1 hour.  So I would usually start our windown after about 40 minutes of A time and shoot for being in bed by 1 hour.

Have you tried decreasing A time?

[charlibabes]

I really think 1.5 hours is a little long for a 9 week old. 

I am only just starting with this, I was misguidedly told that newborns just dropped to sleep wherever they were when they needed it, and you might have a job keeping them awake, so I have not done routine naps before.

 The problem with Kate is that she hasn't slept much in the day since her birth! I can see 1.5 hours is too long, but she can go for 5 or 6 hours sometimes!! As I read that some newborns only sleep 12-14 hours in total I just assumed Kate was one of those.

It's onl;y now she has had a cold that she has started to become cranky after being awake too long, she used to just be peaceful which is why i didn;t think abything was amiss.

We are away over Chirtsmas and New Year which will make it hard to implement a routine with her crib, so will try for regular naps and go for it whern we come home I think.

[Deb_in_oz]

The problem with Kate is that she hasn't slept much in the day since her birth! I can see 1.5 hours is too long, but she can go for 5 or 6 hours sometimes

i am going to guess that she is spirited based on your description.  just wanted to say that although these "alert from day 1" babies (my Olivia is one) CAN stay happily awake for hours, the evidence that they SHOULD NOT be staying up that long comes when you do try to put them down for a nap. then they either cry/protest a lot out of overtiredness or even if they drop off to sleep out of sheer exhaustion, they often do shorter naps of 30-45 min.  Most spiriteds don't show tired signs at this age - or if they do it is at the point where they shoudl already be in bed (not like an early alert system of 1st yawn, etc) 

i think that in the case of spirited babies you have to take the lead because they woudl rather be doing and looking instead of sleeping (and ths does not seem to change as my 10 mo old has been showing me this week  :roll: ). They do need to rest and recharge - it is important for their muscles, brain etc to have that recovery time and a lot of brain development takes place during sleep time... So i also suggest (as Taylor's Mommy said  :wink: ) that you start getting her ready for naps at 45min - 1hr at the latest and take it from there. She may not sleep for 1.5 - 2hrs each nap but she does need to nap in every cycle of EASY (it will grow from there into a routine that suits her and you over time, but right now she is being taught that this is how the day works...)

BTW it is fantastic that she is naturally cluster feeding and stocking up on calories to sustain her fo rthe longer night sleep - i often wonder if that is another instinct for spiriteds because Olivia always had her best feed before bed like she is storing calories for the night and is not a big feeder first thing in the morning.  At 9 weeks 2.5 - 3hrs is a totally normal feed routine for BF babies.

[charlibabes]

Thanks for the posts ladies, I will work on at least getting her to nap properly whilst we are away.. the full routine can't really come in until we get home as she will not be in her own crib.  Happy Christmas