Need Help with 7.5mo routine!

[dancingbear]

Hi everyone

My dd millie is 7.5 months. She's been a relentless 30 min napper since i weaned her off the dummy when she was 4.5 months. I've been trying it to attempt to extend using w2s. Well the good news is that wake to sleep is working!!! Still doing it for every nap and have been for 3 days. Was doing it for 5 days before that and it was working but i kept waking her up and having to get her back to sleep.

Only getting 1hr10mins to 1hr30mins at the mo but much better than before. Thing is that i'm not sure on the routine now. Been having real trouble getting her to have a catnap/3rd nap and then she ends up really overtired by bedtime and won't settle . So what do i do??
Do i need to extend her A time more?
Stick with this and give her a catnap too?
Or do more w2s twice in one nap to extend them more?!

Our routine is changing all the time at the mo while i work on these naps but yesterday was:

7am - up & bf
8am - breakfast
9.30am - nap for 1h05
10.30am - A
11am - bf
12 - lunch
1.00pm - nap 1h05
2.05 - A
3.00 bf
6.00 - bath
6.30 - bottle and bed

She was clearly overtired before bed as that was a crazy long A time, but she refused to have a catnap, maybe my timing was wrong.

Our nights are still awful, but i want to get the naps sorted (as much as poss!) first and then i can try to tackle those. 

What routine should i try to aim for?? Any suggestions welcome!

emma x

[buba2006]

Hi I'm in exactly same boat but LO will not take longer naps than an hour.  I'm interested in ur replies and progress.   

[* Paula *]

Is your lo taking a long time to settle for a nap?

I would think it might be time to try and extend your A time a bit longer before putting your lo down for a nap.  She may not be tired enough, hence you are only getting hour naps.  I would try and increase it by about 15 minutes.

[rebecaq]

How long have you been working on extending her naps? What sort of activitites does her A time consist of?

I agree with Paula, maybe an extension of her A time or an increase in acitivity may help her 

- Beca

[dancingbear]

Hi Beca and Paula

Thanks for your replies. I have only been trying to extend the naps for about 1 week. I tried before xmas for weeks and didn't get anywhere, it was driving me mental so i gave up! This time w2s seems to be really working for now. She was only on 2 hr A time before i tried extending but after some advice from the naps board i extended to 2.5 hrs, this made a huge difference and she now goes down for the 2 naps without a fuss and falls asleep independently. Just put her down for her am nap and kept her up 2h45mins, she went to sleep instantly, and i will still do the w2s at 20mins and then see what happens....

As regards activity, she plays in her playnest, we go out in the buggy, she sits in her highchair while i do stuff in the kitchen... Do you think she needs more physical activity to tire her out a bit more? She is very active at the mo and constantly trying to roll over, push herself up, grab stuff etc!

So i guess i am aiming for 2 longer naps of 1.5 - 2 hrs and no catnap. is this right?

thanks

emma x

[rebecaq]

Emma,

I think it's great you were able to extend her naps so well!!

As for her A time, I think maybe a little more physical stuff may help.  Try to leave her on the floor crawling around, scooting or on a baby gym while you're in the kitchen. 

- Beca

[* Paula *]

I agree with Beca