Catnapping question
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Topic: Catnapping question
Posted By: Jaxnz1
Subject: Catnapping question
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 8:55am
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I've been wondering this for a while. But my DD only sleeps during the day for 30mins at a time. My question is should I be trying to resettle her every time?
She's been sleeping like this for around 2 months now and sleeps right through the night. She wakes after a 30min nap rubbing her face and yawning and is grumpy, so obviously still tired. I tried for weeks resettling her, but in the end gave up because as soon as I go in there and say 'time for a sleep' she just thinks it's game time!  Then of course she's wide awake.
I should mention that I've spent these 2 months trying everything in the book, from white noise to taking her in the pram. She just doesn't want to sleep more than that 30mins. It results in an extremely tired and exhausted baby by bedtime. This whole time I've been getting her up when she gets really grizzly ( I usually leave her to see if she'll go back to sleep), and then she'll often have another nap just before her next feed (fed 4 hourly). But lately she hasn't been taking that second nap, so have ended up doing an earlier feed and she'll go down after that. Should I keep trying to resettle her even though she's wide awake and ready for play (but also rubbing her face because she's still tired)? Or do you think she'll settle into longer sleeps eventually? I've kind of just been going with the flow, but now I'm worried that she'll get too used to catnapping and continue to do it and be a grumpy baby! 
Keen to hear similar stories and maybe give me some hope  ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: tiptoes
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 9:37am
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What happens if you try to offer her a bottle when she wakes? Not necessarily every time but say after the 3rd nap when she's probably getting extra tired? I find there's no point resettling Cooper for the first two naps and he generally lasts fine till the next one but after the 3rd catnap he's more grizzly and sometimes giving him another bottle knocks him out for another cycle. But then some might say that's creating another problem by feeding to sleep.
------------- http://alterna-tickers.com">  
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Posted By: Bel
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 9:43am
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What about wrapping? Are you still wrapping? I sometimes find even now that Amy will settle back down for a longer sleep (or stay asleep lots longer if I wrap here!) I do it when she is really tired, and hard to settle in the first place. ------------- Mum to two beautiful kids 
Luke (09.11.2007) Amy (01.04.2009) |
Posted By: ElfsMum
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 9:44am
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so is she unhappy once you get her up? Liam is a catnapper and plunket said not an issue cause he's happy again once he's up ..he does 30-hour 3 times a day.. exhausting i tell you but sleep 12 hours at night with one or two feeds... I tried for weeks as well but gave up! :) ------------- Mum to two amazing boys! |
Posted By: Jaxnz1
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 11:23am
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She's generally not hungry until the four hours is up, but might be worth a try with the bottle Chelle.
She's never been wrapped and just kicks it off if I try. SHe's always liked her arms above her head. She's tucked in quite tight for her day sleeps and has a safe t sleep wrap which is kind of like wrapping anyway. Elfsmum, she is grumpy when she wakes, but once she's up playing she's ok for a while. But she gradually gets worse as the day goes on. By bedtime she's a mess and obviously overtired. SHe can't get past 6pm! Hence pushing her bedtime back (which is what I'm wanting to do), is out of the question. I just feel that if she had a 2 hour sleep in the afternoon she would feel sooooo much better. The catnapping doesn't really bother me, more for her sake. I've just been wondering if she's getting too used to the catnapping and will never sleep longer than 30mins during the day. -------------
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Posted By: T_Rex
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 11:40am
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if she's waking at the same time every time, Elizabeth Pantley (no cry sleep soln) suggests going in just before she usually wakes and doing whatever it is you usually do to settle her as soon as she stirs. The aim is to get her into a new sleep cycle without her fully waking up. After a week or so she should drop that first wake up herself. Maybe that could work? ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Febgirl
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 3:52pm
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Could you try getting her up after a cat nap and if she's still grumpy pop her back into bed after 10 - 20 minutes of awake time? I do this sometimes, works well and I get another sleep cycle out of her. ------------- Two little girls under 2! 
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Posted By: Jaxnz1
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 3:55pm
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Yip, tried that Febgirl, she just cries. The only way to get another nap out of her is to wait about half an hour before the next feed and she'll sometimes go down. -------------
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Posted By: E&L+1
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 4:17pm
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Hey Jax I was having this issue with Esme up until about 3 weeks ago. She is now happily sleeping for longer for almost all her naps.
I started wrapping her again (she hadn't been wrapped for at least a month) but backwards so she can still get at her hands. I don't get her up unless she is starting to cry after a nap. Sometimes she'll chat away to herself for 20minutes then fall back asleep I do what Febgirl suggested if she wakes grumpy, she'll cry when I put her back to bed but 9/10 shes asleep within 15 minutes. I'll also sometimes get her back to sleep in our moby If all else failed we went for walks around 5 which gave her relaxing time and I could often stretch her bedtime out by 15 minutes or so As she gets more active you might find she sleeps longer. Esme is rolling all over the place which I think is helping with her sleeps too. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Nikki
Date Posted: 26 April 2010 at 9:35pm
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Morgan did 30min naps from 2-5 months at least 90% of the time, then had the odd 2-3hr one to catch up. She usually woke up happy but sometimes grumpy, but was normally OK once up. She suddenly stopped at 5 month --- first she started to do an hr in the morning, then she started feeding start back to sleep in the afternoon (waking grumpy so put her straight on boob and she fed to sleep) and going back to sleep for another 1-2hrs. So by 6 months she was having 2x 1.5hr sleeps, sometimes longer.
I tried everything too ... but nothing made any difference, so I just went with it in the end. So fingers crossed she grows out of it. ------------- DS (5yrs) and DD (3yrs) |