A time adjustments for almost 5 month old cat napper

[katiebee18]

DS is an independant sleeper for about a week now (woohoo). I lay him down and leave the room.

However he often takes many short naps. 25 mins is a common time but I would say from 20-40 mins is normal. I can usually get him to take one longer nap of about 1 hour 20-30 minutes but I have to go in and try and resettle him. The other naps the resettling doesn't work so we just get short ones.

If a nap is only 25 mins or so, how should the A time be adjusted or does it stay the same. We do about 2 hours of A time now at 4.5 months old. Would 1h30mins make more sense after a short nap to prevent OT?

I don't think he is teething, we are almost out of a growth spurt and he does have reflux I believe (he spits up during, right after and then 1-3 hours after feedings) but I try and burp him good before putting him down and if I come and resettle I always try to burp to see if that was the issue.

Any insight? I do use black out shades, a fan for noise and have an air conditioner in his room. We also use a zipadee (swaddle transitioner) and pacifier both which he seems to love.

[weaver]

Has his reflux been checked out, hun?   If he has untreated reflux which is giving him pain, he is likely to wake frequently from naps no matter how much sleep training, or A time adjusting you do.   

Have a look here, and see what you think:

Reflux 101 - General reflux information

Reflux checklist for parents and Drs

[katiebee18]

Thanks. Yeah I mentioned it to my dr. at both 2 and 4 month appointments but neither of us thought it was severe and I didn't want to medicate him if it is really just normal spit up for a baby and if he will outgrow it soon.

He sometimes does longer stretches and does not get up frequently in the night, so I think needing to burp (and occasionally spit) up while sleeping is sometimes the issue, I don't think it is always the reason for short naps (but I could be wrong).

He just did 30 mins and I went up and resettled. He did burp when I patted him so maybe that is waking him more than I thought. I will try to burp him better. He gives me great ones after he eats but I will try to get more right before sleep time.

Any suggestions on the A times for short naps when they do occur?

[weaver]

OK, just wanted to clarify that reflux point with you.

A times after a short nap depend on the baby really, but for most babies, it seems the A time doesn't need to be shortened drastically.  Something like 30 mins shorter?  You'll have to do a bit of trial and error, and see how he goes.  Depends on how sensitive he is to OT.

Another thing to bear in mind is that different lengths of short naps mean different things.  In general, around 30 mins is OT, around 40 mins is UT.  See if that helps you figure out A times a bit more.