6 mo old's first nap is to early and it throws off rest of day

[heartforall260]

Hello!  My DD is 6 months old, and we're having two problems.  One is that most of the time she can only manage to stay awake for about 1 hour in the morning before going down for her nap.  This in turn throws off the rest of the day (as you will see in the schedule).  The second problem is that during her afternoon nap or some times even when she goes down to bed she wakes after only 30 minutes then cries for a while because she's still tired.  This doesn't happen for her other naps.  I always check on her, give her the paci, ect. but even if I pick her up she still   cries.  She is obviously still tired, but I don't know if I just need to let her cry (monitored of course) so she can learn to settle herself, or if there is some thing else I should be doing.  I can't do PU/PD because of my back and W2S doesn't usually help.  Anyway, if you have any advice it would be much apreciated.

Our sad 4 hour EASY (I'll put in ( ) the schedule that I'm trying for):

Eat   7a  BF                                  (7a)
Nap     8:15-9:30                             (9-10:45)

Eat   11  Rice cereal & BF                 (11p)
Nap     11:30-1p or 1:30                    (1p-2:45)

Eat     3  BF                                     (3p)
Nap     4:30-5                                   (5p-5:30 catnap)

Eat      7  BF                                     (7p)
Sleep    7:30 at first                           (between 7:30 and 8:30)

Awake   8p
Sleep     9/10

DF       10:30 Bottle                            (10-11)

(has been waking up about 2 times a night, and I think it's because of the day schedule)

Thank you in advance!

~ Joy

[*Natasha*]

Try extending her morning awake slowly by 15mins every 3-4days so it doesn't cause her getting overtired. As for waking after 30mins is it a real cry or a mantra cry?

[heartforall260]

It sounds like a real cry to me, it varies in pitch and it goes on forever if I let it.  For example, DD normally wakes around 7a but this morning she woke at 5am so I thought that she would fall back asleep.  She cried, and even though it sounds like her usual cry, I thought that maybe it is her mantra cry and it just doesn't sound like a mantra to me so I let her go at it.  She cried for an hour!  This in turn makes me feal aweful.  I know she must still be tired because she only got about 6 hours of sleep last night.

[dtrias]

Hey
Have you considered an earlier bedtime, like maybe 6:30.  My bella also can only mange 1 to 1 30 mins before her first nap.  Short Activity times are a reality for those of us with short nappers.