Author Topic: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old  (Read 840 times)

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Offline IndigoJaguar

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Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« on: April 06, 2013, 15:31:01 pm »
What would you do in my situation? About six weeks ago we started EASY. My dd had never napped without being rocked or held. We had a rough few weeks and a lot of short naps. Now we have figured out the nap thing, but I have an opposite problem. She doesn't want to wake up at nap time. She could easily go 2 to 2 1/2 hours at her morning nap, and 3 hours at her afternoon nap. I almost never let her sleep until she wakes because she would sleep too long. She usually wakes up grumpy, but gets more cheerful as she is up. After her cat nap, however, she is grumpy until bedtime. What would you do with these naps? I get tired of waking her and also tired of her being grumpy after her cat nap (Which I wake her from also). I loooove that she is sleeping so well, but not sure what to do. And her nights are kind of out of wack too. Some nights she sleeps from df at 11 until 4 or 6, and then other nights wakes randomly and restlessly thru the night.

Offline Papaya

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2013, 11:36:42 am »
Tbh, I wouldn't wake at this age, unless you think too much day sleep is starting to affect her nights. I would try letting her sleep as long as she likes for a few days, and see how it goes. If she's cheerful, and nights are ok, then I don't think it's a problem! She may also be a LO who drops the catnap early and just does two lovely long naps ;)
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Offline Shellha

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2013, 12:04:27 pm »
I have the same issue, my DD is just over 5mo. That said, I don't see it as an issue after my Ds1 was the worst sleeper! I wake at the 2 hr mark if only to keep on track with our routine for the day. At this stage we are 2 hrs up, 2 hrs down with a 30min catnap.

We also have the cranky time between CN and bedtime, but I think that is a general thing amongst small babies.

Enjoy the sleeping baby, what I wouldn't have given for one like my DD first time round :-)

Offline IndigoJaguar

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2013, 22:18:07 pm »
Would you also increase A time then? The link I read about 3/2 transition also said to increase A time. She is doing what the link said as far as dropping cn.
Quote (selected)
Some signs that your LO is ready to start increasing their A time and drop the cat nap:

- Early waking
- Waking in the early hours of the morning for a ‘cot party’. Usually your LO is happy and ready to play!
- Fighting bed time: Your LO can become a nightmare to get to sleep- lots of crying and fussing- sometimes leading to missing the window and an OT baby!
- Fighting the cat nap: The last nap of the day is getting later and later- and your LO is harder and harder to get to sleep for this final nap
She is doing the last two regularly.
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months There is the link.

Offline Papaya

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2013, 05:06:36 am »
Can you post her EAS for us?
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Offline IndigoJaguar

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2013, 02:01:31 am »
Finally! A moment to sit down.  ;D Incredibly fussy baby today. I guess she is going thru something.
Here is a sample of our EAS
W/U- 7:30
E- 9:00
A- 2 hours 5 min.
S- 9:35-12
E-11:50
A- 2 hours 10 minutes
S- 2:10-4:30
E- 4:40
E- 6:30
A- 3 hours
S- 7:30
DF- 10:30

That was our last good day, Friday. Saturday and Sunday kinda got screwed up with DH home, and last night was not the best. Today's naps were super restless and I kept having to go in to resettle. Not fun! She ate at 3 am and then got up at 6:30.
She is constantly fighting me on bedtime the last week, and the cat nap too. I can post another day with a cn if you need to see it. Right now I am to tired to think.  ;D
Today I fought her all day to get her to stay napping. It was a constant battle. I will see if it was just from the OT day yesterday or what.

Offline Papaya

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2013, 12:00:45 pm »
4 months is a pretty fussy time! On that day you posted, I think I would have been inclined to forget trying for a catnap and just go for an early bedtime at 7. Means that last A time is long, but not superlong after such a good second nap. The average A time for this age is around 2hrs- 2hr15, but some do need a bit more, so 2hr30 to bed is not unreasonable if it's after a good nap, I think. Do you know if she tacks on at night - is she likely to sleep til the same WU time if you put her to bed a bit early?

How have the past couple of days been?
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Offline IndigoJaguar

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Re: Too long of naps for a 4 1/2 month old
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2013, 13:23:53 pm »
I think I am probably going to drop the CN, at least on days when she naps well. She seems to naturally want to just do two naps a day. Yay! Lucky me.  ;D No fighting to get her to that stage.
She does pretty good with a long last A. It doesn't seem to make her any harder to get to sleep than usual, so I like that idea.
Sometimes she will sleep longer than twelve hours, but not always, so it just depends on the day whether she will sleep til the same wake up time. A lot of it depends on us. Most of the time if we get up, she wakes up. On days like Saturday, I can have put her to bed at 7 the night before and she will sleep until at least 8 the next morning because we aren't getting up and around.
However, all that said, I have figured out why the last couple of days have been insane! She is teething. I found a tooth coming thru yesterday.  :o Duh. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Tuesday's naps were really good tho. I made a mistake and let her sleep too long on her first nap....3 1/2 hours! And she was still out when I went in to wake her! Her second nap was 2 hours and then we skipped the CN. The night was kinda crummy, but I think her tooth was hurting her. She woke up twice and I picked her up for a minute or two and she went back to sleep right away, so I'm sure it was discomfort.