going crazy with the 45 min nap...

[luaidos]

I'm getting desperate about my 12 weeks LO naps.  He's on a 3-3.5 easy with apparently no probs.  There was always the awakening at the  45 min mark, which I usually solved in about 10-15 min of giving him his paci and doing shush pat.  This way he was doing a nap of almost 2 hours.
I don't know why, but since last week it became harder and harder to extend his naps.  He starts to move and he really open his eyes, which never happened before!!!  As you can imagine, as he looks around, he gets excited and more difficult to put back to sleep.  Sometimes I'm with him for half an hour and then he gets back to sleep, but some other times, I just can't make it and take him out of his crib.  Of course that this just ruins all the easy, cause he does some activity before eating and then he's too tired for the activity after eating...  my EASY becomes a "AESY"....

I've been through the FAQ questions and I tried some of the suggestions, but nothing seems to work....

here's the easy routine (how it used to be):
E  7.30
A  7.45
S  9.00

E  11.00
A  11.15
S  12.30

E  14.00
A  14.15
S  15.30

E  17.00
A  17.15
S  18.45

E  20.00
A  20.20 (BATH)
S  21.00

DREAM, FEED 23.00
NIGHT FEED 3.00


I thank you all in advanced

[kallaroo]

hi
that happened with me also. my ds was always waking at 45 mins and easy to resettle then at aaround 12-15 weeks was impossible to settle during nap and he would be awake well before his next feed. i got really upset over it as it happened for a good few weeks. i spent forever in a dark room shh, patting.
anyway i also posted it on this board and was told that he could have been in between transitions with his easy.i started to slowly extend his a time and this turned out to be true as he then went onto four hour easy.
also i have found that he only really needs between 3 to 4 hours napping a day and he will sleep thru the night.
my ds only naps 45 mins in the am and is happy after this and can last two hours. his next nap is a bit longer but i have to extend it. then the next is a short one also.
i have also found that i can easily resettle him again for this nap (just pop back in his paci) i dont need to shhh pat anymore.
like i said it did take a few weeks for him to get back in the swing of things. Hopefully your lo is just doing similiar

[luaidos]

Hi, thank you for your suggestions!
I did think that it was some kind of transition, but I wasn't sure.
when you mention 4 hour easy, do you mean that he eats every 4 hours?  cause my LO is always so hungry and many time he just can't wait the 3 hours... 

[malialeanne]

Hello there. At 12 weeks we experienced a similar problem--doing great on 3 hour EASY, nap extension going well...then all of the sudden it was IMPOSSIBLE to extend naps. We were so watchful against overtiredness that we didn't consider that her A times needed to extend and she was no longer tired enough to take a long nap after 1.5 hours A time. We gently started to extend A times, 5-10 mins every week or so (we went very gradually but some can go more quickly) and that solved the problem.

HTH!

[luaidos]

thank you for your reply!
I don't know if he's not tired enough to sleep for a 1,5 hour.  He wakes up after 45-50 mins all cranky, as if he was sleepy!!!
I'll try to extend the A time and let's see how it goes.

[malialeanne]

With a too-short A time they can still be cranky/sleepy when they wake at 45 mins, just not sleepy enough to go back to sleep easily.    If you're not sure about extending A times, try just 10-15 extra minutes of low-key A (walking around the house or reading books) and see how it goes. You can always go back to shorter A if it doesn't work.

Good luck!