what to do???

[lizbar]

My DD is 12 weeks old.  I have several issues, but I will focus on her naps for this post.
She is a 45 min napper and not really sure what to do once she wakes.  I sometimes take her out and do some activity time and try to feed her if I feel she is hungry.  I usually end up putting her back in her crib and try to settle her again.  I havent' tried s2w yet because once she is asleep I am terrified to wake her.
My question is, should I just leave her in the crib when she wakes the first time? or should I take her out and try all over again with the cycle?  She doesn't take the paci, so that never helps.

[deemum]

when my dd takes a 45 min nap its usually because i missed her window putting her down. i usually  get her up, give feed close to time its due, then change nappy and get her back down, effectively doing a shorter E.A.S this usually works.
Dee

[Scrapbooker]

If this is a chronic problem, I believe the advice is: if she is crying when she wakes up, try to settle her in the bed with pat/shh, if not able-->take her out and start routine again from winddown so this won't become a habit.  If she awakes and seems happy to play and you think 45 minute naps are enough for her, then play until time to feed (EASA essentially).  I'd visit the 45 minute posts at the top of the naps page.  If this is just a once in a while (or even once a day) thing, then you can choose to do either activity (like last post says with shorter A time after eating) or sleep routine again based on what you think she needs.  Don't let fear get in the way of using W2S if it is a chronic problem or it will not get better for a while.  I've heard it may get better around 6 months.  My DD is 12 weeks too and that sure seems far away.

Wish you luck!

[lizbar]

I am going to try s2w tomorow.  Her routine was so off the wall today. 
4:30am    E
5:30-6:30S
7:30        E
9-9:40    S

This was the entire day     
I even left her in the crib to CIO for about 10 min.  Tomorow will be better!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brightside]

My DS was a 40 minute napper too (isn't now-so hope for you!). When he woke I used to spend about 20 mins getting him back to sleep and then gave up. One day I decided he was going back to sleep no matter how long it took! It took 40 mins but he went back to sleep and it was bliss! My message is: its worth persevering and can take a bit longer than perhaps you imagined. I tried w2s too which sometimes worked. The other thing that made a lot of difference was increasing A time by just 15 mins.

[lizbar]

My 13 week old DD has been a poor napper (45 min on average)  This morning I decided to really work on extending her naps.  I don't do PU/PD because she gets really agitated when I try to.  She slept for 25 min and woke up.  I kept her in the crib (screaming of course)  I just sat with her and let her know I was there with a gentle shush.  Again, I don't pat because it seems to make her more upset.  This went on for close to an hour and she finally fell back asleep.  She is now sleeping through a feeding, but I felt it was cruel to wake her up after all that.  I know that I should wake her up, but does anyone let them sleep through a feeding?  Am I really going to screw things up?
Thanks,
Elizabeth

[Loujo]

I completely agree with the trying to extend the A time (albeit gradually and in small increments!), if you can get that first big nap right then the rest of the day will be better for you!  My lo went through a similar thing at this age and it wasnt until I put him on a 4 hour easy at 14 weeks that he started to sleep for much much longer during the day - I had several nightmare weeks of trying to W2S and used shh pat to extend his naps - sometimes taking 45 mins to just extend his naps, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt  But to look at him you would never have guessed that his A time needed extending - he would  get really tired and yawny - but evidently it was what he needed and it worked!
And he is hasnt changed - whenever he needs his A time extending, his naps get shorter and shorter!
HTH
Lou
xxx
PS Now he has 90 mins AM and PM - lovely...

[Loujo]

Just replied to your other post :-)
I went through the same with Thomas at this age - sometimes if I just needed a break then I would let him sleep 30 mins past his feed time but no more and then wake him - after all that shh patting I was just grateful for some quiet    My aim was to get him to get hungry the same time every day to keep him on a fairly even routine plus if I let him sleep too long the rest of his feeds and naps would be messed up for the day and having that 5pm catnap too early or too late really affected his bedtime - some babies are much easier to get back on track than others

HTH
Lou
xxx

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello lizbar, I hope you don't mind, but I've merged your two topics on this board. This is b/c it's best to have all the information you have given to us in one place so that we can help you, especially if your two posts were to drift apart.

Many thanks, hope we can help you (you've had some great advice, btw