Dropping the catnap issues...

[Sarahboh]

If someone could give me some suggestions what to do I would appreciate it. Currently Ella is 6.5 months old and she is dropping the catnap naturally herself, but I am finding it hard keeping her not getting too miserable from her last nap until bedtime. Her current routine is this

7:30am wake and bottle (6-7ounces)
9:00am 1tbsp rice cereal, 1-1.5 ounce formula, 4tsp veggies
9:45(10:00)-11:45
11:45bottle (5-7)ounces
1:00 rest of bottle if didn't finish (total 7) and 6 tsp veggies/fruit
1:45(2:00)nap-3:00-3:30
3:30(3:45)bottle 6-7 ounces
5:30 2tbsp rice cereal, 6 tsp veggies/fruit+2-3 ounces formula
6:30 bath, massage
6:45 bottle 6-7 ounces
7:00 bed
Sleeps until morning, no night or dream feeds.

When she used to take her nap earlier, like 1:30 for 1 hour then I was still able to get a little nap in between her 3:30 bottle and dinner at 5:30 but now she is up longer and thus her afternoon nap she takes later and long thus no time for a catnap. The big problem is last night she was crabby when I put her to bed, I even put her to bed earlier at 6:45 but she ended up crying a little which she never does then finally ended up falling asleep after some interventions at 7:00pm. I am thinking to give her some quiet time where her catnap used to be but she still gets quite grumpy because this awake time is 3+ hours at times when her usual awake time is 2-2.15 hours. Please give me some suggestions and what you think of my routine, can I tweak it anywhere?

[Richelle]

I would try and push out her afternoon nap to begin at 230PM, I may also consider an earlier bedtime until she gets to a point where she can handle it better.  My dd did the same thing and I was paranoid that if I put her to bed too early she would get up too early but she never did!

HTH,

Richell

[Sarahboh]

Thanks for the help. Just two other questions, do I only let her sleep an hour then, as she has a feeding at 3:30, as well if I put her to bed early then her last two bottles are too close together? How can I alter things to fit with her feedings if I want her to have 1.5 naps morning and afternoon? Please help

[Richelle]

I would let her sleep until 4ish, then give her a bottle.  If she naps later than she should be OK with her regular bedtimes and I never worried about her bottles in the evening close together, she always seemed to drink it, sort of along the lines of 'cluster feeding'.  If you find that she is not taking as much before bed, maybe drop the formula after her dinner solids.

HTH,

Richelle

[Sarahboh]

thank you