DD is resisting sleep at the moment, naps and bedtime.
She's never been one to give me much in the way of tired signs. She'd give me 2-3 minutes max and then bang! she'd be tired as. But she's getting better and I am better at reading her.
Lately though, the past week or so, she has been showing me tired signs, I take her through to the bedroom, get her set for bed, feed her and then she's alert again after a feed. It's like the feed has recharged her somewhat.
She used to only be able to go 2 hours between waking and then having a sleep again but at the moment she can go anywhere up to 5 hours. Now, i don't mind this but at the end of the day she can be really exhausted but STILL won't settle to sleep until around 8-9pm and she's totally wired.
I can't even do a bedtime routine with her at the moment because she's quite tired, and it's just not enjoyable for her.
Any suggestions? Is she telling me that she just doesn't need that much sleep now? Or am I missing something?
I am also wondering if this is a wonder week (she's 34 weeks old). She's done some pretty major developing over the past few weeks, sitting up alone, two teeth, clapping her hands, saying daddy and ta, rolling around almost crawling etc.
I have seen her do this before a couple of times and she usually goes back to getting over pretty easily. But I just wonder if I need to cut out a nap and just make sure she has 2 naps a day and not 3?
It could very well be a combination of a growth spurt and cutting out a sleep.
With your bedtime routine, what time do you usually do it? Can you bring it forward and hour or so? You don't have to necessarily put her to bed straight after her bath, but if you can get a bath, feed, play, feed, bed sort of routine going on at bedtime than that may help.
During the day for her naps, when she's showing the tired signs and you feed her to get her ready for bed, is her room dark and cool? And if you put her to bed, what happens?
Yeah, I could do that with the bedtime routine, totally. Bringing it forward shouldn't be an issue either. I usually get us started around 6pm so could start things earlier.
During the day I close the blinds, and we both lie on the bed and I feed her to sleep - then I transfer her to the cot (which is side car joined to our bed). It's been working this way for almost 8 months really!
The wee sausage loves to keep me on my toes!
Thanks hun x
I don't have any real advice other than to say you're not alone with a cheeky DD keeping you on your toes. We dropped to 2 sleeps about 3 weeks ago, and have gone from an easy to put to sleep baby to needed lots of settling and comforting. And I get you on the recharging after a BF, it's like redbull for babies or something here sometimes! We are also have 3 - 5 wake ups overnight now too, so everyone in the house is very tired.
I'm putting it down to the next WW, maybe top teeth coming in, and now that we're crawling the world has become even more exciting so who needs sleep? Her awake time during her 2 day naps is around 4 hours now, and even though sometimes she doesn't seem tired, I find I have to start a quiet wind down time or she just gets way past it and even harder to put down.
I don't think you're doing anything wrong, quite the opposite
ETA I also find at this stage sometimes just a quiet lay down on the bed, with a book, softly singing etc can be enough to recharge a little too, because sometimes she's weary but not sleepy, and just needs to ground herself again for 10 minutes or so, iykwim?
Keeping us on our toes is what they do best Just when you think you have anything worked out and can read them like a book, they go changing on us
Like HB has said, you're doing a great job, you're certainly not doing anything wrong. As they grow and change their habits, we sometimes have to change our routine to suit them.
You're not doing anything wrong, your baby is just changing.
Just go with whatever seems to work better now (might take some trial and error) and don't overthink it
sounds like your doing just fine... i think its pretty normal for babies to have some issues with settling still at your DD's age.. and the two teeth coming through would definitely make it a bit more challenging
i know you said routine is hard at the moment, but this can sometimes be the key to helping settling - it can even be as simple as giving her a favourite toy (a cue that says 'its bed time' - a toy that is just for bed time), giving her a little rub/pat or massage on the back, saying goodnight/kiss, then lights out etc.. as long as the same thing is happening in the same order every time its bed time..
it can be normal at her age to take longer than 30mins to settle and as you have thought, it may be worth trying to cut back to two naps, she might be ready for this?
what is the routine you have been trying with her to get her to settle and what has been her response to this?
whats her night time sleeping like?
Oh honey you're not doing anything wrong! I felt like every time I got the hang of where my kids were & what they were doing, they would change! It's gotten better as Pie has gotten older but in the first 12 months it felt like she was changing her pattern every couple of weeks. I do think she dropped her third sleep around this age, so it could be that.
I second what Marcellus said - go with what works & don't overthink it (it will all change again soon anyway! )
Hehe, thanks everyone, yes I am overthinking it hey?
She is a beautiful sleeper at night once she gets over. Sleeps around 10 hours (with semi-wakes for feeds). We co-sleep so that makes things easier on all of us. She does love her sleep once she is over!
I have stretched her out today - she had a nap at 9.30am- 11.30am and she's just gone down for another one at 3.30pm so will see how long she sleeps for that one.
Thanks again so much
Sue
ps. Jaki, yes, it most likely is the excitement of seeing you! And the little parcel that arrived in the mail this morning
Well, she slept till 5pm! So lets see how the 2 naps today affects her sleep tonight, hopefully not at all! And will try and do that again tomorrow if we can......
Where am I going wrong?
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