Author Topic: Thinks night time is another nap??  (Read 1214 times)

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Offline UNCMomma

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Thinks night time is another nap??
« on: May 10, 2006, 02:15:18 am »
The last couple of nights I've had a hard time getting my 12 week old to stay down for the night after putting her to bed.  She goes to sleep initially fairly easily but then after 30 min, 45 min, or 1 hour she's awake and it has taken me feeding her to get her settled back down.  (I don't feed her all the way to sleep, still put her down drowsy).  Do you think it's a growth spurt??  It almost seems like she thinks it's another nap, even with the bedtime routine that we have done from the time she was about 2 weeks old (bath, feed, rock, bed).  Weird.  I don't mind feeding her if she's hungry, but I want her to realize it's night time and that she should go to sleep until time for Dream Feed!  Anyone have any experience with this??

Thanks, Amanda



Jo-FrasersMum

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2006, 03:55:25 am »
Hi Amanda

Wakings very early in the night, like those you describe, often indicate overtiredness.  What is your day time routine like?

Jo

Offline UNCMomma

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2006, 15:04:39 pm »
This would make sense because my LO is coming off of a stent of short naps, and has trouble with the last nap of the day.  Here's yesterday's schedule...

6:30 AM Awake, Eat
7:10 In bed, asleep at 7:30
9:00 Awake, Activity
9:30 Eat, Activity
10:00 In bed, asleep at 10:15
11:15 Awake, Activity
12:00 Eat
12:15 In bed, asleep at 12:20
3:30 Awake, Eat
4:40 In bed, talked/whined on and off with maybe 2 10 min catnaps until 5:30
5:30 Eat, Bath
6:20 In bed, asleep by 6:30
7:30 PM Awake, crying
(Took me until 9:15 when I eventually fed her to get her back to sleep)
10:30 PM Dream feed
3:45 AM Awake, gave paci, rocked for 2 min, back asleep, in bed with me (bad habit, I know!)
6:40 AM Awake, Eat

It seems to me that when her first 3 naps are decent, she has trouble taking the last one.  SO I think she's getting overtired at the end of the day (like you said) and maybe having trouble staying asleep at night time.

What do you think???
Thanks, Amanda



Jo-FrasersMum

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2006, 23:33:36 pm »
Hi Amanda,

Having a look at DD's routine, I think that perhaps you need to start to extend the A time.  Now, it's been A LONG time since my DS was 3 months old and my recollections of that time are pretty hazy LOL but I think that he was probably doing about an hour and a half A time between each nap.  If you were to extend the A times, you would probably move towards 3 naps per day rather than 4, hopefully improving the quality of the naps and starting to improve those night issues you are experiencing.

I would recommend that you go to the EASY forum and have a look at the sample routines for a 3 month old.  They will give you a good idea of what is a standard A time for LO's your DD's age.

Good luck!
Jo

Offline UNCMomma

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2006, 00:09:08 am »
Thank you Jo!  I have always struggled with awake times... and the advice is all over the board in that subject area!  Some say 1 hour, some 1.5 hours, some 45 min!  I always try to pay attention to sleepy cues, which come right around the one hour mark.  If I continue to have trouble with her last nap, I'll give the longer awake times another go.  Each time I have tried, it backfires on me (overtired baby has trouble falling asleep!) but next time might be different.   :-\

Thanks so much for the advice... today was actually better with napping during the day so we'll see how tonight goes!  She's in the bed for the first go-around and her last nap was over an hour long.  Cross your fingers!  :)

Amanda



Jo-FrasersMum

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2006, 00:48:44 am »
Fingers and toes duly crossed  :)

We always had trouble extending A times too - we used to have to a take a 10 or 15 min walk around the garden to string him out.  Remember that you don't need to make the increase all in one go - increase the A time by 5 or 10 mins and leave it at that for a couple of days, before you increase the time a little more.  I know exactly what you mean about struggling with the overtiredness and naps times but remember, baby steps.

Good luck!
Jo

Offline UNCMomma

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Re: Thinks night time is another nap??
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2006, 12:26:32 pm »
Thank you thank you thank you Jo!  We will try to start extending the awake times, maybe by 5 min today and tomorrow.  We actually had a terrific night last night... since she got the decent nap in until 6:45 I had her in bed by 7:30 and she did not get back up an hour later!  After the dream feed she slept until 5, when I put the paci in and she slept until 6:20!  YAY!!!!!  If we could have more nights like that, I would feel like a new woman!!  :)  It stinks to have to stick so close to home to keep LO on her schedule, but I guess it pays off!  My poor toddler will have to hang in there with us a few more months! 

Thanks again,
Amanda