naps affected by nighttime sleep?

[jomige]

Hi,
I have a question though this may not be the right forum to ask it in...please excuse me if this is the case and feel free to direct me where appropriate.

My 12 wk Lo had been doing great on a 3 hour EASY with lots of nice naps.  Last week she started to shorten her naps and I was advised to try her on a 3.5 hour EASY.  She transitioned beautifully to the 3.5 hour EASY last week until her growth spurt hit.  I believe that is slowing down and we are trying to transition to a 3.5 hour EASY again (she is currently doing about a 3.25 EASY).  She goes down for naps great, by herself in her crib with a pacifier.  I usually don't need to shhh/pat.   

Since her growth spurt she is also sleeping much better at night.  She normally goes to bed around 6:45pm.  Our goal wake time is 7 am (She prefers 6:30 am but I am trying to move her up in anticipation of daylight savings time).  She wakes anywhere between 6:30 am and sometimes will try to sleep past 7:30 am (at that point I always wake her up).  She gets a dream feed around 10:30PM, wakes between 3:30 and 5 am to eat.  Both these feeds last around 15 minutes (a full feed for her).  She basically is getting around 12 hours of sleep at night!  Also of note, she is exclusively breastfed.

Now that you have the background info:

Since she has been sleeping well at night, she will have 2 short (45 min or less) naps and 1 super long nap (2.5 hours or longer if I would let her)...Here is our EASY from today.

E 7:30
A 7:50
S: 9:00 
A 9:30 attempted to get back to sleep, unable to get her to sleep, very happy just sitting in bouncy quietly until feed

E 10:40 (I let her go until she seemed hungry to try to get back to her 3.5 hour EASY)
A 11:10 diaper change, winddown (had been up 1.5 hours--usually her max)
S 11:20
     (this nap was way too long but I fell asleep on the couch...ooops!--I woke her at 2.5 hours)

E 1:50
A 2:15
S 3:20 napped on and off, fought it, attempted to get her to sleep consistently
A 4:00  took a walk

E 4:30 
A 5:00  quiet in stroller, tried to get to take catnap, refused, bathtime

E 6:15
S 6:45

E 10:30 (usually)
E between 3:30a and 5a

Total sleeptime is 12 hour nights/3 hour days....or 15 hours (as recommended for her age)....

I miss my good napper...should I be putting her down later?  Waking her up?  Also, she is up for a long time at the afternoon...but it isn't affecting her ability to go to bed easily (less than 5 minutes to settle and I am putting her down wide awake; also she is happy during this time--smiling, laughing, trying to engage us).

Any advice on tweaking her routine would be wonderful!

Thank you!

[Spectra]

Hi, you could try moving the early morning nap to like 9:30am, and then perhaps if she is more sleepy she'll sleep longer.  This could also help when you attempt to put her into a 4 hour routine, which you'd probably start to transition her to do anyhow soon.  Because when I started the 4 hour routine it was wake at 7am then two hours later at 9am she'd go down for her 2 hour nap, then wake at 11pm for food and sleep again for 2 hours, 2 hours later at 1pm.  If you have the baby whisperer solves your problems book it has a wonderful schedule to transition to the 4 hour routine which takes almost 2-3 weeks to do anyhow.  It has great routine which I followed exactly, she slept much better after the transition.

[jomige]

Thanks for the advice...I will definitely try it.  Today was basically the exact same as yesterday (though her midday nap was 2 hours...not 2.5 like yesterday) so I definitely need to do something.  I'll start the gradual shift and see if that works. 

Also, did you BF?  I am worried about the 4 hour EASY affecting my supply.  Did you run into this problem?  I go back to work (2 days a week--not consecutive days) in less than 2 weeks and the 4 hour EASY would make pumping at work a lot easier to manage!  I just want to make sure it works for her.

Thank you!

[rinajack]

4hr BF should not affect your supply, the babies don't eat less, they take more at each feed to make up for waiting longer between feeds.  Often the switch to 4 hr sees them eat more in total.  Your body will adjust to the feeding times.  I am not BF but I have several friends who do, and it has not affected supply.

I agree with longer A times for your lo - often if they short nap and wake up happy and do a full A time after it, they are not tired enough to require more sleep than that.  Also, if the nap falls a bit later, she will wake a bit later, which should make 3.5hr EASY more manageable.

[Spectra]

Yeah, I didn't BF either, but from what I've heard from others your BM supply will increase to what your baby needs.  The body is an amazing thing.