2.5 month old with 30 minute naps!

[billybuttercup]

Like many of you, I am having a problem with the 30 minute napper. My son is 2.5 months old, and has been a 30 minute napper for some time now. I have read the No Cry Sleep Solution, but found that the book is primarly focused on those with nighttime sleep difficulties, and Daniel is a pretty good night sleeper. Taking some suggestions from that book, I have been trying to extend his naps by trying to catch him before he wakes up and patting, shhing, and shielding his eyes from light at the first stir. This rarely works however, and once his eyes are wide open, he will not go back to sleep. When this happens, I pick him up and have to rock him back to sleep and hold him until he is in a deep sleep (usually about 20-30 mins), at which time I can put him back down for about another 20 - 30 minutes. I have been working very hard on this, but he's a stubborn little man and seems to be committed to his half hour naps.

So, a typical day for us looks like this:

8:00am - Awake for day
8:30am - Feed
9:00am - Play
9:30am - Nap (usually spend 2 - 2.5hrs getting him to sleep for only about 1.25hrs - 1.5hrs)
12:00pm - Feed
12:30pm - Play
1:00pm - Nap (same process as above)
3:30pm - Feed
4:00pm - Play
5:00pm - Nap (same process as above)
6:30pm - Feed
7:00pm - Play
8:00pm - Nap (dozes in our arms)
9:00pm - Get ready for bed
9:30pm - Feed
10:00pm - Bed for night
5:00am - Feed
5:30am - Bed again until 8:00am

Addtional Info:
* Daniel often cries when he wakes up...like he wants to keep sleeping but can't - also, it seems that it's ONLY my arms he will sleep in (not even daddy's!!), and he is hysterical unless he is with me when he is overtired
* His sleep cues are tough to decipher because he is tired all the time as he doesn't get enough daytime sleep (ie. yawns even after he has just woken up)
* He is a happy, pleasant little man when he is well rested (ie. first thing in the morning), but gradually turns into a grumpy little monster as the day goes on
* Daniel is exclusively breastfed
* I'm not a fan of the PU/PD method, and I won't let him CIO

Also, is the amount of awake time we're giving him too much? I'm a little confused on the whole issue, as I don't know if he's getting overstimulated or what (though it is clear he is chronically overtired!!).

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, as I'm feeling very exhausted, overwhelmed, and just like I want to cry.

Thank you!!

[rachelle26]

Hi there...

My 2 month old is/was a 45 minute napper since he was 6 weeks old.  What I've done is added a wind down routine for our naps (as well as bedtime) so we eat(15-20 min) Activity (25-30 min) and then about 45 min-55min into the hour we head to his room to start winding down.  To wind down I have a nightlight on (so the room is somewhat dark) I turn on some lullabye music, change his diaper and then we either look at some black/white pictures or just rock in the chair until I see his eyes getting heavy.  I swaddle him (sometimes before I rock and sometimes once he's drowsy) and then I put him in his crib... we use white noise which helps a ton.  We have a cool mist humidifier that has 3 settings and the highest one is a nice loud white noise that blocks all the other noise in the house and helps him to sleep.

We also do the wake to sleep method and it is time consuming but it is working he's finally at the point now that he'll wake after about 45 minutes or so and figit a bit and then we give him his pacifier back and he settles back down... I wait for him to settle and then leave the room.

I have found the wind down method helps a lot and having a routine so he knows it's naptime... that works really well.

Hope that helps... good luck!

[billybuttercup]

Thanks for your reply!! 

We don't actually do a wind-down routine for naps, so I think I'll try that as the bedtime routine seems to work well for getting him down for the night. And thank you for adding in what wind-down activities you do, as that would have been my next question!!

 

[rachelle26]

Well I hope it has helped doing the wind down routines... seems to help us as LO knows exactly what to expect.