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Hi all

My 6mo has recently started napping well after months of catnaps, I owe it to the diagnosis of a cows milk allergy so we’re both dairy free and he’s much happier and settled. But now we’re at 3 regular naps, but not quite ready for 2 yet and the day isn’t long enough!

His current routine is
WU 7 (give or take 15-30 mins)
WT 2.5hr
Nap 1 9.30-11.30 (2hr)

WT 2.5hr
Nap 2 14.00-15.00 (1hr) - usually capped by me, so we can collect big brother from school and leave enough time for Nap 3

WT 2.25hr
Nap 3 5.15-5.45/6 (usually wakes himself crying)

WT 2-2.2.5hr
Bedtime 8ish (hard to settle most days)

(NW 3-4 night feeds but recently more unsettled from 5/6am onwards)

I’ve just started extending WT this week from 2.25 hour to 2.5hr bc naps were starting to shorten again. But now - we’re running out of hours in the day. It’s hard to settle him for Nap 3 so there’s lots of cuddling, rocking, etc to get him to settle.

Going forward - will I need to cap the naps further as I extend WT more? If so, which naps to cap and how much? Should I be continuing to extend WT or leave as it is for now until naps start to shorten?

Thanks

At my wits end. This is happening too much lately. Any help please? She will be 9 years old in October

LO is 8wks old today. Been on an EASY pattern for weeks now. Not a schedule yet, but definitely a pattern. He sleeps pretty good at night so far. The last week each night went like this: a 3-5hr sleep stretch, eats and sleeps another 2-3hrs, eats and sleeps another 2-3hrs. Around 10-12 total night sleep hours.

Daytime naps have been dicey… example of what happened today:
10:05 asleep for first nap
10:50 I heard the first awake noise on monitor
10:50-11:00 HTTJ for about 10min, I think I about have him asleep then 11:00 he starts fidgeting hard and cries
11:00-11:10 I get him resettled in the crib (small, short-lived win) so I pat his back and hold him through the squirms
11:10-11:35 this process continues for 25 more minutes, he never resettles into a deep sleep. He yawns, eyes stay mostly closed, no hardcore crying, some whining. But no deep non-moving sleep. Constant jolts and squirms.
11:35 I finally pick him up after his agitation starts to increase. He rubs his face into my chest, I have to bounce him a bit to calm him down, then he becomes still.
12:15 he’s asleep in my arms as I’m writing this and has only twitched twice for the last 40 minutes. Guess this is his deep sleep cycle finally (?) after 40 minutes of failed nap extension.

He’s on reflux meds, I gave gas drops prior to this nap and right before the gas drops he passed gas during tummy time. So I don’t think tummy problems are the reason for his nap troubles.

Why can he go to sleep on his own for nap but not stay asleep on his own? What am I missing?

I’ve tried every awake time combination imaginable over the last week (anywhere from 50 min to 1hr15min) and it seems he can’t get past the 45min hump on his own anymore. I have maybe 10% success rate extending his nap fully in his crib, 10% of the time he continues napping on his own, the other 80% he finishes his nap on my chest or the swing after a failed attempt to nap extend.

Am I wasting my time? My back and sanity sure aren’t thanking me 😞 If he doesn’t resettle in 15-20 minutes should I just hold him for the remainder of the nap? I have 4 more weeks on leave and could enjoy them more not hovering over his bed for hours each day doing something that isn’t fruitful.
How much longer do I try? Or just try for one nap a day then do what I need to do for the rest?