If I extend A time, will her naps be longer?

[rinajack]

 Hi there.

My 20wk DD is a 30-45min napper, and was taking 4 naps per day, sometimes now only 2-3.  She has been doing short naps since about 10wks old.  She has awake times of at least 2 hours (and before bed, these have been as long as 5 hours ), but 2 hours is probably the usual. 

Today, she was home with DH while I went to work, and we tried (or he tried) extending the awake times to min 2.5 hours - it took some distraction, but she wasn't very cranky at all.  She still went down for naps really easy.  And for each nap, she slept 2 hours. 

Despite her young age, do you think this means she is ready for 4.5 hour easy, and a schedule that would normally be more appropriate for a 6+ month old?

We don't mind from her point of view about the short naps, as she is very happy.  But now that there are less of them, we are finding it hard to get anything done around the house, as she is not able to play indepentently for hours at a time. 

I have read about short A times leading to short naps and that it is a vicious cycle, and although that is not our problem, it does sound like our LO in terms of her just not being tired enough after 2 hours A time to nap any longer.

I would be really interested in some feedback and opinions.

Oh, and she hasn't been waking at night most of the time (except for some teething related), has no DF, and is now having 3 solids per day.

[caf_uk]

Hi Rina,

My dd went thru the short napping phase for what seemed like FOREVER.  At the time I increased her A times to more than what is recommended in the BW book and it worked for her for a little while, but then she regressed.  When I eventually put her on 4hour easy things clicked into place for her. 

Maybe you could try extending A time to 2.25 hours first to see how she copes.  If she's having 3 solid meals a day and sleeping well at night she might well be ready for more like 4.5 easy instead of 4....  I would say try it and see what happens...

[rinajack]

Zara is already on four hour easy, so that won't help it click into place with us.  So, after a couple of days away, and much discussions with DH (and his agreement to help for the first few days before he is back at work) here is the schedule we have devised.

6am Wake
6:30am Cereal
7:30-8am Bottle
Morning Nap - see how she goes - maybe one, maybe two - I expect these will continue to be short, but if she does a long one it will be her choice.
11:30/12pm Lunch and Bottle
1pmish - Afternoon Nap - Min 2 hours. 
3:30pm, or when wake from Nap, Bottle
6pmish Dinner
7pmish Bottle  Will see what time wake from nap before establish a very firm time for these.

So, we have done this two days, under very difficult conditions for her - Friday - one AM nap, 30 mins, and a 2.25 hour nap in arvo (with some minor resettling help).  Woke last night, but is teething so this has not been uncommon lately, and was easy to resettle.  And didn't wake until almost 6am, which is a pretty big sleep in for us.

Today - 2 AM naps - both 30 mins - one in car, one in pram.  Then fell alseep sitting upright in pram, with nothing covering her eyes  (usually have to cover eyes with lovie when out otherwise cannot fall alseep). And didn't wake when moved from pram to car .  Sleptapprox 2.5 to 2.75 hours, with several resettles, first one difficult, others easy.  This was all in the car though, as we were travelling home from trip away.  We are very excited about this, she is much easier to settle at home, and has not slept in car for more than 45mins, and has not resettled in car since about 8 weeks old.

So, to sum up, we think this might work.  Plus, we are Almost ALWAYS home for PM nap, so best one to be a long one.  And she goes to daycare, which has a nap after lunch for all kiddies up to about 3 years old, so if she does this it will fit in nicely for them.

Stacy - could you please give any feedback on proposed schedule, and areas where I might find a prob - so I can look out, and tweak/change if necessary.  Or propose any improvements that you think I should incorporate.

Thanks

[rinajack]

She was still finishing bottles after solids until she started teething - and now she won't even finish them if we do bottles first - and some bottles she has refused all together, but am working on that by using bonjella just before bottle.

Will watch out for that though.

Thanks

[rinajack]

So confused now.  we have been doing this new routine for 1 week, and it's going great.  Still need to resettle duging long arvo nap most days, but it is really easy to do to.  As for the morning naps, she has often needed two short ones.  But today she woke later (6:45am) due to late to bed last night (only 45 mins later than normal) as we were out, and had first nap at 9am, then fell asleep bolt upright in stroller at just after 11 (only 1.5 hrs after she woke), then still went down for afternoon nap at 1:20, having woken from second nap at 12:00.   She is still alseep - it has been 2hr 40mins.  And lately she has started needing a catnap around 6:00pm. followed by in bed at 8pm.

What is happening?  Why suddenly less A time - these short A times are about 2.5 months ago for us?  She is teething still - I can see HUGE white lumps down the bottom, higher than level of gum now, and feel heaps of other bumps top and bottom.  But whilst she was upset with teeth before, she is happy now when awake, just chewing on everything, and has gone back to finishing her bottles and mostly her solids too.

I am soo confused by her, I don't know if we are coming or going.  With these short A times, she is falling asleep despite efforts to keep her awake, we usually have the opposite problem, I just don't understand.