catnapping
Bao's recent routine (or lack thereof) has been driving the family batty. Before she got sick last month, she was on a pretty decent routine which involved predictable nap and feed times. While she was ill, everything went haywire for nearly three weeks, and even though she has already gotten over the bug, her daily routine is still all over the place.
All this is mostly due to her catnaps. Bao went from being a relatively good napper (one to one-and-a-half hours each time) to thirty minute naps - I could practically set a watch by it. Forty-five minutes was a good day. On bad days she would wake after twenty minutes, scream for fifteen minutes because she was still exhausted, and then refuse to go back to sleep, only to grouch and cry later on because she was tired again.
And because she was perpetually tired, she didn't feed well. This resulted in hunger-related wakings, but feeding her just before her naps didn't work either because she simply wouldn't eat if she wasn't hungry enough. We have established that this is a baby who needs to scream for a feed in order to actually settle down and take her milk seriously. If you offer her milk without any demand cues from her, it's just a waste of time.
But going down the demand-route is just not working out for us. If I can't predict her naps and feeds, it just turns our household upside down since I'm spending too much time trying to soothe her (especially during naps) and figuring out if she's hungry or not. I shouldn't have to be deciphering her cries when she's almost six months old, but that's Bao for you - turning the tables just when you think you've figured it out. Comparatively, The Bun was on a rock-solid routine around four months and deviated very little from it from then on. Even today he is happiest when there is a predictable routine to follow.
I'm just really tired dealing with Bao's catnaps because there is no time to do anything else when she is so fussy. There's basically only those thirty minute pockets of time while I rush around trying to do chores, cook, spend time with The Bun, pee etc before Bao is up again. And when she's up, she needs to be entertained or carried around almost constantly so it's hard to do stuff with her like this.
So how does one get a baby to nap a bit longer? I know that some babies can cope with short thirty-minute naps and wake refreshed and happy, but this is not Bao. On the rare occasions that she naps well, she wakes without screaming and plays happily by herself in her crib until I come to check on her. Otherwise, it's mostly sleep-scream-fuss-sleep over and over again.
I have googled around and of course, I'm not alone. [For those who are interested, these two blogs here and here are helpful, if not sympathetic.] I suspect that Bao needs to be awake more in order to nap better, and in the last couple of days I've tried to extend her awake time to almost three hours (previously it was two) to see if the situation improves. It's still too early to tell, but today she managed to sleep from 2.50pm to 4.40pm with only one waking in-between. Cue me dancing in the hallways and being unusually nice to The Bun. Yes, that's how one baby's poor naps affect the whole household.
One day with one good nap - I hope this trend improves! My sanity and energy need every bit of a boost they can get.
All this is mostly due to her catnaps. Bao went from being a relatively good napper (one to one-and-a-half hours each time) to thirty minute naps - I could practically set a watch by it. Forty-five minutes was a good day. On bad days she would wake after twenty minutes, scream for fifteen minutes because she was still exhausted, and then refuse to go back to sleep, only to grouch and cry later on because she was tired again.
And because she was perpetually tired, she didn't feed well. This resulted in hunger-related wakings, but feeding her just before her naps didn't work either because she simply wouldn't eat if she wasn't hungry enough. We have established that this is a baby who needs to scream for a feed in order to actually settle down and take her milk seriously. If you offer her milk without any demand cues from her, it's just a waste of time.
But going down the demand-route is just not working out for us. If I can't predict her naps and feeds, it just turns our household upside down since I'm spending too much time trying to soothe her (especially during naps) and figuring out if she's hungry or not. I shouldn't have to be deciphering her cries when she's almost six months old, but that's Bao for you - turning the tables just when you think you've figured it out. Comparatively, The Bun was on a rock-solid routine around four months and deviated very little from it from then on. Even today he is happiest when there is a predictable routine to follow.
I'm just really tired dealing with Bao's catnaps because there is no time to do anything else when she is so fussy. There's basically only those thirty minute pockets of time while I rush around trying to do chores, cook, spend time with The Bun, pee etc before Bao is up again. And when she's up, she needs to be entertained or carried around almost constantly so it's hard to do stuff with her like this.
So how does one get a baby to nap a bit longer? I know that some babies can cope with short thirty-minute naps and wake refreshed and happy, but this is not Bao. On the rare occasions that she naps well, she wakes without screaming and plays happily by herself in her crib until I come to check on her. Otherwise, it's mostly sleep-scream-fuss-sleep over and over again.
I have googled around and of course, I'm not alone. [For those who are interested, these two blogs here and here are helpful, if not sympathetic.] I suspect that Bao needs to be awake more in order to nap better, and in the last couple of days I've tried to extend her awake time to almost three hours (previously it was two) to see if the situation improves. It's still too early to tell, but today she managed to sleep from 2.50pm to 4.40pm with only one waking in-between. Cue me dancing in the hallways and being unusually nice to The Bun. Yes, that's how one baby's poor naps affect the whole household.
One day with one good nap - I hope this trend improves! My sanity and energy need every bit of a boost they can get.