3-2 nap transition - early wake up

[Freckles1981]

Hi there
We have really been fighting our little one to have his third nap for some time now, even by taking him for walks so we have tried transitioning him to 2 naps, but he's now starting to wake up early, between 5/5.30am. Could the 3-2 transition be cussing this?

Our LO is 7.5 months and our easy currently looks like this:

Wakes 5.30 & is a struggle to resettle but will go back down after maybe an hour, with his day starting at 7ish
E: 7.15, followed by breakfast at 08.30
A
S: 09.30 to 11.10
Y
E: 11.30, followed by lunch at 13ish
A:
S: 14.30 to 15.40
Y:
E: 15.45, followed by dinner at 17.00
A:
S: bedtime routine starts at 18.15, feed at 18.30, usually asleep by 19.00
Dreamfeed at 22.00 ish

On occasions he might wake around half hour after going to bed, and sometimes once during the night but there is no pattern to these NW, and they are infrequent now.

I don't know if we should just feed him when he wakes at 5.30 as it takes so long for him to fall asleep again? He will happily lie in his cot for a good hour or so, but obviously if he doesn't go back to sleep, our day starts too early and our routine ends up messy and back to 3 naps.

Are we too early on the 3-2 transition which is causing the early wake up....so many questions!

Thanks x

[newkidontheblock]

Hi hun.

I don't know if we should just feed him when he wakes at 5.30

I read through your other thread and I see that both you and your LO have been through a lot recently. I understand that you are concerned that he isn't having enough milk through the day. Keeping that in mind, and the fact that he doesn't go back to sleep anyway, why not just feed him? Every bit of extra milk he is getting will be good, right? It is very common for babies to start waking more at night to eat after illnesses.

S: 14.30 to 15.40
Y:
E: 15.45, followed by dinner at 17.00
A:
S: bedtime routine starts at 18.15, feed at 18.30, usually asleep by 19.00
Dreamfeed at 22.00 ish

If nap 2 ends nearly at 4pm, there really isn't enough time for a CN and it is better to opt for an earlier bed time instead. I do think your LO is ready to transition though and I think your A times are higher than you think. My reasoning is that your LO wakes at 5.30 and then sleeps again for maybe  a half hour before normal WU AND still manages to do 2.5 hours before nap 1 -- pushing this nap might help as it might be too early right now and more of a continuation of NS, which would reinforce the EW.

The 3-2 transition does lead to EWs and NWs as they work their way through it and as you get over the OT accumulated in the process
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
Early Waking
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

Hope that helps

[Freckles1981]

Thank you for the advice.

So we aren't doing very well with naps again...gah! Both yesterday and today he did just over an hour in the morning, taking us to 10.45am, and then a 40 minute nap in the afternoon which was finished by 15.00.

I've tried to push his awake time for his first nap but after 2.5hours, he is visibly tired. The second nap is where I'm struggling as he doesn't seem to show any tired signs, until I get him in his room & shut the blinds, and he then shows tired signs, cries, but settles very easily.

We tried to move his bedtime forward both nights but he still doesn't actually fall asleep until 18.45, and he's then really restless and let's out a small cry every now & then, but settles himself. It just seems like he doesn't have peaceful sleep until much later in the evening.

Last night he woke up once around 2am as he'd rolled over and couldn't get back, but sleep till just before 7am.

I don't really know what to do about the second nap. We've tried varying awake times, and when we did get a good nap, I tried the same awake time the next day and got a 30 minute nap. The lack of tired signs makes it so hard too, as by the point that he does yawn (this can be 3.5hrs plus), he's then over tired.

[Freckles1981]

And today we have another bad day with the afternoon nap....I'm feeling so frustrated! Not only this, but he wakes up going completely mental and screams for what feels like an eternity as he's so difficult to settle. I really don't agree with letting him cry but I've had to walk away from him today as I literally can't take it anymore :-(

I've tried awake times of 3hr05, 3hr15, 3hr20, 3hr30 and these all give a 30/40 minute nap with the same outcome of waking up screaming. 3hr10 & 3hr25 have goth given a long nap twice, but these have recently give short naps.

What do I do now, try an awake time of less or more? as his last nap is over by 14.50/15.00, do I go for a bedtime of less than 3 hours later, so aiming for around 18.00?

[newkidontheblock]

After a certain point, sleep signs become quite unreliable and I found it must easier to go by clock times. Have you taken the BW know your baby quiz? This really helped me understand my LO. She is spirited/ textbook and could literally switch from happy to tired in a second. But once I started going by the clock, we weren't second guessing ourselves constantly.

The afternoon nap was the bane of my existence too. She never really managed any good naps except for the am one & the CN. I kept same A times through the day and if she WU too early from her pm nap, I would do whatever necessary to resettle, including sitting in the room with a hand on her for the rest of the nap. I wanted her to clearly understand that her nap wasn't over.

I suggest picking an A time and sticking with it. I'm actually unsure what A you are doing right now but just pick one time and stick to it. If naps stay short, increase it by 10 minutes and hold at this point. Again see if naps lengthen out. I would actually say that you *need* that pm nap to end later or to keep a CN and push BT back because even if you go for a 6 pm BT, that's still 3 hours later. How much can your LO handle before bed? Mine couldn't handle that much at 7 months (although she was doing long As through the day) The main issue with keeping the CN and pushing BT is that your day will get too long as a result and total day sleep may not be enough leaving him overall OT. Just something to bear in mind