inconsistent

[hhuckabee]

Does anyone have answers to why one day your lO will have good naps (1.5 hrs) and the next have 40 45 minutes?

[oilerbaby]

Welcome to my world!!!  We went from a really good nap schedule to the 45 minutes monsters (as I've seen them called on here).  I've been working with Jeremy for about 3 weeks now to extend his naps and am starting to see some progress within the last week or so but every day is a new day and sometimes he just doesn't sleep!  Check out the FAQ's in the nap section - I did the wake 2 sleep consistently for every nap for about 2 weeks - sometimes it worked and other times it didn't.  How old is your lo and what is your schedule like?

[donna_issabella]

Once I made sure Henry's A-time was right for him, the short naps were definitely in the minority!!! I had to 'ignore' his sleepy cues and extend his A-time by 10 minutes by doing low key activity, and once I did that, thiungs helped ALOT!!!

HTH
DI

[hhuckabee]

We have a pretty good schedule.  Not picture perfect or anything but goes something like this.

7am- eat
7:30-8:45 activity
8:45/9:00 sleep (usually until 10:15)
10:30 or 11:00: Eat
12:15: nap (usually until 1:30)
2:00 or 2:30 eat
3:30/4:00 cat nap (45 min)
5:45 (start bedtime routine
6:30 lights out

She is 6 1/2 months old.

[oilerbaby]

I'm not an expert by any means but I would think you should extend the A time a bit... Jeremy is just about 5 months an he has 2 hours of A time inbetween naps right now.  I know there is a thread somewhere on here that gives a rough guideline for ages and rough A times but I'm not sure where... do a search and type in activity time and see what comes up (sorry - not very helpful there am I?).  Schedule looks good though! 

[malialeanne]

Hi there. When a baby is generally sleeping well and then starts taking shorter naps, it could be due to a number of things. The most common (at least according to what I see here )would be suddenly sleeping better/longer at night and not being as sleepy during the day, and being ready to increase A times.

I agree with pp's that it's worthwhile to gradually increase A times by 10-15 mins or so over a few days and see if that helps. Here's the link for average A times: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg476652#msg476652

Sometimes a lo will plateau for awhile at one A time and then suddenly be ready for more, so the short naps come on out of nowhere. You just have to experiment to see what works best.

[hhuckabee]

Thank you so much!!!  I read the suggested A times and see we are not getting enough.  I will try to increase starting tomorrow.  I just have one more question?  When she wakes around 6:30 to 7am and is rubbing her eyes around 8am do you suggest I put her down or not?  So confusing. Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist trying to figure ALL  this out.

[donna_issabella]

LOL, I know the feeling.

When Henry starts yawning at 1 hour, I usually take it he is bored with his current activity. I also 'ignore' him rubbing his eyes, as I know, if I put him down with less than 2+ hours A time, he will DEFINITELY only sleep 45 minutes, or perhaps 1 hour and then wake up super grumpy. Ironically your LO may need longer A times, but initially not be 100% ready for them, therefor you may need to do a longer low key wind-down, to extend to longer than 2 hours. What I do, I take H up to his room, and play with his soft toy with him, that goes into his cot with him, and then I read a book with him. sometimes I put him on his pillow for some tummy time too. And just play it by ear.

Some people suggest taking a walk in the garden for ten minutes, because it isn't as stimulating and then you win the time.

HTH
DI