help! won't nap

[graydons mama]

My 8 week old ds has not been napping for the past 2 weeks for longer then 30-45min. (on the upside he only wakes once during the night or not at all)  I've tried going into his room to be there when he comes back into REM state to shh-pat him but it's not working.  He gets very cranky with such a short nap and by the time it's feeding time he's ready to go back to sleep.  What else can I do to help him sleep longer?

[Superman'sMom]

Can you post your daily routine please. It would help us to pinpoint the problem. Do you swaddle, use dummy, have naptime routine? Can your ds put himself to sleep independently? Before we can help we need to understand the problem. Thanks

[graydons mama]

Thanks for the quick reply...He's always swaddled when he sleeps and we use a pacifier.  When we see the first yawn it's upstairs to read a story (the sound of our voice reading calms him) and when he starts to get a bit fussy he's swaddled and put to bed.  Ds is awake when he's put down and we shh-pat him for a few minutes and leave.   He then goes to sleep on his own. (occasionally we may have to go back in and give him his paci)  He'll sleep for 30-45min tops.  I've done as suggested on the board and gone in before he wakes to try to get him before the jolt but his eyes pop open and he either starts wailing or cooing.   In turn he ends up very cranky and hard to put back down because he's over tired.  Our daily routine is as follows.

7:00 - 7:20         wake & bf
7:20 - 8 or 8:15  activity (diaper change etc)
8:15-8:45           to sleep without a problem - will wake at this point and nothing I try will send ds back to sleep
9:30                  out of bed - try to calm to feed
10:00                feed
repeat for rest of day
5:30-6:30          walk-he sleeps for 3/4 of the way in the snuggie
7pm                  bath (ds loves bath very happy at this point)
8pm                  feed
8:30                  put him to bed-goes to sleep immediately on his own
10:30 or 11        dream feed
wakes up between 5-7am to be fed

Any idea's will be appriciated!

Thanks

[Superman'sMom]

Oh my god I am so sorry! I didn't see this until now! My ds is waking up now so I will get back to you later!

[Superman'sMom]

Wow that is nice that he sleeps well at night for you! Okay in no way am I an expert! But my son is a terrible sleeper so I have been through it all. What is your ds's temperament? What do you do when he wakes up early? How ;log do you pat/shh? To be honest with you  your routine looks good. The only thing I might suggest is to try to keep the winddown shorter. I used to do the same thing with Aiden  (read to him until he started fussing), but a shorter winddown is better. After the yawning starts they should be in bed soon so they can go through all of the stages of falling asleep. Little babies are actually wired to wake after the 45 minutes. The can't make it through transitions. The will wake up and they have to be able go back to sleep. As they get older they get better. So time is the best solution. Not that I am saying just wait it out. You can adjust the activity time and try to pat/shhh. Make sure that he isn't up for longer than 1 1/2 hours. And try to keep the nap time routine to 5 maybe ten minutes.

I think that he may also be over-stimulated. I am guess he may be a bit touchy? At this age babies don't need much activity. I used to stimulate Aiden so much and try to play with toys and drive myself crazy trying to entertain him. I thought I was going to wear him out and that if I didn't do this he would be bored. Well I was not right, he probably thought I was crazy and wished i would leave him alone! I was overstimulating him and that affected his sleep tremendously. Try to have very low stimulating activities. Maybe just sit and talk to him or take him out in the garden. The sunlight will also help. I have also read that the first nap is almost an extention of the night time sleep. That one will probably have the less amount of activity time beforehand. If you can get a good first nap the rest of the day should be much better.


I have to go, please let me know how you are doing. I am really sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. PM me is you want. I hope I can help.

[graydons mama]

Thanks so much for the advice.  I must be doing something wrong.  For the past few days I've taken everyones advice and I am having no luck!  Things seem to be getting worse.  As soon as I see a yawn we're off to the nursery for quiet time.  By the third yawn (if not sooner) he's swaddled and in the crib. I put him down before he's asleep and for the first nap he goes down fine but wakes after 45 minutes. (he may start to fuss and I'll go in to give him his soother) I've gone into his room to be there to help him transition (find shh/pat to much for him so I just put my hands on him so he doesn't jolt) and I think he's back asleep (15-20 min) and then his eyes pop open and games over!!  After this he's miserable all day and won't nap!  I end up having to put him in the bjorn around 3 to go for a walk just to get him to calm down.  I am completely baffled and exhausted by this.  Any other thoughts as to what I might be doing wrong?  Once I tried to let him cry it out but the only thing that did was make me cry!