Hi
My DS is 7.5 months and for the last 2 months we have been doing this:
6:30am-get up (he often wakes earlier than this, but will usually doze/chat/go back to sleep)
7:00am-milk
8:00am-solids
9:00am-9:40am-sleep (the reason we cap this nap is because his nap length for this sleep used to vary so much that it threw the rest of the day out and I wanted a bit more predictability. Also, if he did 1 hour 20 mins then I never got a decent 2nd nap.)
10:30am-milk
11:30am-solids
12:30pm-1:50-sleep
2:30pm-milk
4:30pm onwards - catnap in stroller of up to about 30 minutes
5:00pm-solids
6:00pm-milk
6:30pm-bed and asleep
Approx 9:30-10:30pm - he will wake and I'll feed him (he doesn't always wake here, but I'll feed at the first wake up if after 3 hours of sleep time).
Any wake ups after that I'll resettle him and he normally goes back down very quickly. Nights have been getting better recently with sometimes only 1 other brief wake up.
I know he SHOULD be ready for the 3-2. He's showing some of the signs, for example recently he has been harder to get down for the catnap. I would also like to get rid of the catnap because I really have to do it in the stroller/car and it's getting very cold and dark here in England in November! Also, he will be starting at nursery in January for 2 days per week and they won't be able to take him out for the catnap. If he does 2 rubbish naps I can put him down in his cot for a 3rd nap but if he does a good 2nd nap then the only way I can get a short catnap at a reasonable time is by taking him out.
However, there are a few problems. The 1st one is that his first nap is really unpredictable. I have tried all sorts of A times! We've never quite made it to 3 hours A time from getting up time, but like I said before he often wakes before I get him up anyway so if you add the time awake in the cot then it's 3 hours or more in total. He doesn't seem to always do a longer nap on a longer A time though - it seems to be more random. About a month ago I set the first nap at 9:00 because it was beginning to be far too stressful playing around with A times - and decided to cap it at 40 minutes (1 sleep cycle for him). This worked well as most of the time he would do 40 minutes so at least I could then work on getting a good 2nd nap (which we do mostly get now). Sometimes I'll have to wake him up though, which he HATES! And then sometimes he'll only do 30 minutes which confuses me because this is an OT sleep yes?
The 2nd problem is that I don't think he needs 3 hours of daytime sleep. So, if he does a good 1st nap (1 hour 20 minutes) it's pretty much impossible getting the same length from him for the 2nd nap. He mostly gets between 2-2.5 hours sleep during the day which I know doesn't sound much but that's all I have been able to get out of him since he was about 4-5 months old. So I'm not sure how to make the day long enough with less than 3 hours of naps.
The 3rd problem (!) is that he really does seem to like a short A time in the morning and then a short A time to bed. However, I don't know how much of this is habitual. If he's had 2 rubbish naps, then I can let him do up to an hour for his 3rd nap - and he can then be ready for bed in only 1 hour and 30 minutes which seems a very short amount of time. But on the other hand, he can manage a 3 hour A time after a 30 minute 1st nap! I have read lots about how A times can be shorter in the morning and since I decided to cap the 1st nap I've not tried to stretch his morning A past 2.5 hours after getting up time as it didn't seem worth it. His morning A has always been about 1/2 an hour shorter than the other ones.
I know that to get him to the 3-2 will be tricky but I know we have to do it some time! Today, he decided to sleep for longer in the morning so instead of waking him after 40 minutes I let him have just over an hour. The day went like this:
Get up-6:30 (he woke about 5:30am but resettled after about 20 minutes and woke just before 6:30)
7:00-milk
8:00-Solids
Sleep: 8:55- 10:00 (woke him up)
Awake-10:00
10:30-milk
12:00-solids
Sleep: 13:00-14:25
Awake-14:25
14:30-milk
16:45-solids
17:45-milk
18:05/10-asleep (was really overtired and crying)
So, we made it through with 2 naps, but the last A time was a struggle towards the end. I have read about the 2-3-4 schedule and wondered if I could try something like 2.5 - 3 - 3.5 but it seems like 3.5 hours is too much for DS at the end of the day. DH reckons he might get used to it, but I'm not sure - does this seem likely?
I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions? I'm not sure where to go from here as unless I can pretty much guarantee a good 1st nap there's no way we can do the 3-2, is that correct? If I stretch that first A time, I think I'd only get a 30 minute nap as sometimes he's so tired after 2.5 hours that he crashes out straight away and wake after 30 minutes crying. Or, does this all mean we're not ready for the 3-2?
Any suggestions would be really welcome and I'm sorry for such a long post!
Thanks.