anyone have a short am nap with young baby that works well??

[annette.xx]

Hi all

DS is 14 wks and is happiest with short A time in morning followed by short first nap then 2 longer middle naps and catnap ...

anyone else stick with short am nap and make it work - keeping it as they get older as well??

Annette.xx

[~inbalance~]

Hi Annette.  DS2 always short napped in the morning.  It just seemed to naturally be that way for him so I stuck with it.  I never tried to extend his am nap, but would always try to extend his pm one if need be.  Can't remember exactly what he was doing at that age, but I know we progressed to a short-long-short nap, and then when he dropped the catnap it just stayed short-long.  Doing it that way made the 2-1 transition really easy as the am nap just got shorter and shorter, and now he's on one nap no problem.

I also found this approach worked better for us because then I could aim to have my two LO's take their naps at the same time, kwim?

You have to do what works for your LO, and some babies naturally fall into their own napping patterns. 

[*Liz*]

I kept mine as well - but Megan extended it herself once she got past the short napping phase - I guess at about 6ish mths??

I haven't moved it as she has got older and she is still taking it happily but it is often short again now.

With having 2 LOs so close in age it was a case of what works for Megan works for me  . I just didn't have the time or energy for fighting against what seemed to be her natural sleep pattern.

[annette.xx]

thanks martina...

dont suppose you remember how you extended A times do you?...

Im really wanting to stick with short am nap as I remember the long am nap messing up DDs pm nap at every single stage of her needing more A time so would prefer an UT short am nap for DS!!!

would you still extend first A time when extending others - so maybe if I extended to 1 hr 30 (currently 1 hr15/20) for morning A time then did short nap (he does 45 mins) then extended next A time by 10 mins from 1hr 30 to 1 hr 40 and same for next nap... just looking to drop the darn catnap and extend feed spacing as DS is having NW issues from hunger so know its time for his tummy to hold more food!!

when I extend the A time if that first nap gets longer would you cap it to protect the rest of the routine? Im thinking of maybe letting it get upto 1 hr but no longer that way I can keep short first A time and have him be a happy baby instead of the grouchy mess that he becomes when I stretch it to his max A time!!

Annette.xx

[annette.xx]

sorry liz - just read your post....

did you keep to the same nap time for that first nap - im wanting to stick to 1 hr 30 max until he gets able to happily handle longer (hes still not even past 1 hr 15/20 ) then im wanting to keep it at 2 hrs at a set (ish) time ( I guess I wont get to 2 hrs until maybe 5 months) ...

UT first nap just seems to make him nap better for the remainder of the day...

did you ladies find that your A times got longer as day wore on??

Annette.xx

[~inbalance~]

Oh Annette, I am the wrong person to talk to when it comes to A times, lol.  I really didn't pay too much attention to them with DS2, it was more like what worked for the 3 of us together since I had DS1 to think about as well.  Also, I have the world's worst memory and have pretty much already forgotten the details from that time!   

I can tell you that we often ended up with a long A time between the am and pm nap.  I was adament about the boys' pm naps being at the same time.  So for the first A time I would follow his cues and it was usually pretty standard for his age.  He would more often than not short nap, but I would not move his pm nap up at all, no matter what.

Nap times for us never fluxuated that much.  I think his am nap was always between a certain time frame.

Whenever we dropped a nap we'd have long A times, but he always caught up in the end.

Keep working on it, but my best advice is to think about the whole family and do what works for not only DS, but you and DD too.  Second children have to be a bit more adaptable I think, lol.

[*Liz*]

Mine was always an OT nap when she was small - I just couldn't get her to sleep any earlier. So the first A was 2-2.5hrs.

What has happened is that her nights are now shorter (as is common with older babies approaching the 2-1), so that first A is now 3-3.5hrs as she wakes at 6 instead of 7am.

I think your DS will most likely naturally lengthen it as the A extends and he is a more mature sleeper. Lengthen the nap as well as the A, I mean.

Megan's middle A tends to be her longest really - but generally yeah - they lengthen.

[annette.xx]

thanks liz...makes sense!

I totally agree with you martina about doing what works for the family and for me permanant short first nap would be ideal because he will do this short nap in the buggy so I could spend all morning out with DD and enjoy my time with her more then the pm nap would still be good (hopefully!!) as no OT would have built up with that short first A time if that makes sense??!!

so I think what I will do is lengthen both A times gradually as needed but always keep the first one shorter so always 15 mins shorter than the next one until it gets to maybe 2.5 hrs first A then im going to cap it and let that nap become UT and keep on extending pm nap as needed...I suppose I will end up with a 2,3,4 pattern this is what my aim would be!...so I can have a long morning out with DD while he naps in buggy then long afternoon out with them when he drops catnap with a long A until bed...

fingers and toes crossed!!

Annette.xx