why am I having to fight for every nap?!?!

[sensfan]

This is getting so old  DS is 7.5 months old, and for close to the last month he's been fighting his afternoon nap. We had moved things up to 3 hours of A time since he was fighting his catnap and that seemed to help. He's now successfully dropped that nap, but for 2 weeks solid he screams every time I go to put him down in the afternoon, even if he was perfectly happy up until that point. He's even starting to do it with his first nap! I can't complain too much. On good days even when he fights it he'll sleep 1.5 hours, but I just can't figure out what the problem is.

Here's his routine:
7:30 -wake up and BF
A- play in bed with daddy
8:30 -solids
A- play on tummy in living room, practice scooching around
9:30 -go upstairs, diaper change, walk around a bit
10:00- nap #1, some fussing here, 10-15 min., asleep by 10:15 sleeps 1.5 hours
11:45 -BF
A- play with dog
12:45 -solids
A -walk in stroller with dog, play with toys in living room
2:00 - go upstairs, play on belly with blocks, diaper change
2:45 - nap #2, REALLY fights this one, usually end up having to go pat on back to get him to sleep, can take up to 40 min. to settle, if he does at all, can sleep 1.5 hours
4:15 - BF
A- play in saucer
5:15 - solids
A- sometimes another walk with dog, play with daddy when he gets home
6:45 -bath
7:15 bottle
8:00 -bedtime
10:30 -DF

Any insights would be appreciated!

[brenda2]

hmmm schedule looks ok but may need a tweak...but not sure what time he actually sleep for that afternoon nap...what time did he get up from it?

how does he sleep at night?  any night feeds?  any wakings?

is he still taking lots at all his milk feed times?  it may be time to drop or start moving back the df

your A time looks good for that age - around 3 hours is about right.  you may want to slightly lengthen your first A time, aim for more like 10:30 nap (if he woke at 7:30).  then 3 hours A time until the next nap is fine.  but i think 4 hours to bedtime is too long...however if you push the first 2 naps back a bit , and move your bedtime to 7:30, you would have less A time before bed.

what do you think?

[sensfan]

Today he went down at 2:45, cried and needed to be patted for about 40 min., he was asleep by 3:25. I don't wake for feeds anymore when he's had trouble sleeping, so he still slept close to 1.5 hours and got up at 4:45. Then he was up 3 hours 15 until bedtime. This happens quite often since he's been fighting nap #2 in particular.

He's started sleeping really well at night overall. He falls asleep on his own, doesn't give me the fuss that he does during the day. He hasn't had night feeds since he was 3 months. Since we got rid of the paci if he does wake up he usually settles himself.

Hard to tell how much milk he's taking during the day. I still BF at 7:30, 11:30 and 4:15. Some days he's done in 10 min., other days he may go 20. He gets bottles at bedtime (6-7 oz.) and at DF (6 oz.) He eats about 4 tbsp. of solids at each meal. We're thinking of cutting the DF at the end of the month when he turns 8 months.

Any thoughts on why he'd fight the naps so much? It's literally a case where if he's not 100% happy when I put him down, I know I'm in for a fight. OT? Overstimulated? More A time in the afternoon? Am I doing too much with him/not enough to make him tired? I'm at a total loss.

[brenda2]

great for the night time sleeping!

i would push the naps back a bit.  lengthen your first A time by 10 min every few days, aiming for 3 hours A time first thing, and maybe the 2nd A time by 10 min too and then bedtime no more than 3 hours after he gets up from the last nap.  i think he's fighting it because he's not quite tired enough...but he may be too stimulated, what are you doing for A times?  you could try a long wind down if you think this is the case, or just do anything stimulating right after he wakes up and then switch to calmer activities.

this has nothing to do with naps, but just FYI: you don't need to wake him for his feed, it should start to lengthen out a bit between feeds and by 9 months you'll drop one of the day feeds.  i'd start slowly moving the df earlier too  (i took nearly a month to wean it as i did it so gradually, but in the end it worked quite well to get rid of it).

[sensfan]

Yeah we're pretty happy with the way the nights have improved, although I have to admit I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. He woke up at 6 this morning.

I can try pushing back the A times. I have to admit I'm having a hard time reading him these days. When I put him down for nap #2 he usually seems tired (cranky, yawning), but I know those aren't always reliable anymore. Morning A time (when he settles on his own) is usually playing with DH in bed, playing on the floor with the dog, and practicing sitting. Afternoon A time is usually when I'll run errands. He'll get up, I'll feed him, and then he'll sit on my lap chatting for a bit. Then he'll get his solids. After this we'll often go out, either to run errands or to walk the dog. I try not to stay out right until naptime since I've found in the past that I can't just get home and plunk him right in the crib. After we get back, we'll go upstairs and he'll play on the floor of the computer room, rolling around, grabbing blocks. I'll be down on the floor with him, occasionally checking in here. When he starts to get cranky and it's around 3 hours I'll go to change his diaper and put him down. He doesn't always like the wind down, often seems to make him fussier.

I think you've convinced me to go ahead and start doing a gradual dropping of the DF. I'd thought about cold turkey, but wasn't sold on it. What's this about dropping a day feed though? Which feed would it usually be? I keep hearing about having to keep his milk intake the same until he's almost a year...

[brenda2]

worry about the df first - gradually move it back by 15 min every few days until it's pretty close to bedtime. 

at some point he'll start taking less for some of his bottles and then you'll drop down to 3 (but bigger) bottles at around 9 mo.  my Lo takes 2 bottles of 8 oz and a 10 oz bottle before bed, so really about the same amount of milk she was taking before with 4 milk feeds.

sounds like you're doing pretty well reading him actually!

[sensfan]

Thanks for the compliment, and the advice! I do think I sometimes have a tendency to overthink things Plus, when the screaming starts for yet another day you just tend to think you aren't doing anything right.