School run ruining EASY for 5 month old

[Liliben]

DD has just turned 5 months and our EASY is off track now that she desires to be awake more and that her nap times coincide with the school run. When younger if she fell asleep in the car I could pick her out of the car seat and transfer to cot once we were back home or sometimes I'd leave her to nap in the car seat. She won't do that any longer than 20 mins now but then won't go into the cot. When she's OT going to her cot she now screams. I don't want to start the day later than 7am to shift the EASY because we intend on starting solids next month so we wouldn't fit everything in before school. DD is EBF and no matter how hard I try resists a 4 hour EASY. When we try to get that going we have NW. She manages a 3.5 sometimes 3.75 in am but 3 EASY in pm. It looks like this.

Wake 7.00
BF     7.00
nap    9.00
BF     10.30
nap    12.15
BF      1.30
nap    3.30
BF      4.30
bf       6.30
Bed     7.00
DF      11.00
NF      anywhere between 3.30 and 5.30

As you can see 2 naps fall on the school run. If DD falls asleep we're down to 4 short naps instead of the 3 and a later bedtime. Any advice on teaking this and also how long should A time be if nap was short. DD was 5 months yesterday.

[~Karen~]

Hi, I have similar problems as have three school runs a day to do right now.  For some reason ds2's naps have generally worked out around school runs and I've rarely had to wake him.  Stuck with the 1215pm school run right and trying to push him to one nap with the time change but not sure if he's ready yet.

How do you get to school?  Is it possible to walk and let her have a nap in the buggy?  You could always go for a bit of a walk to try and get her to have a longer nap after you've done drop off.  I generally drove when ds2 was due a nap and would keep him awake until we got back from the morning school and put him down a little bit late if need be.  It was only a 2 min drive though so wasn't long enough for him to fall asleep.  I'd then rush him into bed as soon as we got home.

[Liliben]

Thanks Liz,

Unfortunately the school run is about 7 minutes and with having to take DS from the car to the gates as well the time from leaving the house to getting back is usually 20 minutes minimum so DD ganerally falls asleep. It wasn't a problem when I ws able to move her to her cot but now if that happens she wakes and will not go back. She won't do more than 20 minutes in the car seat either. On sunny days I do try to set off early as the walk will take 25 minutes down to school and then continuw with a walk so she has her nap in the pram. I've just got to accept that maybe DD has her catnap as the first nap of the day and plan shorter A time after that and hope she has at least one nap of 1.5 hours in the cot during the day. Days are so much easier though if we manage to get home, put her in the cot and go from there. On some days we still have to make do with 4 shorter naps of things don't start off to well. We're starting weaning in a couple of weeks and i just wonder how some mums manage to fit everything in with such short A times and more that one child. I think I'll just have to go with the flow. Thanks for the advice.

[~Karen~]

Yeah, going with the flow a bit when school runs are involved is probably a good idea!  When ds2 was younger I'd try and keep him awake and had to drive otherwise there was no way he wouldn't fall asleep in the buggy.  It wasn't long before he was that little bit older and would actually stay awake on the way back from the school run.  Always seemed a rush to get home to put him down for his nap though!  It'll all work out in the end