Help me make School runs with a 6 mo EASY

[enna77]

My DD is nearly 6 mo and I'm struggling to get a routine right with school runs & having to leave the house twice a day. Shes just starting to resist some sleeps and I think we're ready for an A time increase plus I want to get our days sorted so that I can start working on NWing.

The times I have to be out of the house each day are roughly 8:30am - 9:10 and 2:30 - 3:15pm.  The mornings are ok now that she is older even if she wakes at 6:30am she can handle waiting until we get home just after 9 for a sleep. But I need advice on how to structure the day like which sleep should be a long sleep etc as my challenge now is she needs to be awake no later than 2:30pm. From 2:30 until 7pm BT is too longer A time, but its also now getting trickier to fit in a CN as shes requiring longer A times. So what would be an ideal EASY schedule with these two outings be for her age? I will post my EASY from yesterday but we don't really have a set routine that gets followed every day, I just work to 4 hourly feeding plus A times of arpund 2 hours+. She will usually always do one longer sleep & then some 45-60mins one.

Yesterdays EASY

6:20am Awake
7am BFeed (fed at 4am so delayed this)
8am Bkfast
SCHOOL RUN
9:10 to bed
10:55am Awake
11:00am BFeed
12:00 Lunch
1:10 to bed
2:10 awake
SCHOOL RUN
3:30 BFeed
4:10pm tried for CN but resisted I think UT?
4:40 finally asleep
5:20 I woke to perserve BT
Bath etc
6:40 Bfeed
7pm to bed (again took a while to settle)
7:30pm asleep

Not settling for CN and BT are new things she usually self settles really well. I would have put to bed later but seemed tired and given the CN was short still aimed for 7pm. This isn't necessarily a typical day I'm trying to usually aim for more like 2.5 hours before bed, we're really just taking each day as it comes depending on where her long sleep falls which is why I want help making the day more structured but we're consistent with BT.

Also she still wakes twice between 7 & 7 to be fed and we also get EW sometimes as well.

Bascially - help?!

[PaulsMom]

Enna, I feel your pain.  How do you travel to school?  By car or walking?  Is she still in an infant seat?  Will DD2 sleep on the way? 

I think I'm keeping my dd in an infant seat for as long as possible because if she does take the odd nap in it, then it's less stressful on the logistics of nap planning and school runs.

[enna77]

I occasionally walk to school but not home as theres too many hills for my DD1 - but to school isn't the problem as shes fine to wait until we get home its after. She will sleep in her baby capsule but is about to outgrow that in the next couple of weeks so the sleep thing isn't really going to work in it anymore as there will now be  transferring into buggy etc so just need to know what I should be aiming for during the day YK.

[PaulsMom]

Yeah, I'm dreading the day when I have to stop using the infant seat. 

Given the timing of your school runs I'd keep the CN (sorry to say) after an A time of about 2.5 hrs.  Even if its a 30 min nap that may ensure that she's not OT before bt. 

[*Ali*]

What if you capped the morning nap to 1.5hrs so she could sleep 1-2.30pm for the second nap and then do a CN around 5pm of 30-45 mins? The A time after the CN usually needs to be shorter than the A times she can handle after a full nap or first thing in the morning so don't feel you need to try to fit in a full 2.5hrs before BT. At that age I think we did around 1.5hrs of A time after a CN. The CN is only supposed to get them through dinner, bath and last milk feed really.

What do you think?

[enna77]

Ok so you think I'm better to try and split it into 2 x 1.5 hr naps rather than trying to get a longer one & a short one? Often her morning one would be shorter like an hour and the afternoon one a bit longer so not sure how I will go getting two even ones as her tendency is to do 1 longer and 1 shorter - but will give it a shot! If I can only get one longer is there any recommendation on whether it should be the AM or PM one?

TBH a CN as late as 5pm does make me nervous but like you say only getting half an hour sleep from 2:30 until 7pm should be ok and I need to think of it more like a CN rather than a proper sleep.

[*Ali*]

Ideally both the first and second naps would be full, restorative naps of 1.5hrs or more and then the third nap is more of a CN. Obviously babies don't always adhere to the same schedule so you have to do what works for you. If you can't get two long naps then stick with what you did on the day you posted and your LO may prefer that.

Have you seen the sample EASY routines here? chronological EASY samples, 4-6 months scroll down to the 6mo routines at the end