At whits end with naps ... but need them to eliminate NW!

[krumley428]

Hello,

I continue to post on the NW boards in hopes of trying to work through 8-month-old LO's NW issues.  I have recently come to the conclusion that it is doing me no good to work so hard to get her to sleep at night when it is undoubtedly our nap problems that are keeping the last couple NW alive.  Below is our latest schedule - fyi, wake up time in morning varies just a little bit each day so for sake of posting schedule, I will use average of 6:30am:   

Wake for the day 6:30am
E  6:45 BF
A
E  8:00 Solids
A                 
S  10:00ish Nap (45 minutes)

E  10:45 BF 
A 
E  12:00 Solids
A
S  2:00ish Nap (45 minutes)

E  2:45 BF
A 
E  4:00 Solids
A 
S  5:00ish Catnap (15-30 minutes)

E  6:15 BF 1/2
A  6:30 Bath
E  6:45 BF 1/2
A  6:55 Story/Wind-down
S  7:15 Asleep for the night

I am aware of the "uselessness" of 45 minute naps but I am absolutely dumbfounded at how to fix this.  I honestly feel like I have tried everything - shorter A times seem to lead to UT, longer ones to OT, extending with PU/PD after 45 minutes is nearly hopeless, and no success with wake to sleep because as soon as her little eyes open even half way, she is smiling and babbling at me.  I have been spending a lot of time sifting through other postings on both the NW and Nap Boards and am wondering if it is AT ALL possible that she might be transitioning to one nap already?  I know that she is only 8 months old but the "signs" seem to be there and she is developmentally ahead of the game in a lot of areas (i.e. fully crawling and cruising, chomping on finger foods, etc.).  The signs are that she is trying VERY hard to skip her morning nap all together and she is also waking earlier and earlier in the morning. 

I really feel that I am not going to be able to get the NW under control until we figure out the naps but I at my whit's end ... WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?  Any advice or ideas are greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

Kim

[mini me]

I'm not an expert, but you're in a similar situation to me a few weeks ago. I have short naps, but they got longer when I dropped the catnap. Have you tried this? I had to really entertain her to stretch her A times a bit longer in the beginning, but now she only has 2 naps - not very long tho, but longer than before, and she doesn't wake up at night (only for water, but that's another story!! )  HTH?

[brenda2]

hi
i really think she is OT and you need to shorten up the A  times.  i would  move the first A time 15 to 30 min earlier especially if she had poor sleep the night before, and the second A  time after such a short nap is way too long.  pp is right that at this age you should be on 2 naps, but that's definitely not an option if you only get 45 min naps.  try moving the second nap earlier and see if it can be a longer one.  if you can get one of the naps to be long then you can drop the catnap and go to 2 naps which would be better for her age.  at this age she should be getting about 3-4 hours of day sleep.  she is way short of this which is why you are getting NWs.  also, after a few NWs (i don't know how many??)  she may need shorter A time first thing.

try:
6:30 awake  (3 hours to max 3 hours 15 min A  time after wake up)
9:30 nap (assume this nap is short) - 10:15
1:00 nap (hopefully it will be long)- 3
bed 3 hours after wakes from nap #2 if it was long, (so 6 pm) if it is also short go for catnap at 4:30 for 30 min

waking early in the morning is a sure sign of OT.

[krumley428]

Thank you very much for your reply.  Yesterday Lily went right to sleep for both naps after 3 hours 15 minutes, which is a lot of improvement over the 20 minutes it usually takes to get her to settle.  They were still only 45 minutes long though so we fit in the usual catnap and put her down a little earlier for bed.  This morning, she slept an extra 15 minutes in the morning and went right down again for morning nap at 3 hours 15 minutes.  She has been asleep for 40 minutes so far ... fingers are crossed.  If I aim for the schedule that you posted, do you think that it would be beneficial for me to try wake to sleep again to lengthen naps if they stay short?  I have tried without success in the past but maybe am not doing it correctly?  I am glad to hear that early waking is caused by OT - no one has mentioned that to me before so I thought we were just destined for a 6-6:30am wake up!.  However, if I need to put her down earlier than her usual bedtime to keep her from being OT, in turn will her "wake for the day" time stay earlier also, i.e. if she goes down at 6pm, will she wake at 6am?  Not that it matters much because I have gotten used to waking at this time anyway - just checking.  Thank you again!

Kim 

[brenda2]

earlier bedtime doesn't necessarily mean earlier wake ups.  although some babies tend to not sleep long stretches at night no matter how much or little day sleep they get.  some nights when i did early bedtimes i'd actually get a later wake up - one night DD did 13.5 hours overnight for me!

w2s won't work if they need a prop to sleep or if they are OT or UT.  so best to work on getting A times right first.

even with that catnap, she is really low on daytime sleep - at 8 mo most LOs are getting 3 to 4 hours day sleep.