45 minute naps - someone please help!

[Zke77]

Hi-
my lo is 18 wks and has been on 3 hour EASY and falling asleep on her own since she was 6 wks old. about a month to month and a half ago, she her 1.5 hour naps turned into 45 min naps. I was just taking it as her not needing as much sleep since she's older, until I reread tracy's book and realized that she should be on 4 hour EASY to extend wake and nap times. Here is her current 3 hour schedule and feeding amnts (I am breastfeeding, but working full time, so she mostly takes a bottle)
7am wake and feed 6-7 ozs
8:30-8:45 sleepy cues, down for nap
9:30-wake
10 feed 4.5 ozs 
11:30-11:45 down for nap
12:30-wake
1pm feed 4.5 ozs
2:30-2:45 down for nap
4pm feed 4.5 ozs
5:30-catnap
6:30 bath and feed- 9 ozs
7:00-7:30- down for night and sleeps straight through till 7 next morning. She's been doing this since she was about 11 wks old. Sometimes we will hear her "grunt" around during the night, but she always puts herself back to sleep, or at least she never cries out for us.
My husband is frustrated with me because she seemed very content with the above schedule and is gaining weight at a normal rate. He doesn't understand why I want to switch her to a 4 hour schedule. We tried to begin implementing a 4 hour schedule a couple of days ago, although I tried to go straight to the four hour mark without using the 15 day transition program. She doesn't seem to have a problem with feeding every four hours, she just doesn't want to nap longer than 45 minutes, and doesn't want to stay up much longer than 1.5 hours (I know that this is because it's a vicious cycle) We used the PU/PD method to extend her nap, and afer 40 minutes of it, she went back to sleep and slept another 45 minutes before I woke her to feed. I wasn't sure then if I should make her stay up until the "ideal" scheduled nap time or if I should put her down sooner because she was already tired. I'm just confused because I don't want her to be overtired, but I don't see how we can reset her inner clock by putting her down sooner. After all this, the rest of the day has no rhyme or reason because neither us or the baby knows what's going on or when we should be doing what.

Also, with the PU/PD, it's hard for me to tell if it's making her mad because she's trying to settle herself, or if she's just frustrated. She normally cries for about 5 minutes when we put her down for a nap and fusses with her thumb, but once she finds it, she's out. She does this while I do PU/PD except she cries a lot harder than normal. I don't know if I should just leave her or not, because me patting her and shusing her seems to make it a lot worse. Also, to add more fuel to the fire, her bottom front teeth are just popping through her gums and she has learned to roll over one way. I give her tylenol and orajel to help with the teeth. She also started rice cereal twice a day about 1 week ago. The poor little thing just has a lot going on right now.

Should I just stick to the 3 hour routine, or move her to the 4? Is there any harm in sticking to a 3 hour routine at her age? I know I have a ton of questions.  I really appreciate the support!

thanks
Annaliece's mom

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hi there, welcome to the boards

Sorry your post hasn't been answered yet, I hope I can help you.

Firstly, congrats on the sleeping through , very well done!

My first thought on reading your post is that maybe pu/pd may not be the best strategy to start with. Your lo is still quite young for it. Have you tried, or do you know anything about wake to sleep? I think that may be worth trying to extend the naps - if you need an explaination, I, or anyone else here, would be happy to give it. Oh, and my lo's teeth are coming through at the moment, so I feel your pain! There's not much more that you can do for her, other than hang in there.

Also, if extending her A time is proving a problem, perhaps you could go from 3-4 hour EASY gradually, by doing the 15 day thing you mentioned, or by just trying a 3.5hour EASY. Perhaps that might go a little smoother for you.

There is no harm in sticking to the 3 hour routine as long as it's working for you - but short naps are often a sign that a longer routine is needed, as the A time has not been long enough, so she's not 'tired' enough to have a full nap.

Looking at your schedule, it actually looks as if you are doing amazingly well, bedtime is a good time, as is wake up time, so it looks like you need a little 'tweaking' of the EASY, and you are just about there.

Please let us know if you need more advice on wake to sleep (also, there is a good sticky on it at the top of this forum), and keep us updated on how you are doing