Cat nap? When is it and about how long?

[tara72]

I've been working to get my 12-week-old daughter past 45-minute naps. she takes one long nap (usually in the morning), but the rest are 45. as I've been searching the board for answers and suggestions, I am reading about an afternoon cat-nap.

when should a cat-nap be? is it the last nap before her last Awake time for the day?

should I try to have all her other naps be 1.5 hours and let her have one 45-minute nap in the afternoon?

thanks for any help!

 --tara

[*Natasha*]

Could you post your routine so i can se awake time length and how often you are feeding? Any night wakings? Does she settle well for naps? Any props?

[tara72]

so do you mean that catnap lengh and time varies?

I'm working on w2s to extend her 45 minute naps, but I'm trying to figure out if maybe she should be having one long nap?

this is sort of what our day sometimes looks like (it varies):

wake 7 AM (sometimes I will wake her up if she doesn't wake up on her own by 7:30)
E 3 oz. EBM
A
S 8:15 AM-10:15 AM (she will have one long nap a day, often in the morning, which I usually wake her from after 1.5-2 hours)

E 4 oz. EBM
A
S 11:45 AM-12:30 PM

E 3-4 oz. EBM
A
S 2 PM-2:45 PM

E 2-3 oz. EBM plus 1-2 oz. F (I have to supplment, I can't produce enough)
A
S 4:15-5 PM

E 1-2 oz. B 2-3 F
A play, bath time, read story, sometimes feed
S between 6:30 and 7 PM

dreamfeed between 9:30 and 10 PM (usually 1-2 ounces of F)

W: between 2 or 3 AM for 30 minutes, BF on one side till she drops off (maybe 5-10 minutes) then about 2 oz F. usually awake for 30 minutes or so.

[*Natasha*]

It looks like you are putting her down to late for her second and third naps and that is the reason for short naps she is overtired. You need to put her down a little earlier so try this:
E: 7.00 wake up and feed
A: 7.30 or 7.45 (depending on how long feed takes)
S: 8.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 10.00
A: 10.30 or 10.45
S: 11.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 1.00
A: 1.30 or 1.45
S: 2.30 (1.5hr nap)
Y: your choice
E: 4.00 feed
S: 5.00 or 6.00 or somewhere in between a catnap (approx. 40mins) to get baby through the next feed and bath
E: 7.00
A: bath
S: 7.30 bedtime
Y: the evening is yours
E: 10 or 11pm dreamfeed

[tara72]

thank you for laying that out, Natasha! you say that I am putting her down too late, but we aim to keep her up for 1.25-1.5 hours. I thought that was right about what we should be keeping her up for? we used to start getting her ready for sleep after about an hour, since that would be when she yawned. but it wasn't until about 10 days ago that we realized we should be keeping her up a little longer (up to about 1.5 hours), which could have been the reason for her getting into the habit of 45 minute naps.

so to help break the 45-minute-naps, we are trying to keep her up a little longer, as I mentioned, and we just started trying the w2s.

so it looks like the last nap before bedtime should be shorter. that makes sense! and also helps me understand how a cluster feed would work better. thank you, Natasha!

 --tara