7 month old back to the 40 minute naps!

[m.ned]

My almost 7.5-month old DS struggled with the short naps up until about 6 months when we were FINALLY able to get him to go to sleep independently and sleep for more than 45 minutes. At that point, his A time was 3hr30min (he's always been a high A baby). Well teething started a couple weeks ago and everything has gone wonky again. We have not had more than a 40 minute nap in almost a month. I know the A time is wrong, but I can't figure out if he's getting too much or too little! Here was our EASY from yesterday.

E 630 (nurse both sides)
A - solids @ 9 (2oz fruit)
S 1015-1050 (won't resettle)
E 11 (nurse both sides)
A - solids @ 130 (2oz veggie)
S 235-325 (won't resettle)
E 330 (nurse both sides)
A - solids at 6 (2oz fruit/veggie and 2tbl rice cereal)
Bedtime routine - bath, lotion, sleepsack, nurse (does not nurse to sleep)
S 7/715pm (independently without a fuss)
NW around 230 and 5, nurse on one side at both

Our w/d routine for naps is reading a story and singing about 15 minutes before its time for sleep. Before his A time went wonky, he would lay in the crib, fuss a little and fall asleep within 5 minutes. This was working great until his A time changed. Now he's very fussy during w/d and is acting OT, but when he sleeps I always get a 40 minute UT nap. If I put him down a little earlier @ 3hr30min A time, he falls asleep easily but only sleeps for 45 minutes. If I keep him up to 3hr40/45min A time, he needs to be patted to sleep and sleeps for only 40minutes. On the off chance he ends up being awake until 3hr50/55min, it is hit and miss. Sometimes he'll sleep for an hour, other times I will get a 25-30min OT nap from this and he's extremely hard to settle (takes 15min+).

I can't tell why he's waking. I don't think it's pain or hunger. His teeth don't seem to bother him that much (even though he's already cut one) and he eats well during the day and does not fuss when he wakes from his nap like he's hungry. He only cries until I come in and get him from the nap and then he is happy. I'm at a loss. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. By evening time he's very crabby because he has not gotten long enough naps and has too much A time before bed. I can't figure out what's going on!

[amayzie]

bumping

[goldmom]

Have you tried a shorter A time (say 15 minutes earlier)? At this age I wouldn't necessarily say that 40 min is an UT nap.

[m.ned]

Just an update, increased the A time to 3hr50-3hr55min and we are finally getting good naps again. I think it was just taking him a few days to get used to the new A time. However, because his A time is so high, his naps can only be 1 hour to 1.5 hours tops to avoid pushing bed time too late. He still seems rested. However, does this mean he is going to go through the 2-1 transition earlier than usual? What will happen as his A time goes over 4 hours?

[amayzie]

Hi hon- Sometimes in the PM i would compress the A times rather than cutting the naps.. but it's up to you and what works for your LO... As the A time goes up to 4 hours he may move to a shorter PM nap and then as you say will eventually go to one nap! He may though sit in a holding pattern on this A time for a long time.

Also- at 7 months my guy was doing HUGE A times but then dropped back as he got more physically active and tired out..