when to do trans from 3-2 sleeps

[kellmay]

hey all my bub is 6.5 mths old, he is a reflux bub that had difficult sleep patterns from about 3 weeks old, but with some help from the BW books we are now looking like this
5.30 wakes and talks to self for 5-30 mins(tryed many times to feed bottle but not hungry)
7am food
8am bottle (may or maynot take it)
8.30 bed (would like this a little earlier but school run to do)
      sleeps for 1.30 hours generally
10am food
11ish bottle(may or maynot take it)
12 bed
     sleeps for 1.20-1.30
1.30 awake and we generally have to go out
2.30 bottle (generally will drink this one)
4.00 nap for 30 mins
5.00 food
6.15 bath and bottle (may or maynot take it)
7.00 bed
95% of the time he self settles without any help form me, no dummy, wrapped (but starting with one arm out)

My question is when to transition to 2 sleeps and miss the 30 min at 4.00pm and how do i do it. do i leave the other sleep times or do they move,really not sure were to go from here
Thanks all

[lilac83]

From what I understand, your LO needs to be able to have 3 hours of A time in order to go with only 2 naps. You're supposed to start stretching his A times throughout the day until he doesn't need a cat nap anymore. Throughout this process the cat nap will get shorter and shorter; 25, 20, 15 minutes etc. I think I read on here that 7 months is the average age the cat nap is dropped.

[kellmay]

Thanks, think you may be right, might have to wait a little longer for the 3-2, if he was sleeping til 6 or 7 in the morning i think he would be ok but he will not so i will wait a bit.
PS Love love love then baby photo, the cute pea pod in history.

[brenda2]

great advice from lilac, totally agree.  your first A time is about 3 hours so leave that as is.  try pushing the second nap a bit later, aiming for at least 2.5 hours A time after nap 1 and then if he is good with that you can push it even later.  keep offering the catnap but limit it to even shorter and then when you go without it bedtime will be a bit earlier shooting for a 12 hour day (with his EW this means a very early bedtime).

also, since you are having trouble getting him to take his bottle you should be offering the bottle first and the food second.  he is very young to be on so much solids.  usually at 6.5 mo they are only doing 1 solids meal, maybe 2 at breakfast and lunch but always bottle first and then food as you need them to get as many calories from the milk to sustain them at this age.

[lilac83]

Thanks Kellmay! I think Charla thought she was pretty cute while she was wearing the peapod because she was all smiles! It was hilarious!

[kellmay]

hey guys thanks for the help.
I went back to the pead yesterday and he has started putting on weight  . She rec that i keep the soilds first as he is not a drinker and will not eat solids if he is too tired.(I have tried taking soilds away altogether and he still refuses the bottle, he will go 20 hours from 7pm till 3pm in the afternoon on 140ml !!!!, we tried for 7 days but the weight was worrying the pead to much.) He sleeps the same even after day 5 when had next to nothing for 15 hours during the day? I put formula in his food whenever i can.

I had not thought to limit the catnap to storter times, i think that will help get him from 3-2. He is alittle hard to read lately as he is not rubbing his eyes anymore which was his big tried sign - maybe he is not tried yet??? He seems to do the 3 hours in the morning ok so i will start to push out the others too. By other boy now almost 5 just progressed 3-2 himself so a was alittle lost.

thanks again

[lilac83]

Good advice from the ped. At least that way you're getting something into him. As long as he's gaining weight and staying healthy, that's what matters in the long run.

If he's doing 3 hours first thing in the morning then you should definitely be able to start stretching his afternoon a bit. Start with 15 minutes for a few days and see what kinds of naps you get and then stretch it again. If he's not showing you his tired signs then you may be able to get away with stretching a little longer but be careful not to push too much.

I think if you JUST follow tired signs the 3-2 will progress naturally like it did with you older son, but if you have problems with your LO getting OT then I would keep one eye on him and one eye on the clock.