Needs extended A times? 5 month old

[Layla]

Woo Hoo!!!!!
Awesome update! I would look at other foods and take baby rice out of the diet altogether. When i started giving Jennifer baby cereal, she was really constipated so i stopped it and we're still not giving it to her.

Fingers crossed for a good pm nap. Keep me posted

[ThomasTheTank]

Hi! Good day that went like this:

- Awake and E 6:30, solids 7:30
- S 9:20 - 11:10 (1hr 50min)
- E 11:10, solids 12:15
- S 2:15 - 3:55 (1hr 40min)
- E 4pm

So I'll shoot for a 7pm bedtime tonight. But question for you: he's going to end up with a 12 1/2 hr day today, but usually he does a 12 hour night; today was an early wake. How does the math work if he does a 12 hour night? Should I be capping the morning nap at 11am so that he can go down at 2pm or thereabouts? ..hmmm..

Second question: maybe this sounds silly, but with this schedule, when do people do 'activities'? No classes or such before 10am or after 4pm. So I guess I need to look for stuff that is between 11am and 2pm? Tough because by the time I feed him I wouldn't be able to make it anywhere until at least 11:30 and I guess that means taking 'lunch' on the go?

Oh I hope days like this continue!!!

[ThomasTheTank]

Oh just saw 'page 2' and your posting about baby rice. Didn't realize that could cause constipation and will definitely stop using it.. he's had 2 more poos today, so that was the problem for sure. Did you just wait until you could introduce other grains? 7 months I think? I wasn't planning on giving rice, but I needed something to thicken my homemade apple and pear purees with so originally bought it for that purpose. Any other suggestions? As for trying the formula, I'm just hoping to get him used to it as I'm considering replacing his daytime feeds with formula in a few months time. Can't quite decide though.
 

[Layla]

So I'll shoot for a 7pm bedtime tonight. But question for you: he's going to end up with a 12 1/2 hr day today, but usually he does a 12 hour night; today was an early wake. How does the math work if he does a 12 hour night? Should I be capping the morning nap at 11am so that he can go down at 2pm or thereabouts? ..hmmm..

If he wakes at 7am and his morning nap is from 10-11.30 and afternoon nap is 2.30-4 and bedtime is 7pm, that would be a 12hr day.

Second question: maybe this sounds silly, but with this schedule, when do people do 'activities'? No classes or such before 10am or after 4pm. So I guess I need to look for stuff that is between 11am and 2pm? Tough because by the time I feed him I wouldn't be able to make it anywhere until at least 11:30 and I guess that means taking 'lunch' on the go?

Not silly at all - do you have activities for every day? I take mine out for walks in between naps, to the park or I might visit my family but I do try and make sure I am back home in time for the afternoon nap. Sometimes it doesn't work out and because mine is on a good routine, an off day here or there won't cause too much problems. I usually put her down for the night earlier if she's had a shorter afternoon nap. In general I have found that if I cut short her morning nap, she does better than if her afternoon nap is cut short. I don't do any structured activities though (like Gymboree) and when I do go out, I usually take lunch with us and she'll eat there. If its here and there I think its ok 

With regards to starting solids, I used this site as a guide http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solids.htm#.UnwmQycpZ8E .

I also make homemade apple and pear purees and I add prunes - I cut up all the fruit into small pieces (little squares), add some water and boil in the pot until the fruit softens. I just boil it and steam until its soft and tender. Mine loves it!

Are you wanting to replace his daytime feeds with formula because you're going back to work or looking at weaning? We're down to 4 breastfeeds now (morning, after morning nap, after afternoon nap and before bedtime) and it will probably stay like that for a while. I started giving dd1 formula around 6 months and I remember she was pretty constipated too. We also have a bottle feeding forum here if you're after suggestions on how to replace and any other questions you may have

[ThomasTheTank]

Thanks Layla. So the 12hour night / 3hr A works if he takes 3 hours total naps during the day. Got it and I think that's where we'll be once he gets a bit more situated on this new routine and also more established on solids. He woke up yesterday after his first nap crying his face off, not because he was tired still but because he was hungry. But once his 'breakfast' gets bigger and he gets used to eating a bit after 11, I'm thinking that will stop.

We don't have structured activities every day. Like you, I just try to get out and about between naps. But I would like to have more structured activities... probably more for my sanity than for him! I have to be out and about for his second nap again today so we'll see how he does with that. I wouldn't do it all the time, but would give us a lot more flexibility in terms of what we can do with our day.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

I'm not going back to work until he's almost a year, so the formula was more just to wean him so that I can wear normal clothes again and my husband can occasionally take him for more than just a few hours on the weekends. I think I'll back off on it regardless since we just started solids.. one new thing at a time. I'll check out the bottle forum and go there with questions.

Ok one more question: this change in how much A he could handle seemed to happen really really fast. I'm thinking where we went wrong was that he moved and I didn't move quickly enough with him, if that makes sense. Roughly how long should I expect a routine like this to work for us and what should I be on the look out for to know that I need to start making changes next time? Based on other posts, is it that his morning nap would stay the same but he'd start waking up earlier from his afternoon nap? And then I'd start capping the morning nap to preserve the afternoon? And math-wise, I wouldn't want his afternoon nap to start any later than 2:30, right? That would give him room for a 1 1/2 hr nap and a decent bedtime.

Ps, day 3 of long morning nap -- 1hr and counting!

[Layla]

The next big transition will be the 2-1. I've attached a link for you to look at, which will give you an idea of what options you have. I actually kept the morning A at around 3-3.5hrs for the whole transition and we had a naturally shorter morning nap (undertired nap) and about 3-3.5hrs later I would put her down for an afternoon nap, which was longer. Towards the end of the transition I would wake mine up from her morning nap and only let her sleep 30mins and then at around 15 months she stopped taking the morning nap altogether (naturally extended her A) and we were down to 1 nap.

The routine you have now (2 long naps) will probably work for a few more months. It all depends on the baby though but generally if you start to see shorter naps or he's fighting naps when you put him down or he's starting to wake earlier in the mornings, it may be time for a change again and you can always come here and let us know what's going on and we can help you tweak things. The 2-1 transition can start as early as 8/9 months (the part where you might have to control nap lengths, etc...)

From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)