The first nap, during transition

[sherry lynn]

I'm thinking about going to the 4 hour hour easy. I looked at the transition link and it suggests extending the first nap first. I find that he has that hardest time staying up longer on the first awake time, and I've seen that lots of other people have the same problem. Do you think I should maybe extend the second nap first?
I'm also thinking about just going to the four hour easy cold turkey. Have any of you done that, did you really get a lot of resistance at nap time?
I am worked about him being OT. But I'm also tired of sitting in his room the entire nap time.

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Hi Sherrylnn.  It is recommended that you extend first A time but if you are having a difficult time doing that, then you certainly can start with the 2nd nap.  We don't want an OT baby   You could also try extending the first nap by just 5 minutes or so and see how that works. 

I did not go cold turkey with the 4 hour EASY and only know one person who did and that was actually an accident   It did work for her though.  It would really depend on your baby's temperament and how easily he adjusts to change.

I am assuming you are having 45 minute nap issues and that is why you'd like to transition to the 4 hour easy?  How old is your LO?

[sherry lynn]

That is exactly why. He will be four months on Tuesday. We are on a 3 1/2 hour schedule right now. And I hate it. There is no room for flexibility. If I can't extend one of his naps then the cat nap is over by 3:30/4 and then he has to stay awake from then until bedtime. So things are just haywire for us right now. So far today is haywire too.

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

I completely understand.  I had the same issues with ds and it is very frustrating!!  At times, while on the 4 hour EASY, ds would take two 45 minute naps during one A time.  How did you transition to the 3.5 hour EASY?

[sherry lynn]

Actually we just went for it, and even though he is a spirited baby he did well, but we still had/have the 45 min naps. I had to extend the morning nap, but he's still down now, YEY. The feeding today is 4 hours so far, but the activity is more like 3.75. So we are about 1/2 off schedule, but that's okay. It's still better than yesterday. I'm going to really try to stretch the awake time to two hours for the A before the catnap. Hopefully he will still go down. That way he will wake up closer to bedtime. 

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Great job!  It may take a few days to iron out so try not to get frustrated if it doesn't work completely in one day

[camys mum]

Hello!
Just wanted to say, a couple of days ago I posted about my LO's short first A time. A few BW members suggested that I try and extend the A time. At first I was a bit hesitant as I didn't want to go into OT, but I added 10 minutes and have been doing so for the last couple of days and it has been working. I think the key for my LO was to take it slowly. His feeds were at 4 hours but the 45 minute naps were making the 4 hour easy hard for us. I'm still playing a bit with the A time, but I did notice a difference extending! I decided not to go cold turkey, as my LO just wasn't able to handle the longer A times.
Today for his first nap he took a lovely 2 hour nap, but was back to a 45 minute for the next nap, so we still have some adjusting to do. Just wanted to share as this took us a few days, and is a work in progress, sounds like you are on the right track!
HTH!

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Glad to hear things are working well for you camys mum.  Thanks for the encouraging words 

[sherry lynn]

Camys Mum,
Thanks for sharing that info. Did you just extend the first time? We extended all a little today and it worked pretty well. We had the exact opposite, bad first nap and a great second. One of the best we've ever had, because I usually always have to extend his naps. I was really worried today for the first nap because he was obviously really tired, but he still woke at the 40 min mark, and it took 20 min to go down again, then another 40 min nap. Oh well. I was very happy to get the second nap though. Good luck to you do with extending the naps.

[camys mum]

Hello SherryInn,
Our A times in the afternoon were around the 2 hour mark, so not too bad. We generally did better with the 2nd nap of the day. The morning was only at 1.5 hours of A time though and this one took longer to extend. For the last 3 days extending the morning A time has worked. But now i'm getting some 45 minute naps in the afternoon, so i'm going to work on extending those A times a little too. Today for his last nap, we ran into some OT  so tomorrow I'll try 5 minutes instead of 10. Slow seems to be the key for my LO!
Another thing which seems to work sometimes for my LO when he wakes after the 40 minute mark, is to wait for a bit and listen. Sometimes he has a babble or a moan and if don't go in he will fall back to sleep. Of course, this doesn't always work, but if he isn't crying I hold back.
Great job on the 2nd nap today! Isn't it great when a nap works? 
Good luck tomorrow!

[sherry lynn]

Well today has not started so well. We had a good night and he didn't wake up yawning. He does this many times. So I decided I would try to extend his A time in the morning by five minutes. It was perfect, he yawned right at 8:25 and I did his wind down, that is when I was planning on doing it. He went down without a fight, no crying at all (this is pretty unusual) so I thought wow, this is perfect. He fell asleep within 15 minutes, also very good for him. It usually always takes 20. So I thought wow, maybe I won't have to extend this one. Nope. I held back a little though. That was a mistake. I couldn't get him back down. When I looked at the clock I saw that I had been trying to extend it for almost 40 min. So I stopped and let him get up. Now I'm at a loss when to put him down again. I'm going to feed him at 10:45, but when should I put him down? I don't want him to be massively overtired. He always yawns when he wakes up at the 45 min mark, and cries, so that tells me he's tired. I'm beginning to think it is developmental. And that's a bummer. I'm so tired of patting and shshshing. I know it was time to play with awake times though. I looked through my log while he was sleeping. He has only taken 3 naps of 1 1/2 or more, without some type of intervention.

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

If this happens again, make his next A time pretty short otherwise you're going to have an OT baby with 30 minute naps.  Watch him very carefully and you'll probably want to do low key A so as not to OS him.  Sorry you are having such problems!!  It is great that you had a good night though!!!

[sherry lynn]

Well I ended up getting a 2 hour nap by sitting with him the whole time. I just applied pressure every time he arched his back, or kicked up his legs. He work early this morning. So that makes the 4 hour easy even harder. Things aren't horrible. I'm just so tired of sitting in his room and patting and shhshh. I'm going to ask a question about ques and wind down on here. Maybe that will help give me some guidance.

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

OK!  At least you are able to extend those naps.  He should start to do it by himself soon so you no longer have to help him through the jolts.  Good luck!