40 minute sleeps

[becschasebaby]

my little chase is 11 weeks old and has lately been only sleeping for 40 minutes and then waking during the day. he seems to sleep ok during the night, generally sleeps through till six after his last feed which is about ten, but will only do really short sleeps in the day. and when he wakes up he is very grumpy and sad and doesnt feed well and gets all out of sorts. today i tried leaving him to resettle, going in every 5-10 minutes to tuck him in again and put in the dummy, but little persistent boy cried for an hour tonight! is this just a phase he will grow out of, do i keep persisting in resettling him, or is he just a short sleeper?

[bec79]

Well, it could be either. My dd can see out an entire day with as little as 30min sleep at about 12ish. Thats why my house is a MESS. I only have enough time to login to the hub, check the new posts, respond to a few, and then shes up again. *Thats my excuse anyway*

[YogiBear]

Hi there. From what I can gather this is a really common problem. My 15week old DD has been doing the 45min sleep for quite awhile now. She also sleeps really well during the night (630 -630 with a feed somewhere in the middle). I have spoken to various people about this as it drives me in sane some days:banghead: :banghead: . Though most of the time she is pretty happy after about 30secs of me going in the room just wants some one there. ( I must admit I do love to be with her too).:hugs:
This is some ideas of what I have been told. I have taken some on board and just ignored others and some days it works, other days it doesn't:

1.Try and stretch out their awake time, This has worked and the first time I tried it she slept 2 hours straight and I had to wake her for her next feed, gotta catch those tired signs though.

2.Try to feed her just before she goes to sleep. So that they are not waking for hunger (I tried this for a day, though it felt like Brooke was just snacking through the day and never really taking a proper feed).

3.Once they wake up get them up and play with them for maybe 20 -30 mins and then pop them back into bed (Again watching for tired signs) This works for me quite well as Brooke seems to settle quite easily it is just getting her through that first 40 min sleep cycle during the day that is the problem. So getting her up and then putting her down makes her feel like she is getting to do heaps I guess.

The other is to TRY and resettle them, Now this I tried and tried for days though like Chase, Brooke was having none of it and just really wanted to get up and cried and cried, so I have found that getting her up and trying to resettle later is much easier for me than anything else. Though they do say trying to persist (?SP) with the resettling thing works. (Though I don't know who is more persistant Brooke or myself!) And I hate the crying thing.
I have also heard that if they don't resettle after 20 or so minutes of trying they aren't going to so you may as well get them up and try again later.

Well these are just afew ideas that I have been told, I hope that you can find something that works for you. But the short day sleepers can really throw any ideas of routine out the window!!!
I end up just going with the flow most days.

All the best and I hope that this has helped.

[alanasmum]

My DD often wakes after 40 minutes also. Sometimes she sends herself back off to sleep but other times she needs to burp or has wind so I pick her up and burp her and give her a cuddle for 10 minutes or so. If she's still tired and starts to close her eyes I put her back in her bassinette and she sleeps for another hour or so.

Sometimes, though, a 40 minute sleep is all they need. If you go in there and he is wide awake and smiling at you, he has probably had enough sleep. If he's not due for a feed, he probably wants some play time. My DD tends to have a Play, Feed Sleep routine rather than a Feed, Play Sleep routine. I don't think it matters which order they do it in - depends on the individual bub! Good luck !

[xkwzit]

My first baby did the same thing. She would only ever nap for 45 mins during the day (but would sleep well at night). They do grow out of it, but DD1 was probably quite old, 6 - 8 months before daytime sleeps got longer. Their sleep cycle is about 45 minutes, and it gets longer as they get older. The difference is that some babies will resettle themselves to sleep for another 45-odd minutes, others only seem to need the cat naps.

Cheers

[MJ]

Hi, DS (14 weeks) used to wake between his daytime sleep cycles .. after attending sleep school, I learnt that if they wake up crying they haven't had enough sleep and you need to help them back to sleep (rocking, holding, patting etc) and you continue to do this till they wake up happy... (sounds so easy! :laughing: )

DS used to wake after 1 or 2 sleep cycles everyday (they sleep in 20min cycles) and be really cranky and b/c I didn't know any better would get him up - he would then be pretty happy for about 20 min but then cranky/grumpy till he had his next sleep. I now leave him for a few min and he usually re-settles himself or I go in and help him back to sleep .. he now has a big 2-3 hour sleep in the morning and one in the afternoon and when his awake he is sooo happy and fun! He must feel so much better! Not to mention I get so much done now!

Worked wonders with my DS but all bubs are different! Good luck!