fighting pm nap & bedtime at 7.5 months.....help

[Jann]

i posted a couple of days ago about both naps being 45 min long.  i extended the morning nap to 3.10hours and got a 2 hr nap.  yeah!!! but the pm nap i can't seem to figure out.  at 3 hrs of A time he gives me a 45 min nap at 3.10 i get a 30 min nap and because of the 30min nap in the pm i can't gauge his bedtime but i do go about 2.15 min and it takes about 30 min of crying mantra and sometimes real cry to put him to bed.  he doesn't give me any tired cues.


this is what happened yesterday

6.45 awake
7.10 bf
10.42 in crib
10.52 asleep
12.00 up and bottle
2.00 lunch
3.08 in crib and pushed against me to put him in his crib
3.30 cried the whole time and fell asleep
4.00 awake crying and cried even harder when he saw his bottle
5.00 diner
6.00 bf
6.45 in bed
7.10 asleep till 6.10 this morning


1.  the am nap is usually the longest do i wake him after 1.5 hours or wake him at 2hours?
2.  is it possible that since the pm nap is closer to evening that he has a hard time going down , he always cried for his cat nap at around 4pm when he used to have one.
3.  should i feed him a split bottle in the afternoon before he does his pm nap give him 4oz then when he wakes the other 4oz?
4.  how can he be ot after 3.08 min of a time after a 2hr nap?  and if i put him down before i get 45 min
5. when i get a 30 min in the pm when do i put him down for bedtime?

help anyone

J

[deckchariot]

J - sorry you've had a rough go here....I know with Abby, around 7-8 mos, I felt like everything changed for her, so I know your pain!  Let's see if I can help (or at least offer some encouragement)

1. - up to you on limiting naps.  I know with Abby, she NEVER (and I really do mean NEVER) responded well to be woken from her nap.  So, you could try it for a few days and see how your ds responds.  Wake him at 1.5 hrs for at least 3 days in a row and see if that helps or hurts things.  Keep in mind, if wake him, he most likely will not be able to handle as long of an A time as he would if you'd let him sleep, so that next A time will need to be shortened.  It looks like you got just over an hour nap yesterday and still had problems in the afternoon, so not sure that will address what's going on, but you can certainly give it a try.

2.  Absolutely possible that the pm nap is just too close to bedtime for him.  So lo's really struggle with that - that's one reason moms limit that first nap a bit, to make sure that pm nap is farther from bedtime.

3.  I used to split Abby's feed with her afternoon nap - half before and half after, and that was the first feed I cut out eventually.  So you could definitely try that.  Just make sure you aren't feeding to sleep.

4.  because he's his own person   Every bub is different.  When Abby was his age, that's when I noticed that her morning A time suddenly became her longest A time and the next A time was shorter, and the one before bed was shorter still.  So it's possible your ds is making that transition.  You could try 3 hr 5 min of A time and see what happens for that afternoon nap.  But that's if he takes a good morning nap.  Looking at yesterday, with just over an hour am nap, then his next  A time was 3 hr 8 min - that's too long, because he didn't have a 2 hr nap, so I definitely would modify that second A time based on his morning nap.  If he takes 1.5 hrs +, then try the 3 hr 5 min.  But if it's less that 1.5 hrs, I'd keep the A time to less than 3 hrs.

5. I never moved Abby's bedtime any earlier than 30 min if she had bad naps.  I was too scared of EW.  But  I do know moms who will put their bubs to bed even an hour earlier than usual if they've had bad naps, and they do not find it affects their night sleep negetively.  So I'd say put him to bed 30-60 min earlier than usual.

does any of that help?

michelle

[Jann]

yes thanks you helped alot.
sorry, i made an error in my routine,  i put him down at 9.42 not 10.42.  He did get a 2 hour nap.

Yesterday i  woke him at 2hours in the am and he did 3.10 A time in the pm and i got a 1.20min nap. yeah.  i think the problem was he woke hungry because i didn't change the a times just increased his solids a little and gave him formula after his meals.  anyway today he is having his nap at 3oclock, but it's my mil that is watching him she tries to follow my routine but often doesn't and we get 45min naps.  oh well.  as long as we don't get nw or ew i can't complain.

i sometimes put him to bed 1hr early if bad naps and i get a wake up at 6ish not too bad.

thanks for your help

Jann

[deckchariot]

Jann - sounds like you are doing a fabulous job!!!  4.5 hrs of day sleep is wonderful!!!!  Also, well done on going with the flow when he's at MIL's - sometimes things are just different with different folks no matter how close they try to follow your routine   I'd say the waking at 2 hrs in the am seems to do the trick, so I'd keep at it!  Well done!