HELP - 45 min sleep cycles in day!

Hello,

I will try to make this brief - basically I have issues with my 12 week old son only sleeping 45 mins in the day.

- I know they have sleep cycles this length, but am wondering if anyone out there has had success in getting them to sleep longer?
- How long will this last???? When do these sleeps cycles start stretching out?

I feel I have tried everything with no success. I will give you the background, and would love to hear any suggestions of things I haven't tried:

- Was great until 6 weeks old, then started waking after 45 mins in day sleeps.
- Still sleeps well at night.
- HATES being wrapped in day, but I think this is more because he knows he is aboue to be put to bed (can't NOT wrap him, as his arms keep him awake).
- Have tried darker room, Sounds for Silence CD, both wrapped and unwrapped, sleeping on side.
- I can stand next to him and keep giving dummy back, but he eventually wakes fully up anyway.
- I generally get him out of cot and in bouncer after he is wide awake, as I feel I have no chance of putting him down again. I wait till he gets tired and put him back down.
- He HATES going to bed in the day and screams, and given he is up and down all day I am getting quite sick of all the hysterics every time I put him to bed.
- The poor little thing gets SO tired that by the afternoon his eyes are all red and he is overtired, and I can't even rock him to sleep as he struggles to nod off.
- Funny thing is that over the past 6 weeks he has had 4 PERFECT days where he has slept for hours without waking - I have no idea why!!
- I have him on Infacol and do heaps of burping in case it's wind, but I don;t think it is as when I get him up he is happy to sit in the bouncer and does not appear uncomfortable.

HELP!!!!

Hey there and Welcome to BellyBelly!
Congratulations on the birth of your son!!

It seems that most babies go through this stage at around this age. I would almost say its normal. I know how frustrating it is too. But I can say it does get better.

Does your son cry when he wakes up? Or does he just stir and make sounds?
I was just googling this for you, and because i was interested to know, and it appears that the reason babies wake usually after one sleep cycle, is because they are in a "Quiet sleep" at this stage of the cycle and are easily woken. Sometimes they dont wake enough to wake up and gain their second wind, but most cases they do. Also another theory is that they wake from thier sleep cycle, and look for Mummy/Daddy/what ever comforts them enough to get them back to sleep.

I wish i could offer a solution, but I cant :( but i must ask, have you tried patting him to sleep while making soothing SHH sounds? It usually doesnt work instantly for me, its something one needs to persist with, but i do find that does help quite a bit when im desperate enough to be patient enough.

I have learnt that what ever approach you take you should be consistent. Allow yourself a set amount of time to persist with it, so say you set yourself 15 mins of patting your DS, if it doesnt work by then get him up an dhave a play, and when he does show tired signs again, persist again for the same set amount of time. Its up to you how long you will persist for, and what you will persist with, and try keep it the same between yourself and your husband.

Your doing a great job and i hope what i had to say made sence and was helpful to you in some way.
Good luck!

good info BP!!!
i have to say my DS was never a good day sleeper and prob did the 45 min cycles upuntil about 1-2 months ago when they started stretching out to about an hour (he has 2 sleeps a day now).. ij the last month he has stretched them even more, we now get about 1.5 hrs at each sleep (give or take). i hope you find something that works for you sooner than this (my ds is 12 months) but just thought i would add this as it does eventually sort itself out.
my ds was rarely overtired, he just did lots of short sleeps when he was tiny. will he sleep in his rocker if you bounce him? do you have a sling to carry him (he may sleep in there)? both of those worked for me. good luck!

I so could have written your post- in fact, I did write a very similar post a month or two ago (called 'getting past the sleep cycle'- it should be around still if you want to look at the advice there).

I spent SOOOOOO long in my son's nursery trying everything, and have now kind of abandoned the idea in favour of two short sleeps (30-45 mins) and one long sleep. When he wakes up in the middle of his long sleep, I try all the usual stuff and it is often a struggle to get him back to sleep. Sometimes it doesnt work, but eventually, usually, it does. The other two naps, I just let him get up after one sleep cycle. This seems to be enough sleep for him during the day, and it certainly saves my sanity to only go through the whole putting him back to sleep thing once a day rather than 3 times. Maybe try this and see if this is enough sleep for your LO. Some kids just need less sleep! My bubs sleeps great at night as well, and from what I've heard around the place, usually at this age they either sleep good at night or during the day but not both!

Good luck and if you find any magic solutions, let me know!!!

MJ still has 45 min naps during the day.
She sleep close to 11hrs straight at night (she is BF) so i figure that she knows how to settle herself, she doesnt need it.

I did find that at about 3 months things changed a little as she went through a growth spurt and also became a little more clingy. i just let her know that i was here and also let her sleep in the bouncer or on a rug in the lounge if she wuldnt settle alone.

Do you have the room darkened? i find that this is better.
My CMHN told me that if you have a particular routine at night, say nappy change then into sleep suit then bed, try doing something similar to that so that your baby recognises the sleep cues.
I also find that if it is really quiet, she is less likely to sleep linger as outside noises startle her so the radio is usually on all day.

MJ's sleep pattern is like this ...
Wake up at 7-8am
1030ish - 45 min sleep (sometimes can be longer sometimes will only be 20 mins)
2pmish - this also was the same length, although just recently she has stretched it to 45mins-90mins
anywhere between 5pm and 7pm she will have a short nap, usually 30-40 mins
8-9pm bed and sleep through most nights.

So really its not the best, but its what she is happy with. If she wakes she doesnt settle again throughout the day, she gets upset if i try to settle her again and i figure its not worth it.

Not all babies a great sleepers, just like adults, some need more, some need less - same with everything really
HTH :)

Hi,

My bub is doing exactly the same thing and is a very similiar age to your bub. Apparently it's known as "catnapping" and from the research I have done(my bibles are "Baby Love" and "Sleeping like a Baby") there is little you can do about it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! I have heard that some babies grow out of it.

It is exhausting entertaining a baby all day and not having any time to yourself. I have found the best thing for me to do is get out of the house, othewise I end up holding her all day. At least out of the house she has different things to look at when awake and she happily sleeps in the pram when she gets tired, even if it is for only 20 or 40 minutes.

Good luck!

I spent a lot of time worrying about length of sleeps with my first and it's true, you definitely a little more mellow with subsequent children!

Do you wear your baby? I found I had all these problems with my first and clock watched constantly, even attended sleep school. With my second, I wore him a lot more and he slept well like that. Sometimes you just can't get them to go back to sleep and that can last for a few weeks or more....it's can be really difficult fighting it all the time, so I would just let my boy get up, maybe go for a walk in the pram an hour of so after, a drive in the car......keep it chilled out, maybe feed him back to sleep. I find there is normally another sleep either later in the day or night time and they catch up...some days not but others 2-3 perfect 3 hour sleeps.

As for the freakish perfect sleep, ah yeah, I know about that....I think my boy has finally decided to sleep all the way through (5 hours!) but I'm a little suspect in case he changes again!