I'm all in a mess - short A time and short naps.

[kobe77728]

I've been trying to get LO to take longer naps for about 3 months now!  She is 5.5 months and used to nap easily and loads but not for ages.  Think i'm doing it all wrong.  Her A time is really short for her age but not sure how to get her to lengthen it.  Her naps are always 30mins unless I lie wih her on my bed and we nap together.  Like this i hold her arms and we can take 1.5 hour naps or like today 2 hrs.  pretty much until i let go of her, lol.  Anyway, generally she naps in her cot.  Used to often put her self to sleep although always cries first.  Nowadays I often have to go in and just gently hold her arms and then she falls straight to sleep.  I could leave her and she would prob fall asleep by herself but it takes her ages!  I used to be able to extend her naps a bit too, by holding her arms but won't work at all now.  Anyway, here are a couple of my days to get advise:

Today - a litle odd as we had yoga this morn and so i napped with her this afternoon to gaurentee a longer nap

Woke at 5 but feed (not really due for feed!) and brought in bed with us (new habit because of EW) and slept till 6:45
E7:00
S8:35-9.05 (out of cot at 9:15)
E10:00
S10:40-11:00 (in pram on way to yoga, will only sleep 20 mins usually in pram or car)
E13:00
S13:30-15:30 (with me.  also fell asleep on way back to car after yoga for 2 mins and while feeding)
E16:00
S17:00-17:05 (this was stupid as i didnt realise she'd fallen asleep in car and got her out at the shops and she woke)
E18:45
S19:30

Yesterday was:

Up at 6:50
E7:10
S8:30-9:15 (tried to extend from 9)
E9:40 (fed more frequently yesterday as had been really grumpy so wondered if that was why)
S11:00-11:40 (again failed to extend)
E12:10
S13:35-14:00 (didn't try to extend)
E15:15
S16:00-16:30 (sorry didnt write this down yest but remember the time cos it took her ages to fall asleep but this turned out good as it  meant it was better to make it to bedtime)
E17:00 ish
E18:50
S19:10 (fed to sleep, often happens but usually wakes up when i move her to cot, didnt that night)

at night lately she wakes at 22/23 ish, 2 something and then 5ish.  This used to be better but we got back from USA a few of weeks ago and this has messed eveything up!

I know her A time is really short for her age, it actually always has been so not sure if this is just the way she is or something i can control.  She was 3 weeks early if that makes a difference.  But still it is short.  I have recently managed to get her first A time up a bit but always find this hard cos she seems to vary with how tired depending on how she woke up etc. 

I'm sure there is loads more to say but can't think right now.  Any thoughts would be great.

Kristy

[~Karen~]

Bumping for you

[kobe77728]

Thanks.  I've kind of decided i'll just have to deal with 4 or 5 30min naps a day for the time being as I am totally unable to extend naps anymore and its making me unhappy trying and failing.  Not really sure what else to do.

[~Karen~]

If you don't get any other responses I'll have a proper look later.  Busy weekend with kids and of course dh is out of town!

[~Karen~]

30 min naps are usually a sign of OT.  Have you tried w2s to try and extend?  Are you happy to lay with her for naps or is that something you want to stop doing?  If she's having short naps her A time is likely to be shorter than the average.  Personally, if it's your first baby and you're happy to nap with her then I'd go with it for now and work on sleep training when she's a little bit older.  The most important thing is for them to be getting enough sleep.  You'll probably find in a month or two that naps will be easier and hopefully she'll start extending on her ow.  Or if you can get her on top of OT by napping with her then you're a lot more likely to have success in extending her naps. 

How have you been getting on the last couple of days?

[*Kara*]

Honestly, I just think she has a build up of OT that needs to be fixed before everything will fall into place.  I would AP her naps as you have been a couple times a day for a couple hours... do that for a week and see if it helps with the NW and poor napping

HUGS!

[kobe77728]

Ok thanks for advice.  I may be a bit scared that she'd get used to it though and won't want to nap in her cot, which she has always done.  Hmmm....

[ZacsMumme]

You dont need to go it for ALL naps, even if you just make sure one nap and nights are always in the cot so that you are not AP all naps. If she is an independent sleeper now she will adjust back...my DS does and we have to AP on and off all the time with teething etc. (HUGS)

[*Kara*]

Agree with Sara!  We have very AP days and then some that are totally independent, my DD STTN every night so I am confident that she can self soothe - therefore, if she needs it, I will AP her

If your LO can sleep more than a few hours at night, she can easily self soothe

[kobe77728]

Ok thank you for that, i'll give it a go. :-)

[*Kara*]

Good luck!

[ZacsMumme]

Let us know how you get on!