A short napping 6mo old!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Hi all -

Longtime poster back from newborn madness to ask for some help! My wonderful, sweet, happy baby girl is just NOT a good napper. I have been super lax about implementing a real EASY for her since I work a lot and DH stays home with her and her 2 sibs and he can only handle so much (understandably). I'm home for a few days this week and would love to work on her naps some. She is having issues transitioning through sleep cycles, we rock to sleep, and I'm sure her EASY isn't right. Oh and she's paci dependent. No problem, right? Ha!

Here's what we had today

545 - wake (OT since it took her ages to get to sleep last night)
715 - try to get to sleep, down about 730
815 - A
930ish - S
1010  - A

and so on from there. DH didn't keep the best track of things but basically trying to put her down after about 1-1h15 of A time after naps of 40-50 min the rest of the day. We're pretty much spending the whole day putting her down!

Thoughts on what to tackle first? 1.5h A time for the first A time got me 1.5h naps for the first nap for about a week last week but that's gone. She's never really napped longer than 1.5h and that is a pretty rare occasion. I guess I'm overwhelmed, overtired myself, and not sure where to start. She also wakes about every 2h at night but if I can get her napping better during the day I'm hopeful that will help nighttime.

Thanks for any ideas! I feel like my BWing is rusty!

[weaver]

1.5 hr A is about half the average A time for her age (she's 6 mos, right?).  So the first thing I'd do is up her A times across the board.  Something around 3 hrs is the average. Even after a short nap, it is likely that 1.5 hrs to just too short for her to do a longer nap. You're probably in some sort of UT/OT loop, which is the pits  

I think you're right to say that improving days with improve the nights, fingers crossed for that.  Since you're rocking to sleep and so on, I wouldn't worry about APOPing some naps in a carrier, or buggy, if that's what you need to do to get her on track.

Have a look here:
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!!

For the 5 am WU, in my experience, but maybe not yours , if treated as a NF this WU is easily dealt with and everyone gets to go back to bed for a couple of hours. 

[Haylam_e]

Agree with previous poster. A time seems too short. My lo just turned 6mo and his A time is 2 hours. If I stretch it even 15 min, he will be difficult to get down as he is OT. I would recommend you to extend the A time in 10-15 min increments. Your lo will most likely be OT by doing this but will get used to it after a few days. Also making longer A times , gives you one nap less for the day and it won't feel like you are constantly putting your lo down for naps. We sometimes had 4-5 naps in a day when he was on 1.5hr A time. With longer A time he now takes 3-4 naps.

Also my lo naturally stopped catnapping when he turned 5.5mo without me doing anything (we did a lot AP like rocking prior to it etc. but now I can put him down without any rocking etc. as long as I put him down before any major tired signs- he goes to sleep on his own)
 I think it is developmental when it comes to sleeping longer. I just accepted the catnaps and was more happy doing that than obsessing on how to make him sleep longer which was exhausting.
Good luck!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Thanks ladies. Should have said that when she does take a decent nap we do more like 2 hours for her next A time, that's just rare. First A of the day always seems to need to be shorter. It was working briefly but you're right I should extend it. I'll try two hours tomorrow morning. I definitely think we are in an UT/Ot loop. I think these are the hardest to get out of, really. :/ Maybe I will try extending out that first a time tomorrow and then just following her cues for the rest of the day, try to reset a bit.

I try to treat the EW like a NF with varying success. Sometimes she just will not go back down. Today I got her fitfully back down until 630 so that was better. But first nap was 50 min.

I will get her there. Just need to put in the time and effort. Sigh. I would love two solid naps per day!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Ok this is how today has gone so far...

630 - WU
8 - S
850 - A
1050 - S
1220 - A
245 - S
330 - A but rocked her back
355 - Big sibs yelling and she just woke up. Sigh.

So I think you are both right about the A time. I am rusty for sure! Tomorrow I will try 2.5 for the first A and see how it changes the day.

Thanks for the thoughts! DH did tell me occasionally he can lay her down awake so I'm hopeful once we get her EASY right that things will fall into place from there with days AND nights.

[Haylam_e]

That looks like a big improvement already and hopefully you can eliminate at least on nap and it will feel so much better. Any naps over 60 min is bliss in my eyes. GL!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

She was getting so tired this morning so went down at 2h A time. We shall see how that goes!