Queen of catnapping! Grrrrr!

[elleandsam]

My daughter has been snacking and catnapping all day. She has 60-80mls of formula and then naps for 40 minutes. She is so cranky because she hasn't had a decent sleep all day! I'm so frustrated, at this point she has been asleep for half an hour and now she's wriggling and beginning to wake up again. I'm so annoyed I just want her to sleep. We're going to tresillian in a week but I don't know if I can wait until then.

[Wookie1]

Does the pram or a baby carrier help to stretch a little longer to the next feed and encourage more sleep?

[elleandsam]

Nope, unfortunately she hates the baby carrier and refuses to sleep in the pram. Finally got her to have a big feed and put her down about a half an hour ago so we'll see what happens.

[lupa]

I used to have the same problem.
Sounds like she's hungry again.
How old is she?

[Lilahh]

DS is just getting out of a terrible catnapping habit. How long do you persist with resettling her? I find DS catnaps because he is overtired.. he wakes up fully between cycles because he is tired and cant get back to sleep without help. I just persist and persist in resettling, it sometimes takes 30 minutes. If you keep doing it, a) she will get the message that she needs to sleep longer during the day and b) she wont be so overtired, so will eat more and sleep longer next time.

[moozle]

catnapping is a very common problem with babies under 6 months. At around 6 months, they start developing a bit of sleep maturity and usually start sleeping longer stretches. All I can suggest is to make sure that whatever it is you are doing to get her to sleep doesn't involve you as she will need it again to get back to sleep after she naturally stirs after one sleep yle (40 mins) they ALL do this.. even we do. What worked for us sometimes was to try and re-settle for about 15/20mins and if he wouldn't settle, we'd get him up and wait for the tired signs again.. usually in about 30 mins of being up and then we'd put him down again. It is a frustrating time and you can't get a lot done but such is the life of a parent. I hope trecillian can help you but I fear this is something you will just have to accept for the time being with the assurance that you are not alone!