Nap help for 15 week old

[marcimommy]

Hi, I don't mean to hijack the thread but have a similar question. DS is 15 weeks old today. He can't last longer than 1.5 hours A time. He gets sooooo fussy. He naps great though. After 1.5 hours A time he naps for 1.5 hours. He seems to sleep a lot during the day. Our routine looks like this:
Wake between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m.. Eat than A time until 8:00 a.m. Than nap until 10:00 a.m. Eat than A time until 11:30 a.m. (sometimes lasts until 12:00 p.m.) than a nap until 1:00 sometimes 1:30 p.m. Upon weaking eat than A time until 3:00 p.m. than another nap until 4:30 p.m. Upon weaking eat, A time until usually 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. than a short nap until 7:00 p.m. Upon weaking eat than A time until 8:30 - 8:45 p.m. than a very short catnap until 9:00-9:15 p.m. than bath and around 9:30 - 9:45 p.m. last feeding. He usually goes down for the night between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m.
Lately he keeps waking up around 4:30 a.m. First he was hungry, probaby due to a growth spurt. Now I hear him wake up around the same time, usually he goes back to sleep by himself but is very restless until the morning. I am wondering if this nap schedule is appropriate for him and how to change it later when he can shift to 3 naps per day. Should we move the bed time earlier and introduce a dream feeding? He is a great sleeper and we want to keep it that way. I am so confused about this issue
   Every advice is appreciated!

[malialeanne]

Hi Marcimommy, welcome to the boards.

I created a new topic with your post so that you might get some input on your schedule from other members.

Your A times seem to be working well for you. A good rule of thumb for the number of naps needed: babies who can handle 2-hour A times are probably ready for 3 naps, and babies who can handle 3-hour A times are probably ready for 2 naps. With 1.5 hour A times most BW babies are doing 4 naps, 3 naps of 1.5 hours or so and 1 catnap of .5 - 1 hour.

I think your nap schedule seems good and age appropriate. However, he's doing a lot of day sleeping and getting only 7 hours or so at night, much less than the 10-12 hours recommended for this age. This could be causing him to sleep restlessly and wake early.

BW and most all other sleep books recommend a much earlier bedtime, about 12-13 hours after he gets up for the day. Babies' natural biorhythms are in tune with a 12 to 13 hour day, most do 7-7 give or take an hour or two (think about what humans' bedtimes must have been like in ancient times before electric light, adults probably went to bed a lot earlier too )

I would suggest a schedule something like this:

6:30 Eat
8 - 9:30 a.m. nap 1
9:30 a.m Eat
11:00 - 12:30 p.m. nap 2
12:30 Eat
2 - 3:30 p.m. nap 3
3:30 Eat
5 - 5:30 catnap
7 p.m. Eat
7:30 p.m. bedtime
10:30 ish df

It may take his body a while to get used to the new schedule and earlier bedtime. You're really just moving his sleep around from the day to night and making it more appropriate for him. As he can stay up longer you can then drop nap 3 and lengthen naps 1 and 2 to 2 hours each.

HTH!