w2s or shh pat to extend naps?

[amayzie]

My 10 wo Boy used to be a great napper but recently dropped to 45-1 hour naps. As he only can currently muster about an hour of awake time, this led then to about 5 naps in the day! I've started to increase his uptime (VERY slowly as he hasn't read the forum and isn't interested in staying awake for any longer than an hour!), and have been trying to extend his naps. What would people recommend as far as wake to sleep vs shh pat after he's woken up? I've tried the SHH pat the last couple of days for the morning sleep- i figure that if he has a good morning then i know that he's had some solid rest! It's been ok.. in that he went back to sleep- but took me 40 minutes of shushing... I'm happy to persevere if that's the best option, but if W2S is a better option i'll try that!

Thanks!

Oh- I have also tried (only for one day... will persist tho) making his awake time less stimulating towards the end... but his wind down then consists of me reading a story, or having a cuddle with an unrousable boy!!

[elmarie]

Is your LO on EASY?  If so would you mind posting it so we can have a peak at it    It may need some tweaking.  At 2.5 months your LO should be on a solid 3 H EASY...

[amayzie]

We're definately going with EASY- but he was always happy to go 4 hours between feeds- but I would feed him if he woke earlier, so would go sometimes 4 hours, but other times 2, 2.5 or 3..

I'l put a couple up....

Yesterday when i tried some nap extension (and activity time extension, just by 5-10 minutes on his usual hour):

E: 6.50am
A:6.50-8.00
S:8.00-10.50 (woke at 9:10, ssh-pat for half an hour, then self settled for a bit)

E:10.50
A: 10.50-12.00
S: 12-1.15 (self settled, no resettle got him up when he woke)

E: 1.15
A: 1.15-2.20
S: 2.20-3.15
I attempted a feed at this point as he was grizzly, but he REFUSED (NEVER happens- i held off a trip to emergency as he's on the 95th percentile for height and weight at the last check, so there's some room to move)
A: 3.15-3.45 (VERY tired and grumpy throughout- then stary)
S: 3.45-5.00

E: 5.00
A: 5.00-6.50 (had a bath....was a very tired boy... )
S: 6.50-7.10 (That's when we got him up anyway!)

Plus a dream feed at 11.pm (love the dream feed!)
Last week he had hour sleeps and a 45 minute sleeps and i'd feed him after each , and with only hour A time once I fed him with an hour 45 between feeds!! I thought that as pretty crazy.... I was reluctant to go to a EASASE pattern as SOMETIMES he'll throw in a bigger sleep in the afternoon without prompting, and was doing a 2.5-3 hour sleep in the morning.. and i didn't want him to wake hungry when he could have gone a big sleep

Hope this all makes sense!

Thanks for your input!

[amayzie]

I'll also add that i realise that he only had 5 feeds yesterday.. usually he has 6 in 24 hours, sometimes 7- i figured that he'd wake if he was hungry and really needed it! That was unusual though.. Prior to reducing all naps to an hour or so he was doing a big morning nap and 2 or 3 shorter afternoon naps...

[amayzie]

today's easy has ended up like this... i'm a bit embarrassed now as he's doing much better! I've found that by stretching the A time his sleeps have funnily enough increased...  Any suggestions though that may help overall are much appreciated!

E: 7.10
A: 7.10-8.20
S: 8:20-9:30, Resettled till 9:50

E: 10:10
A: 9:50-11:05
S: 11:05-1:35

E: 1:35
A:1:35-2.50
S: 2.50-4:15

E: 4:15
A: 4:15-5:30
S: 5:30-6:35 (woke him up)

E: 6:35
A: 6:35-7:45
S: 7:45-8:35

E: 8:35
S: 8:35
Dream feed at 11

Hopefully no night wakings!

THanks!!

[elmarie]

glad today went well 

I wanted to suggest that i think the A time will have to increase and some naps must be cut.  A 3h nap in the day is too long and he might not be tired enough then come next nap. Here is what you should be aiming for at his age (you need to adjust the times to suit you-the 3h EASY is what is important)

7am wake and feed
8.30am nap ( 1 1/2h)
10.00am eat
11.30am nap (1 1/2h)
1.00pm eat
2.30pm (1 1/2h nap)
4pm feed
5 or 6pm  40min catnap to get baby through feed and bath
7pm (clusterfeed)
7.30pm bedtime
10 or 11pm dreamfeed

A time will increase slowly.  Dreamfeed will continue to more and less 7-8months.

A lack of routine can often cause babies not settle down easily.  It is extremely important to start an adequate sleep routine and using the 4s to get him to go down relaxed (p.181 BWSAYP Tracy explaines how to do this).

Please ask if you have q.

[amayzie]

i was wondering if i needed to cut down his long nap- i usually let him keep it as i was thinking that at least he had that nap.. but as wondering if it was stealing from the other naps! He's pretty good at going down- usually a good self settler, it's funny though now that i'm keeping him up for a little bit longer... (only about 10-15 mins at the moment) he will pretty much fall asleep straight away- or be fussy as he's over tired... not the usual looking about the room for a while.. oh well!

Thanks I'll see how i go!!

[elmarie]

It is really important to wake them when it is eating time. Keeping them on a good routine in the day helps them to get enough calories in so they can go through the night. 

Let us know how it goes...