35 minute naps in 7.5 month old

[rimkat]

Hi ladies,
My DD is 7.5 months and has always been a short napper. I thought it would just get better as she grew but it has not and I'm really wanting to fix this! She falls asleep on her own, doesn't have a paci, but has a lovie. Her room is pretty dark. I've tried extending her naps in the past and she will go back to sleep if I rock her, but after about a month of doing this she was not making the transition on her own, so I stopped trying (she was about 4-5 months at the time). When she wakes up, she wakes up happy (most of the time), but will get grumpy in her A time. She also occasionally gives me an 1h20m nap in the morning (maybe once a week), so I know she's capable of doing it. I just can't seem to detect the difference between those days and all the other days.

This is what our EASY usually looks like:

WU & E: 7:20
Breakfast cereal: 9:20
S: 10:00-10:35
E: 11:20

S: 1:10-1:45
Lunch solids: 1:45
E: 3:20

S: 4:15-4:50
Dinner solids: 6:00
Bath, bedtime routine: 7:00
E: 7:20, asleep by 8pm most nights

I know that at this age she should be napping only twice, but with these short naps its impossible for her. Also, I thought about trying W2S but I don't think this would work for her because often if we are out at the mall or something and she is napping in her stroller and a loud noise will wake her, she will fully open her eyes and then go back to sleep, but still wakes at 35 mins even though her sleep cycle should have technically been reset. I was also thinking to extend her A time to 3 hours in the morning, but I know many people say that the first A time is shorter than the rest, so I don't know (the rest of the A times are about 2.5 hrs because her naps are short and she gets tired quickly)...

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks in advance  

R

[elmarie]

bump

[rimkat]

Thanks for the bump. I tried to up her first A time to 3 hrs yesterday and she napped for 1 hour in the morning (does this mean UT??), then I gave her another 3 hours but her second nap was only 30 mins. Granted, we were at the mall so maybe that's why. But she's very very rarely had an afternoon nap longer than 40 mins or so....

I'm trying the 3 hour A time again this morning, so we'll see how that goes...

[elmarie]

No I don't think it is UT.  At this age ideal awake time is about 2.5-3h.  Ideally she needs to be taking 2 naps of 1.5hr naps with a 40ish catnap & her day would be something like this:

7am - wake
9.30-11am - morning nap
1.30-3pm - afternoon nap
5ish - catnap
7.30ish - bedtime

Have you tried using shh/pat to extend the naps instead of rocking?  40 min waking up is a sign that she is still not transitioning from one sleep cycle to another and usually shh/pat is good to teach her this.

 

[rimkat]

Thanks for taking a look elmarie!

Well today was a 35 min nap again despite the 3h A time  . She doesn't wake crying, so its hard to do shush pat. I've tried but it doesn't really work because she is wide awake by the time I get in there and the only way to get her back to sleep is by rocking, almost forcing her back to sleep (even though she initially falls asleep on her own)..

So she should still be doing 3 naps and not 2? She's only doing 3 right now because they are so short...

[elmarie]

Pu/pd will then be an option if she is really crying.  Pu/pd doesn't however work if any prop is present.  I know how difficult it is to stay consistent but that is the secret of successful sleep training, not to give in no matter how hard it is.  Doing the same for naps and night time.

I'm not on for the weekend but will get back to you next week if nobody chimes in 

[rimkat]

I think that's the main issue here. She has no props. She falls asleep on her own for all naps and bedtime and when she wakes from her naps, she doesn't cry, she just plays in her crib. That's why I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Today I tried to come in to her room at the 30 min mark and as soon as she started to wake at 35 mins, I put my hand on her to shush-pat, but it didn't work. As soon as her eyes shoot open, she's awake and that's that.  I even tried rocking her back to sleep but she just stared at me like I was crazy lol...

It's almost as if those 35 mins are enough for her, but she just gets cranky so quickly..not to mention I barely get any time to do anything during the day... 

[rimkat]

So I've started doing 3 hours of A time, but the naps are not getting any longer...so now we're down to 2 35 minute naps and an earlier bedtime. I will usually try to extend at least one of them by rocking because thats the only way to get her to go back to sleep after she's woken up. I should say that our nights are great so I feel guilty complaining about this to some degree. I just want her to be a in good mood during the day!..

This is what our EASY has looked like for the past couple of days:

WU: 7:00
EA: 7:00
S: 10:00-10:35 (I will usually extend this one until about 11am by holding her)
EA: 11:00
S: 2:00-2:35
Bath and bedtime routine: 6:00, asleep by 7:00

any thoughts??

[elmarie]

maybe try adjusting the A time so if she wakes after 30 min and you can't get her back to sleep, make the next A time a bit shorter and rather try and give a catnap later in the afternoon.   At this stage she seems to be totally OT.  I'm hoping this will work

[rimkat]

OK I will try that. I tried a 3h 20min A time this morning and got a good nap out of her, 1h 20m yay! I don't know if this is a fluke or not...

I will try the same A time this afternoon and see how the second nap goes...

[elmarie]