Cannot implement EASY ! Baby won't go to sleep during nap times HELP!

[ccheyne]

Hello and thank you all for the priceless information I've found on this board.  My husband and I have a spirited 5 week old who never sleeps!  She is continually in overtired and will not settle down for naps until she finally crashes from 3-6 each day. We then try to get her settled down again by 9 but it is normally not until 11pm after which she wakes every 1.5 hours.  We are hoping to implement EASY but it has been imposible as we can't get her down for the naps during the day. 

Any advice would be soooo appreciated as we are at our wit's end!!! How do we get her to nap so that we can start her on an EASY schedule?

Thank you in advance!!

[Jazmyn]

Hi there.  Sorry you are having a nightmare.  I thought my lo was bad, but at least he sleeps if only for short naps.

I think you would benefit from posting your babies routine so far, feeding regime etc. ie. breast/bottle and lots of people will do their best to help you.

They are hard work at 5 weeks old, but I think its a good age to start EASY so good luck.

[*Mona*]

agree with pp. please post whatever routine you've been having so far.
overtiredness is a vicious cycle- the more tired she is the more difficult she can be to be put to sleep.
what do you do to try to get her nap? do you have any nap/bedtime routine?

have you checked this?:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65942.0
and this:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65842.0
?

please let us know how your days go and we'll try our best to help you.

[rebecaq]

Hello!

As a mom of a spirited boy I KNOW how hard the first few weeks are. {{{{HUGS}}}}

First, babies son't really "get" EASY until after 6 weeks, before that they are too young and still getting accostumed to life outside of the womb. I agree with Monika that the more overtired she becomes the more she'll spiral into it.  Breaking the cycle is tough too. 

Spirited babies have a real hard time transitions from one stage to another, especially from A to S. I had to make a big theatrics when naptime was coming. And winddown was about 20 mins to get him settled enough. They also get very overstimulated, very quickly, so be careful of what you do with her A time.

Drop by out spirtited support group so you can get loads of support and tips from all us mommies of spirited ones.

BTW, spirited babies need more consistency and structure than other babies so make sure you stick to your routine.

- Beca 

p.s. have you tried a white noise machine during her nap times to see if she sleeps better?

[ccheyne]

Wow! thank you all for the quick response. We really don't have much routine except spending all day trying to get her to sleep       Here is what we have so far:


5am wake in crib Eat

6-7am try to get back down for a nap - sometimes moving into our bed to try to get her to sleep

8am-3pm try to get baby settled to take a nap, although unsuccessful.  Meanwhile feeding every 3 hours or when she seems hungry from 3-5 oz each time. Breast milk in bottles. Nursing occaisionally .   Once in a while she will fall asleep quickly while we try to settle her so we then put her in the crib but she wakes up 15 minutes later

3-4pm.  Most days around 3-4pm she will crash for a few hours. Usually in her car seat or our bed because after trying everything at home we finally go for a ride to get her to sleep or lay down with her.

6pm Wake and eat
7pm Try to settle to sleep. Sometimes able to get her to take a short nap, others she is up until 9pm

9pm begin night time routine.  Turn down lights , feed , change and begin rocking.  Normally takes 1 hours to settle her.  She will sleep for 3 hours

11.30 -1.30 (depending on when she settled in)  Wake, Eat, Change and begin to get back to bed.

Normally takes 1 hour to get her back to sleep and she will wake up every 1.5 hours after that until 5am. ( always with an hour to settle back in again)

Our naptime and night time routine are very similar.  We feed, change, and then start the routine.  We go to her room and keep it quiet and calm.  We rock her in the chair and she takes a paci and begins to nod off, then all of a sudden will wake up wide eyed and start moving around and whining a bit and moving her arms and legs like crazy. I'll change positions and she'll nod off again, only to stir awake in a few minutes. This goes on for up to 1 hour and then she seems to be in a deeper sleep and we put her in the crib.  We often try white noise while shes sleeping.
We also sometime sit on a bouncy ball to calm her  .

As you can see, we need all the advice we can get.  We must be doing something wrong!  Thank you for your help.

Also, where would I find the Spirited child support group?  Is it another listing on this site? 


thank you thank you!!
cristina

[rebecaq]

Hi Cristina (That's my middle name )

Sounds to me like she needs a swaddle ASAP.  Spirited babies ahve SO much energy and are so hard to settle that a swaddle helps wonders when they can;t control their arms and wake themselves.

I see she wakes at 5am. Have you tried nursing her and putting her back down until 7 and then start the day oficially?  If she's going to bed at 9 and waking at 5 it's a short night. I recommend that you start winding her down at 6, do a real soothing bath at 6:30, then massage/bedtime story/lullabye (whichever you do), nurse her and then to bed no later than 7:30. Make sure she's swaddled and do shhhh/pat until she drifts off. If she's been sleeping in your arms and then you lay her down could be part of the problem. She gets confused as to why you were there before and aren't now.  But I really do think swaddling will do wonders for her. Does she use a wedge? That helped us over here alot too.

At her age she should be on 3 hour EASY which looks like this :

3-hour EASY:

E: 7.00 wake up and feed
A: 7.30 or 7.45 (depending on how long feed takes)
S: 8.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 10.00
A: 10.30 or 10.45
S: 11.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 1.00
A: 1.30 or 1.45
S: 2.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 4.00 feed
S: 5.00 or 6.00 or somewhere in between – catnap (approx. 40mins) to get baby through the next feed and bath
E: 7.00 (cluster feed at 7 and 9 if going through a growth spurt)
A: bath
S: 7.30 bedtime
Y: the evening is yours
E: 10 or 11pm dreamfeed


Also here's the link for the spirited babies support group :
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=62650.0

If you have any doubts don't hesitate to holler for help! 

- Beca

[Jazmyn]

Definitely agree with swaddling.  It helped our lo settle  and it was the best thing we ever did.