Sleeping thru the night - naps now gone wrong?

[brenda2]

yeah...it might be that she is ready for some solids.  she took a good feed last night so she was hungry then it may be that bf is not enough anymore.  or she is having a gs.  anyway, she is 6 mo so it is a good time to start solids now.  don't go overboard though, just do 1 meal a day at breakfast for a week or 2 and see how she responds to it.

in terms of the routine, which also might be contributing (but not if she's waking hungry).  usually at 6 mo most LOs are doing more than 2 hours of A time.  usually 2 hours 15 min to 2.5 hours.  you could try to extend her A time by 10 min every 3 days and see how she does.  still do the 2 long naps and the catnap but just have her be awake a little longer.

i think it may be the food thing though...my LO didn't sttn without a nightfeed until 7 mo when she was on a good deal of solids and i switched to formula.

[eshea]

Thanks.  We're waiting for the high chair to arrive and then we'll try some solids.  I think this might be the problem, too. 

We always seem to be behind the ball on the development, so it's good to know we should have a little more A time. 

Today she fought her afternoon nap tooth and nail.  DH tried to shh her when she woke crying at 30 min. (OT), but she just kept going.  He did PU/PD and wanted to know what to do if she gets even more worked up when he picks her up.  At this age, is it better to let her lie in the crib, fussing a little and staring at you, even if she gets so worked up she starts to really cry?  I was in the kitchen and could definitely hear her cry change when he picked her up, but he was doing a great job of trying to remind her it was still nap time.  It seemed like the PU was almost too much.

We'll see how the next week goes!  Thanks for your help!

[brenda2]

hey
if fussing just leave her in the crib. in fact you don't even have to be in the room.  fussing and mantra crying are a way of self settling and if you interfere by going in the room too quickly or picking up when they are trying to wind themselves down and go to sleep you will make it harder as this is more stimulating. 

this may have been what happened. 

for sure if it makes it worse to pick up do not pick up, just leave her in the crib.  if she starts to cry (not a mantra cry, a real full blown cry) you can go in and shh pat in the crib first (always do this first pu/pd is only a last resort) and if this does not help and she is still screaming then do pu/pd, put down as soon as she stops crying. 

if when you pick up she struggles against you to get down then put her down, this is another self settling behaviour and you should never fight them if they struggle. 

when i was doing pu/pd my Lo would always struggle so pu/pd turned into her screaming in her crib and me shh patting and trying to reassure her while she was in there.  it does work though, we got great results.