Author Topic: IM GOING CRAZY PLEASE HELP ME-9 WEEK OLD CATNAPS  (Read 2705 times)

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Offline ekhalife

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IM GOING CRAZY PLEASE HELP ME-9 WEEK OLD CATNAPS
« on: September 06, 2010, 05:52:58 am »
Hi guys,

I have a 9 week old and a 20 month old. Im going crazy. When i brought bub home he had jaundice, hence slept alot. At the 3 week mark he did a 360 and i am going insane. He catnaps. Due to the catnapping, the feeding is being affected, meaning he is taking much less at each feed because he is too tired to suck. Then he is catnapping again and so on. I can not break the vicious cycle and I am going crazy as I have a very active 20 month old. He is a big boy, weighing over 6 kilos already, so he needs his calories to sleep well. Here is an example of our day

E 8AM
A 1.5 HOURS
S 9.30AM
Y
E 12PM
A 1.5 HOURS
S 1.30PM
Y
E 4PM
A 1.5 HOURS
S 5.30PM
Y
AWAKE 6.15PM, BED TIME RITUAL, BATH, FEED AND BACK TO BED AT 7.30PM

10.30PM DREAMFEED


HOWEVER, HE CATNAPS FOR 40MINS, THEREFORE HE IS UP LITERALLY AWAKE FROM ONE FEED TO THE OTHER, SO HE IS NOT EATING WELL.
I HAVE TRIED HIM ON THE 3 HOUR EASY BUT FOUND THAT THIS DID NOT SUIT HIM AS HE IS A BIGGER BABY AND WAS TAKING BIGGER FEEDS WITH THE 4 HOUR ROUTINE. MY PEADIATRITION ALSO RECOMMENDED HE EAT 4 HOURLY AND NOT 3 HOURLY. FOR THE LAST FEW DAYS I HAVE GONE BACK TO THE 3 HOUR ROUTINE TO ENABLE LESS AWAKE TIME FROM HE CATNAP WAKE UP TO THE NEXT FEED. BUT I FIND IT IS NOT HELPING AT ALL.

PLEASE HELP ME, YOUR ADVICE IS MUCH APRECIATED

Offline *Jo*

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Re: IM GOING CRAZY PLEASE HELP ME-9 WEEK OLD CATNAPS
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2010, 06:12:31 am »
Hi hun, its looking to me like hes awake for far too long, 1.5 hours is more suited for a 3 month old onwards, and if he is then short napping you need to reduce the next A time again, from what I can see if he sleeps only 40mins from 9.30am and then his next sleep is at 1.30pm thats nearly 4 hours of being awake am I right?
I think your ped may be wrong in the sense that if you make him wait till 4 hours he wont take a bigger amount as his tummy wont have grown enough to take a fuller amount and if he is a big boy like you say then perhaps he doesnt need to take a fuller feed as he will have plenty of reserves. Im not 100% sure about this though so dont rely on my opinion 100% for that.

as for the naps, well at this age its safer to give less A time than more or you end up with an overtired bub who wont eat properly anyway. I would drop his A time down to 1 hour 10mins. do you do a decent wind down for him? i know it may be hard with a toddler running around though





Offline ekhalife

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Re: IM GOING CRAZY PLEASE HELP ME-9 WEEK OLD CATNAPS
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2010, 06:43:52 am »
thanks so much for that advice. I have over and over watched the sleepy cues and can not seem to get it right with my second baby. To be honest the wind down has not much effort in it when my toddler is screaming hehe, yes you are right about that. I am so confused as there is so much advice that baby should be on 4 hourly and also advice that baby should be on 3 hourly. I just dont know which is right. Whilst I am following BW, I feel the 3 hourly never worked for my first and didnt work for my second. But I am considering that perhaps its worth sticking to.
To answer your question,When he catnaps say at 9.30am, he will wake at 10.10am i then try to resettle him to the next feed, without success. Sush pat is out the window, because my toddler is calling me and screaming. I do set up an activity for her, but after 15 minutes, you can imagine she starts to wonder where i am and its unfair to leave her for that long unattended to. Ok, so Im going to try and put him down after 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Offline *Jo*

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Re: IM GOING CRAZY PLEASE HELP ME-9 WEEK OLD CATNAPS
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2010, 06:48:39 am »
yes I can totally understand about your toddler, Caleb is the same age and I dont know how you do it with another baby! the most common thing ive heard from others when you ahve 2 children so young is that you just try and make sure the baby gets one decent nap in the cot during the day and not focus on the others too hard otherwise it can be very very stressful to try and keep the second child occupied etc. However if you can try that 1 hour 10mins A time and see if that works that would be even better, that is the recommended A time for his age range so heres hoping it does the trick!
The 3 hourly routine is only based on the fact that they cant stay up for that long and their little tummies dont grow enough to hold more volume until 4 months old. when they are 4 months old they can handle staying up longer and feeding larger volumes at a 4 hour interval. However there are plenty of Mums on here whose little ones were on a 4 hour EASY at younger ages so it does happen but lets try this approach first :)