Sorry if this is really long, but I hope the detail might help with the explanation.
Yesterday was exhausting. My 8-week-old LO pretty much had one hour nap in her crib all day (around 1). Other than that, she slept in my arms (which I haven't done for at least a month) once for about 45 minutes and had a few naps between 15 and 35 minutes long. First of all, she usually cries when it’s time to put her to sleep (which she's started doing the last couple of weeks). She doesn’t like being put down. And then on top of that, she wakes up after just a few minutes, it seems.
So far, today has looked like this:
7:30 - Wake. I fed her about 3 ounces (2 EBM and 1 forumula) by bottle. She played for a little bit, and then I ended up nursing her at 8:20 (I usually only nurse at night).
8:30 –Sleep. Or so I thought.
8:35 - Wake.
8:45-9:00 – Sleep. Then trying to soothe her back to sleep, first in crib, then in arms, until 9:15.
9:15 – Bring her downstairs, nurse. Then almost 2 ounces (about 1 EBM and 1 forumula) in bottle.
10:40, she yawns so I try to put her to sleep. She prefers to lay on my shoulder, but she tends to fall asleep in that position. It’s hard to see her nod off and then it’s hard to change her position to laying down. So after a few minutes of crying while holding her, she drifts off and I put her down, which I don't like doing.
11:08 – I’m just about to hop in the shower when she starts to cry. I temporarily try pat/shush in her crib, but to no avail. So I battle with what my husband and a friend recommended: just letting her cry.
11:10-11:15 – while I’m in my shower, she cries. I step out, she quiets down a bit. I check on her just after I dry off and she was snoozing.
11:20-11:30 – Cries. Pat/Shush in crib. Sleeps for 5 minutes.
11:35-11:40 – Pick up and pat/shush her to sleep in arms by crib. Sleeps for 5 minutes in crib.
11:45 – Pat/Shush in crib, as she is restless.
I watched her for about 15 minutes after that. She jerked several times and would sometimes open her eyes. Sometimes when she does that, it totally wakes her up. Sometimes she will wiggle around a little, then go back to sleep. She tended to sleep for about 5 minutes, then wake up and move around, and then put herself back to sleep.
It’s now 12:36, and I hear noises occasionally. But she is still asleep from what I can tell.
After her not really sleeping well all day yesterday, and tending to still wake up every 3-4 hours at night, I decided it’s time to really try to get her to sleep better during the day. She needs to at least sleep for 1-2 hours (she WAS sort of doing a wake 1 hour/sleep 1 hour pattern during the day). Perhaps she will just have to cry as I put her to sleep in my arms instead of on my shoulder? Perhaps I will be doing pat/shush for a while to get her to learn to go back to sleep? I HATED making her cry that 5 minutes to put her back to sleep. But my friend suggested that maybe she misses me, like in a social sort of way. So that’s why she wakes up and cries. She suggested letting her cry herself back to sleep, and my husband mentioned that, too, at one point a couple weeks ago, so that she can learn to go back to sleep. But I think I’m going to tough out the pat/shush for a while. She can’t keep falling asleep on my shoulder. She can’t keep waking up after 20 minutes. She NEEDS to sleep during the day, and I guess we have to teach that to her (or unteach whatever we taught her to this point!).
any thoughts on how I remedy these short short naps? any other info I can give to help shed light on the situation? thank you in advance for reading this, i know it's really long!
--tara
