Best Nap Time to Push the next A time?

[blessedbear]

My LO is 7.5 months (6.5 months adjusted)

Is a 1.5 hour AM nap sufficient enough to stretch to maximum A time of 3 hours for her?  I am trying to drop CN.  My LO was up at 6:20 am (slept 12 hours) so I stretched A time.  She was asleep by 9:15 am and is still sleep at 10:40 am.  Obviously 10:45 am will have got us a 1.5 hour nap wooohoo.  Do I wake her and push her A time or let her sleep.  How long?!  Again the goal is to drop CN she has been resisitng and since it is getting dark so early I think now is as good time to try and get rid of CN.  My question is what is considered a "good" nap lenghth to push A time?

[~Emma~]

 In my opinion if your LO wakes after 1.5 hours by themselves and happy then that is a suffiecient nap but ideally i would say you want a 2 hour nap if you can get it.

 Pushing A's can be a tricky business, just take it slow, kind of like an extended wind down. 

 Emma xxx

[blessedbear]

Thanks for responding so quickly Brodiesmummy!  She is still sleeping but we are coming up on bottle time at 11-11:30 am.  I will let her sleep till 11:15 am if she will go.  Yes we are taking the A time increase very slowly...I have been scared but have gotten great advice from everyone and see that when I push it it's usually ok.  We were in a cycle of 30-45 minute naps and everyone was sure she needed more A time.  So either way yay looks like we can go 3 hours A time and no CN!!

[blessedbear]

Ok well she is up at 10:55 am on her own.  Yay what an awesome nap!!  For the PM nap is there a limit on this one?  Since she took a good AM nap can I expect the PM nap to be not so long?  Meaning if I put her to sleep by 1:45 pm I hope she would sleep at least an hour and if I get a 1.5 hour nap then I think we could make it to bedtime Lord willing.

[~Emma~]

 Yay on the great nap! I would stick to 2 long naps pf 1.5-2 hour for the time being. Great work! 

Emma xxx

[blessedbear]

OMG!!! PM nap started at 2 pm (I was scared that i missed the window, we went to run an errand, so no wind down) and it is 3:20 PM DD is still sleeping!!!  I am beside myself.  Pushing that A time is really working!  We can skip the CN today!!  Yay!!!!

[~Emma~]

 Excellent start! There may still be some days when you need to throw in a catnap but dont stress about it. You are doing a great job! 

Emma xxx

[blessedbear]

Thanks!  She was sleep by 6:30 pm and woke up at 6:00 am this morning.  Yes the CN will linger around for a while...She was sleep at 8:50 am and is still sleeping. It's 10:15 am.   I am just hoping we can make it to 11ish for the AM nap.

[blessedbear]

Hi I need some advice.  Yesterday I let DD take a 2 hour AM nap.  This is not the norm but after 3 hrs of A time put her down for PM nap and she only took 30 min!!  Then I tried to CN her no luck so we just did bedtime routine then bed by 6pm which I thought would be fine since she woke at 6 am.  well this morning we got a 5:30 am EW!  Would you suggest I cut this AM nap?  If so how much?  She usually will sleep 12 hours through the night so should i wake her early if she looks like she is going to go 2 hours again?  Also I remember seeing that EW could be OT from previous last block which is likely since she really did 2:30 - 6:00 pm.  HELP I dont want to reinforce this EW.
TIA.

[~Emma~]

 Hi,

 I think the EW was probably due to OT. In my experience cutting out the CN can be a tricky business. With Brodie, when he got to 3 hours A it wasn't consistent....especially that 2nd A of the day. Sometimes he would manage 3 hours, sometimes only 2 hours 45. In which case I would throw in a tiny CN of even 20 mins to get him through to bedtime without the OT monster creeping in for a visit. I personally would not cut the AM nap.

 You are doing a fab job, EW's are awful so hugs on that front but you get there in the end. It will just take your LO a wee whiley to adjust.

 

[blessedbear]

Great advice!  Thanks and I will not cut the AM nap.  Today's first aM nap was 1.5 hour.    Yesterday, I was sure I could push the A time out after the fab 2 hour nap but with a 30 min. nap Ithink that is OT.  The plumber was here and kind of loud I heard her what could have been a phantom cry and went in...I usually don't goin and let her resettle first so it could have been too distracting for her to go back to sleep.  We will see how the rest of today goes.  Thanks for the support brodiesmummy oh quick question.  We usually do 12 hour days but since she EW at 5:30 what bedtime should I shoot for?  Idealy I would like a (7pm - 7am) but I don't want to push bedtime too late but if I can get a CN is 6:30 pm too late?  I don't want to start a EW cycle by putting her to bed too early.

[~Emma~]

 Hi,

 Sorry I have been away for a few days. SOunds like you and your LO are doing a great job. Regarding bedtimes....mmmmmmm...well we were on a 6-6 for a long time when we were having EW's when I ideally wanted a 7-7 but now that I am back at work 6-6 works best so we never changed it!

 Some bubs will make up the sleep they have missed during the day be having an early night or otherwise you have to still throw in that tiny catnap to eek bedtime out iyswim? Whatever works with your little one. Have a wee tweak with things and see what works best. ( Sorry, very vague...I know!!  )

 How have the last few days gone?

[blessedbear]

Hi there,
Well we are doing good with our AM nap and back on track with our nights...However this PM nap is not getting better.  Please see my post about waking early form the AM nap as I am getting conflicting advice on this.  Today I let her wake on herown after 3 hr 15 mins A time and she did so after 1 hr 25 mins.  I then did 3 hrs A time and had her down for PM nap and she again woke 40 mins into nap.UGhhhh I dont know what to do so instead of fighting and trying to force a CN I will just do what we did last night and put her to bed at 5:30 pm and pray for the best.  Part of me feels like I am should go ahead and wake her at tomorrows AM nap after an hour and see if that gets me a longer PM nap...