A little help for today please...

[Joannajmiller]

So we're now 15 weeks (17 adjusted as she was late) and I have been trying to stretch her to a 2 hour A time although it's hard as naps are all over the place.

Yesterday was 5am - wake, gave 1/2 feed, went back to sleep
7am - wake feed
S - 9:15am (she was a nightmare going down when I tried wind down at 1 hr 30 and 1 hr 45 and took ages to go down)
30 min wake up, took 30 mins again to go back to sleep, eventually got another hour out of her until...
E - 11am
S - 12:30pm, I felt she needed earlier due to the crappy morning naps but again a 30 min wake up and took ages to get back down
E - 3pm
S - 5pm in car for 20 mins
E - split feed 1/2 before bath and 1/2 after)
S - 7pm was a bit hard to put down
Df 10:30
Wake - 5am but went back until 5:30
Tried to see if she would take dummy rather than feed but wouldn't. Fed 1/2 feed and put back
Bleated until 6:30 on and off, sounded like mantra cry so left her but then wondered if could be wind so attempted burping her. Gave her remaining of feed and put straight back with intention of waking at 7:30... But we both slept until 9...

And I kind of thought that if I woke her early after she'd been up since 5:30 then I'd just have an OT baby to start the day with.

So now I am not sure what to do.
I am confused on the morning waking (her room is very dark and I know she can sleep later as she has gone until 6:30 before)

And I am confused as to how to go about the rest of our day now! Do I aim for naps 11 - 1, 3 -5 and then bed at 7? Will a 2 hour nap before bedtime like that mess things up? Am I better doing two catnaps? 

Regarding the 2 hour A time, do I enforce it strictly and do SP/PUPD to extend naps like TH suggests in the book?  She's been doing 1 hr 30 for a while although we've never gotten a strict 3 hour routine going as we have always struggled a little with naps, some long some short. Obviously she is in a huge developmental place at the moment which I know doesn't help!

She generally seems happy to go 4 hours between feeds which is why I was aiming for the 4 hour EASY, so I guess today we'll be doing feeds before naptimes. It's not a habit she is used to or that I want to start so guess it'll have to just be a one off.

[Joannajmiller]

Ok so I put her down at 10:50 as she seemed tired and she went off quickly, but woke up at 11:30. She was crying a little but generally seemed alert so I wondered if this was an UT nap. I got her up and she played happily for around an hour and then got pretty upset so I spent 30 mins trying to put her back to bed.  So the rest if today has looked like:

S - 10:50
W - 11:30
S - 13:00
W&E - 14:25
S - 16:30 - She had started yawning after only an hour awake time and was snuggling into me at 1 hour 15 so we walked home and wandered around the garden a little and she started snuggling more, so did a 5 min wind down and popped her in bed. Initially she was quiet and then started moaning, this went on for around 15 mins so I went up in the end as she was getting more riled up so tried shush pat which did not work. Ended up swaddling and shush patting to sleep, it was a real job to get her down and she's woke up after 45 mins. Picked her up to see if I could AP another 15/20 mins out of her but she was having none of it. Decided to proceed with bedtime!
Did split feed (to get her through bath) and put in bed at 6:10 and she started moaning/bleating for 15 mins so went in, she seemed pretty awake. Picked her up and we rocked in the chair until she was pretty drowsy, then put her in bed again 18:45 and she went to sleep.

Can't seem to get a handle on these A times at all.  She is a nightmare to settle with longer A times, but we seem to get short naps with the shorter ones? Is it hard to settle her because she is getting used to them or should I dial it back a bit?

Should I expect that her first A of the day should be shorter and if so by how much?

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, some Los do prefer a shorter first A time and it is a bit of trial and error trying to work it out. Has your LO always had short naps or was there a point when she was napping for a reasonable length, if so, what was your EAS then and when was this?
The first day you posted, it could be that she was a little UT when you first tried for the nap but that by the time she fell asleep she was OT. It can be very hard to distinguish between UT/OT naps and you are right to look at her mood when trying to decide. I would say that after the first nap in your second post although she'd had a disturbed first nap, she had slept for a reasonable time and you could have tried for a little later. What are you going to aim for tomorrow?