nap regression without sleep regression?

Discussion in 'The First Year' started by paperclippy, Jan 1, 2014.

  1. paperclippy

    paperclippy Well-Known Member

    I feel like half the threads on this board are me asking questions. ;)  Obviously a first time mom here and totally clueless!  So okay, my girls are 8 months/6 adjusted.  They're sleeping pretty much through the night.  We're working on swaddle weaning -- last night we had them with both arms out for the first time and they did a great job.  They sleep reliably from 6pm-3am or so, off and on from 3-5:30 then up for the day.  We put them down for nap 1 2 hours after wakeup, nap 2 2.5 hours after wakeup, nap 3 2.5 hours after wakeup, bedtime at 6pm.  The past few days they have been a napping disaster.  C wants to sleep for 2 hours, especially for nap 1, but A can't seem to sleep more than 45 minutes for any of the naps.  Then both of them are exhausted and rubbing their eyes after being awake less than 2 hours sometimes, like they want to go back to having 4 naps per day.
     
    Is it normal to go backwards on napping like this?  Or do you think it's a side effect of their nighttime sleep changing to not include a feeding?  We're conflicted about whether or not to feed them and put back to bed if they wake up at 4:30am -- it's so close to their target wake time that it seems counterproductive to feed them then when we're just going to feed them an hour later when they get up.  We really just want them to sleep the extra hour or so but I don't know how to do it other than just wait for them to get there on their own.  In any case the nights really are going well right now (knock on wood) so I'm confused about this nap disaster.  If it matters their weights are almost at 15lbs.
     
  2. daisies

    daisies Well-Known Member

    If i were to guess i would say the naps are disturbed because they are behind on sleep. Even though it seems they slept fine with both arms out my guess is they did not sleep as soundly.
     
    You mentioned dropping a night feed.  how long ago did you do this?  did you stop because they stopped waking?  when you do get them up to eat in the morning are they ravenous?  Are they more likely to wake early and unhappy on the mornings when they didn't drink well the night before?
    My guess is still that it is related to needing sleep but these are things to help rule out if it is related to food.
     
    For my little ones, early wake up and short naps always meant they needed more sleep.  It sounds to me like C is a little more advanced in her sleep 'maturity'.  Her long first nap is an attempt to catch up on missed (or restless) sleep over night.   While A, is like my DS, who's first response to being tired is to shorten all naps!
    I know it is rough but these were the days were i abandoned the schedule for DS and just kept putting him back to bed.  I kept DD on the schedule since she was handling it fine.  It was hard to have them on different schedules but it was the fastest way to get DS back to sleeping.  so for me, one crappy, off schedule day was worth it.
    That and early bed time... I know 6 IS early (it was the bed time for my LOs.. and still is.  they go to bed at 6:00 and sleep from 6:15,6:30 and wake at 7:15,7:30!).  However, since 6:00 is their normal than early is 5:30 (just for a few days).  When my SIL suggested that early i thought she was crazy but we tried it and it worked.
     
    ETA- don't feel bad about asking questions.  having people to brainstorm with is what this board is all about!  i know it saved me numerous time!  ask away!
     
  3. paperclippy

    paperclippy Well-Known Member

    They dropped their night feed most nights about a week ago but occasionally still wake up around 2 or so for a feeding.  We were feeding them only if they woke up during the night, and they started sleeping through until 4:30am or later.  The past couple days though A has been ravenous all day and last night they woke up hungry at midnight so we fed them then.  I'm thinking maybe she is either having a growth spurt or possibly is sick or something?  Her cheeks have been kind of red but not consistently all day, and yesterday her breath smelled like chlorine (already called pediatrician, they said just to keep an eye on it and make appointment if it persists but it might have been due to introducing new food).  They're going to end up with four naps today I think.  Luckily C doesn't seem to mind getting put down when A is tired.
     
    Hopefully if it's related to the swaddle they'll figure things out shortly.  They're really too old and too big to be swaddled so they need to learn to sleep without it.  Tonight will be night three with both arms out so usually it seems three nights is what they need to get used to something.
     
  4. FGMH

    FGMH Well-Known Member

    I would try feeding them when they wake up around 4.30 am and see if they will sleep later than 5.30. Mine could not go a full night (you are aiming for about 11.5 hours if I understand your schedule correctly) without nursing at 6 months and often slept for well over an hour after an early morning dream-feed so we had a more normal wake-up time.
     
  5. paperclippy

    paperclippy Well-Known Member

    The past couple days we've fed them when they fussed at 4am, and they've gone back to sleep but only until 5:30 if even that.  I'm not sure if we should keep doing this since they get pretty woken up by eating at 4 and it takes them a while to go back to sleep, plus they still are up at 5:30 anyway, and hubby and I end up not being able to go back to sleep.  I'm wondering if we should try doing a dream feed at 2 or 3, or if we should try weaning them off it altogether.  They're out of the swaddle now.
     
    Relatedly, we got our video monitor installed and were able to observe them learning to self-soothe.  C woke up too early from nap #1, and on the monitor we could see A was still asleep.  C was talking to herself, rolling around, eating her feet, and kicking the crib.  Eventually she went back to sleep!  Then A woke up (of course) and talked for a while, tried eating her feet and hands, but wasn't able to go back to sleep and started fussing.  We went in and gave her a pacifier and she went right back to sleep for another hour.  I'm so glad we have the video monitor now because with just the audio we would have gone in and gotten them both up when C woke up the first time, but they really needed to sleep longer.
     
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