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ACTIVITY => E.A.S.Y. Forum => Topic started by: MissTwister on March 12, 2016, 15:14:19 pm

Title: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 12, 2016, 15:14:19 pm
I'd really appreciate some advice on helping my little girl get a  decent length afternoon nap in. She's 8 months old and previously did 3x45-60 minute naps which worked for her but recently she's stated napping only 30 mins after her first one of the day. 

I thought she was maybe transitioning to 2 naps so I've done a lot of playing about with awake times in the AM and PM but nothing makes a difference. She often sleeps around 1hr 15 in the AM but PM we're stuck on 30 mins. I've tried a 2hr awake time and 3hrs and in between and the outcome is the same

She sleeps through at night 7:30-6:30 and when she wakes from her short naps she seems fairly happy but obviously becomes very grizzly later, particularly if she refuses a third nap as she's them awake over 5 hours till bedtime!!

Any tips!?
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: weaver on March 12, 2016, 15:36:05 pm
Hello and welcome to the boards!

Please will you post your sleep routine, tell us what time these naps are falling at, etc, and it will be easier for folk to comment on your situation.  But briefly I would say that at this age, most babies will be doing two naps, rather than three, and your problem may be solved just by moving her sleeping times around a wee bit.  Tell us when and how long that first nap is, and what happens after!
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 12, 2016, 15:57:08 pm
Thank you for the welcome!

Excluding today this has been her rough recent pattern - as I said I have been experimenting a bit and she also changes every day so it's quite hard to tell you exactly!

6:30 - wake
8:30 - sleep, usually an hour or more
12 or 12:30 sleep, now 30 mins
3:30ish sleep, could be 30 mins or sometimes I have to wake her after 45
7:15 bedtime

Today I tried something completely different as I noticed she was yawning at her 6:30 wake up time so I put her back down and she slept till 7:45. Unfortunately the  two naps since then have been 30 minutes and my husband is currently trying to calm an absolutely hysterical baby so I won't be trying that again!!

Not sure if it's relevant but she doesn't wake crying from her naps. I bought a video monitor and she just seems to snap awake then roll about for a while and then eventually shout out
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 13, 2016, 09:30:07 am
Anyone got any advice?

As an update today we had a 5:50 wake up which is unusual. We fed and put her back down until 7:15 when we then woke her as she was still  fast asleep. It seems strange that she's wanting to sleep for longer over night at the same time she's refusing to sleep for more than 30 minutes at afternoon nap.
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: weaver on March 13, 2016, 10:09:37 am
We fed and put her back down until 7:15
Good move! 

What you're dealing with here is an A time problem.  Most 8 mos are having an A (awake/activity) time of between 3-4 hours.  It's also true that most babies will sleep most easily in the morning, so your wee girl is having a lovely extra sleep in the morning, and then is too well rested to take a nap when you try to put her down after what is a short-ish A time for her age.  The extra sleep in the morning is *not* a problem, it's a good idea, as long as you tweak your A time afterwards.  I'm going to ask the mods to move this over to EASY board where you'll get more eyes, but, in a nutshell, you need to push that AM nap a bit later, nearer to 10am if she's up around 7, and allow a decent A time before the PM nap.  I wouldn't be trying for three naps at this age either. HTH.

FWIW, nap resistance in this house was always worst with a UT baby!
What are A times and how do they fit into the EASY plan?
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
Sample EASY Routines from 0 - 13mths+
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: Buntybear on March 13, 2016, 10:16:00 am
Hi - I would also be extending your A times to get a baby who needs to that extra bit of sleep at nap times. I think we dropped the 3rd nap around 6 months and the 2nd nap at 12 months if that helps!
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 13, 2016, 13:18:30 pm
Thanks so much Weaver and Buntybear. We put her down at 10 this morning after her 7:15 wake and she did a good 1hr15. Will see what her afternoon one is like now - going to put her down at 2:15

I think I've been doing shorter A times as she quite often looks tired - she also yawns about an hour after waking!! Maybe she's just sleepy but not tired enough for a proper nap
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: Buntybear on March 13, 2016, 16:23:08 pm
When extending A times you do often have to ignore their sleep cues and push them through it!
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 13, 2016, 17:25:23 pm
We had some success today!

7:15 wake
A
10-11:15 sleep
A
14:40-16:00 sleep

So two naps of 1hr15 which is great for her and she went down for both straight away. I've got a video monitor and during the afternoon nap  I saw her wake up at the usual  30 min mark but then took herself back to sleep. I obviously have been putting her down far too early.

And she seems very jolly now too!
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: Buntybear on March 14, 2016, 07:29:13 am
Yay - well done!  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 14, 2016, 08:39:47 am
I have a question re wake up time though. Previously she woke at 6:30 for food and we always got her up then. However, she was yawning within the hour and I've noticed when she feeds then she looks like she wants to go back to sleep. So the last few days I've been putting her back down and she goes straight to sleep.

However by the time she is back asleep it's 6:45-7 and then she is sleeping until 7:45. Is this too late and therefore is it better to just get her up at the 6:30 time? It seems to me ideally she needs a bit more sleep but is getting hungry at an awkward time!
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 14, 2016, 15:17:01 pm
And we're back to a 35 minute afternoon nap. I followed the same routine as yesterday......
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: jessmum46 on March 14, 2016, 19:34:20 pm
I would let her sleep in unless you particularly have something you need to be up for. You can just start your day when she wakes and work on A times from then :). If that means her second nap is a bit late in the day you can always wake her up from it if needed to get her to bed on time. 

Did she wake in a good mood from her 35 minute nap?  It's hard to tell and I wouldn't tweak on the basis of one day, but my DD did UT 37 min naps for ages until I worked out that's what they were!  That said, she also would pretty much only do one good nap a day at this age so our typical day had one nap of 1h15-30 and one of 40-45 mins x
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 14, 2016, 20:31:44 pm
Thanks for response. She was okay when she woke up - kicked around for about 10-15 minutes before crying for me to come get her.

She was really tired from about 5:30 so we put her down at 7, half hour earlier than normal.

Does anyone think I should wake from morning nap after 45mins to try and get a longer afternoon nap? 
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: jessmum46 on March 14, 2016, 21:52:52 pm
The idea had occurred to me.....for some babies it does seem to work better that way round, though it's not a traditional EASY approach.  May be worth a try?  You could always go back to the original idea :). Whatever you decide do stick to it for a good week or so though before changing anything again x
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: Buntybear on March 15, 2016, 07:23:09 am
Hi, I did wonder about the 35 min nap being UT too. We always went with a long morning nap and shorter pm naps as Olly was normally a bear to get to any nap so I was not waking him for anyone once he was asleep! It can suit some Los better to swap that around. I think if you are starting the morning late then having a good nap then she will maybe a bit UT for a pm nap. 7.45am to 7pm is a short day.  You could try pushing that 2nd A time for another 15 mins?
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: MissTwister on March 15, 2016, 07:44:10 am
I might give it a go. Weirdly after just 1hr45 nap time yesterday she slept through longer in the night doing a full 12 hours!  Can it be sometimes that babies just don't need a lot of day time sleep?
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: Buntybear on March 15, 2016, 10:23:27 am
All LOS are different - you have just got to play around till you find what works for you! 12 hour over night is great!

PS i edited my last post to say push the last A time by 15 mins - not 5  :)
Title: Re: Short but not sweet....
Post by: jessmum46 on March 16, 2016, 07:58:20 am
DD always did better with a longer night and less daytime sleep so yes it is perfectly possible x