If they WU for day early, do you still stick to your regular EASY?

[carmenalecia]

Hi there - hoping others can offer advice on this new trend I'm seeing in my 6.5 month old this week. DD has been waking up earlier than our 'usual' WU time (I say 'usual' because we only started on EASY about 3.5 weeks ago and before that, WU was anytime between 7 and 9). I'm wondering what to do when she is up early and happy and obviously not interested in sleeping any longer?  This morning, she was chatting away and playing with toys in her crib at 5:55 so my husband went in a couple of times to get her to sleep again, but she wasn't interested, just wanted to be awake.

Here is our typical EASY day:

WU 7am
E 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, DF 11pm (or a little earlier this week - she's been waking up at 10:45 every night this week)
S 9-11am, 1-3pm, CN between 5 and 6 (usually 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes not at all)

We've been trying to increase her A time from 2 to 2.5 hours but she gets pretty grouchy by 2.5 hours.

So, on a day like today, with her up at 5:55, I still nursed her at 7 and put her down for her first nap at 9 (well, she was actually sleeping quickly in her crib by 8:45), but woke up at 9:25 and I soothed her back to sleep by 9:45 (she's still sleeping now). Should I be moving everything up so she doesn't get OT, or stick to the regular schedule? Should we adjust her bedtime at all - maybe a little later so that she actually sleeps until 7am? Or is she trying to tell us that her WU time is sometime around 6?

Thanks for any advice!

[Papaya]

I would generally go by A times rather than nap times at this age - so for today I would bring everything forward a little to avoid OT. I would do bedtime a touch earlier, perhaps 6.45 depending on how the afternoon goes, so her day isn't too long. For most LOs, if they are OT at bedtime they are actually more likely to do a short night than a long one!

The happy earlier WUs are probably a sign that she's getting close to dropping the catnap. That morning A time is also very short, so I would persist with pushing that out gently - the average A time for this age is around 2hr45. If you can increase the first A and still have a good 2hr nap, you should be able to move the second nap later, get rid of the catnap and hope that your night length increases again! Although, there's nothing wrong with an 11 hour night - my LO moved to a fairly consistent 11 hour night not long after dropping the catnap, but I gradually pushed the whole day forward so it was 6.30am - 7.15/30pm, which suited me better.

[carmenalecia]

Thanks for this advice. We did try moving her BT earlier for a couple of nights and it seems to have worked. Still working on increasing her A times but she's a really good napper in the morning, goes down easily by 9am and we see her 2 hours later. Afternoons are a little different story - and I realize that she is probably UT so we've been trying to increase the A time between nap 1 and 2. Little tweaks here and there. Thanks again!