45 minute naps returned! 7.5 month old

[jlmlyle]

Hi there,

My DD is doing the 45 minute nap thing again.    It took me 5 weeks to get it straightened out last time, and I really hope we don't go through that again.  I already battled 45 minute naps when she was 5-6 months, and discovered she was UT, I needed to extend her waketime and drop the evening catnap.

Right now we are battling 45 minute naps again (appeared about a week ago), and I have tried extending her waketime.  She always goes down well for naps, even if UT.  But she just will wake too early and than be crabby later in the day.  I don't know what else to do. Any ideas?  By the way, she is waking happy...

I think she could need new activities, I try to make sure she gets some physical activity, but mabye she needs something new?  She cut her first tooth last week.  And is on the verge of crawling this week.

Routine:

around 7:00 wake
E 7:10ish bottle
   7:45 solids
A
S 9:45 nap  (used to be 1-1.5 hour nap going down at 9:30) now is going down to 45 minutes.

E 11:00 bottle
   12:00 solid
A
S 2:00  (used to be 1-1.5 hour nap )

E 3:30-4:00 (depending on nap) bottle
   5:00  solids
A
E 6:30-7:00 bottle
S Bedtime 7:00-7:30
dream feed at 9:00ish weaning, down to 3 oz

Please help! I hope to figure this one out more quickly.   
Thanks,
Jasmine

[maddies momma]

My LO is only 3mo and we have been dealing with the 45min nap thing for WEEKS.  I tried extending the nap first for about 10 days by sneaking in before he stirred and helping him through the transition if necessary.  I found that if he made it through the 1st transition he would take 2 hour naps and I'd have to wake him up.  But he was never consistent with making it through that first transition on his own, so we've been doing wake 2 sleep since someone on the boards suggested that.  And that has worked even better.  I just gently stroke his cheek and duck down quickly when his eyes flick open or he stirs.  I've only had one time so far *knocking on wood* where I stirred him too much and he only ended up with a 30min nap.  I know it's a pain to go into his room 30mins into his nap, but I've found it much easier than trying to help him through the transitions.

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64168.0

Good luck!!!

[lilac83]

Hi~

Are you still putting her down for nap at 2:00 even though she had a short AM nap? That first nap is probably UT from what you describe, she sounds like she's ready for 3hr A time here. I would try that for a few days and see what happens. Then her second A time you're probably looking at an A time of slightly over 3hr. Is she sleeping through the night well, no EW, etc?

[AshleyB]

My LO shorted her morning nap to 45 minutes at about 8 months. She takes a longer afternoon nap now and sleeps longer at night to make up for it. I've found that sometimes it's just best to let her control her schedule a little bit rather than constantly trying to manipulate her nap times. She seems happy this way.

[jlmlyle]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.  Sorry it took me so long to post back.  By extending her morning awake time to 2 hrs, 45 minutes (sometimes 3 hrs), I have been able to get longer morning naps.  And with her afternoon wake time of just over 3 hrs (like you said, Robin), she is napping past an hour.  But that has put her bedtime later, and we've had a few mornings where she wakes an hour early or wakes crying (which is rare, she's an angel baby).  Plus she seems a bit OT at bedtime, so I think I need to wake her from her afternoon nap earlier/or put her down earlier and live with the 45 minute nap so bedtime stays put.  Any thoughts?

I like having her 2nd nap be longer, but than it is hard to get 3 hours between bottles for the 3rd and 4th bottles, and so it pushes back her bedtime.  She's never been a big eater, and I want to make sure she gets enough since I want to drop this dreamfeed. 

So now her routine looks like

around 7:00 wake
E 7:10ish bottle
   7:45 solids
A
S 9:45ish nap  (1.5 hr nap)
E 11:30 bottle
   12:30 solids
A
S 2:40ish  (at least an hour, usually 1 hr 10 min )

E 4:00-4:30 (depending on nap) bottle
   5:30  solids
A
E 7:30- bottle
S Bedtime 7:30-8:00
dream feed at 9:00ish weaning, down to 3 oz

[lilac83]

When A times start going over 3 hours sometimes you do need to do a bit of juggling to fit everything in. With her waking at 7:00am she should sleeping by 7:30pm at the latest and that's probably why she's ending up OT before bed. I see what you're saying about the bottle though. Could you fit in a bottle before her second nap at around 2:30? That would be 3 hours since her last bottle so she should be relatively hungry. Just feed her in a room other than her bedroom to separate the bottle from the nap. Then wake her by 4:30 at the latest to preserve that 7:30 bedtime. With feedings then I would give solids around 5:00/5:30 like you do now and her next bottle at 7:00. Do you think with the solids there she would be able to last an extra 30 minutes between bottles?

[jlmlyle]

I was toying with the idea that you suggested.  The idea of getting a bottle in before her 2nd nap.  I have been playing with bringing her 2nd nap time in a bit though. She'd been waking from her first nap at 11:10 the last few days since I've been getting her down at 9:45 exactly instead of closer to 10:00.   So that let me put her down at 2:15 while still having 3 hours of wake time.  But I still may move that other bottle like you suggested if that 2nd nap keeps getting later.  She definitely can wait on her bottles.  She doesn't cry when she is hungry and is not a big eater anyway. She often will only take 4-5 ounces even if it's been 4-4.5 hours.  She doesn't even remember she is hungry until she sees her bottle.   

I also have read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and was starting to wonder about having her naps push back towards 3:00 pm.  That seems kind of late compared to the typical 1:00 pm.  I know he says to start that 2nd nap by 3:00 pm at the latest. Any thoughts? She sometimes seems tired earlier, but I am fearful of UT!

Do you have any advice on schedules with the A times of 3 hours?

[lilac83]

My DD is the about the same age as yours and has just increased her A time over 3 hours. This is what her day looks like for reference:

7:00 - wake
7:10 - bottle
8:30 - breakfast
10:05 - small snack bottle
10:20 - nap
11:50 - wake
12:30 - lunch
2:00 - bottle
3:00 - nap
4:30 - she seems to wake before this but I would wake her here if she was still sleeping
5:00 - dinner with small snack bottle
7:15/30 - bottle and bed

HTH!

[jlmlyle]

Thanks for posting this sample schedule.  I think we will try something out like this today since my husband didn't put DD down for a nap until 10:20 this morning! Doing the feeding before the 2nd nap is the only way I can figure out how to get her back down to bed by 7:00-7:30 and still get in 4 feedings.  Thanks! And hopefully this new routine will work itself out.  I'll say one thing, her routines evolve quickly. It seems like more quickly than others I've read about here.  Seems like she can handle long A times....

Thanks,
Jasmine

[jlmlyle]

Oh by the way, what do you consider a snack bottle vs. a normal bottle?  How many ounces?

[lilac83]

For my DD a normal bottle is 6-8oz and a snack bottle is 2-4oz. Generally the one before the first nap is 4oz and the one after dinner is 2oz. How are things going for you?

[jlmlyle]

Well for my DD a normal bottle is about the same, anywhere from 6-8 oz, but she often will do a 4-5 oz bottle on occasion.  I tried splitting it up around the 2nd nap the other day, and that worked well, but than we returned to the 4 bottles upon waking the last few days.  I still need to adjust her routine because now it seems that she is more consistently needing 3 hrs of wake time, so I either have to split the bottles, like you suggested, or shorten that 2nd nap, which she did for me today.   We are going on a week long vacation in a time zone 4 hours different, so I will work on fixing it when we get back since everything is going to get messed up anyway.  I saw your other post about tweaking your DD's routine, and I'm looking in on what others are saying for you.  Thanks again!