Can only do 11hr night and 12 hr day - what to do with my extra hour?!

[Mashi]

Hi all

I've finally nailed the problem we are having here with my DS but have no idea how to solve it! He is a terrible napper, although in the past week he's done a few naps of 1.5 hours on his own and I've managed to extend 2 of them (I've been trying for 3 months and only been successful about 4 times, ever!)

The problem is that he can only handle a 12 hour day - very consistently is tired and ready for bed, and falls asleep easily after he's been up for 12 hours.  But, he can only do an 11 hour night.  After that 11 hours, he's up and ready to start the day. After weeks of working to get the 8pm bedtime down to 7pm he started waking at 6am.  Then we started putting him to bed when he was tired at 6pm and after a few days he's started waking at 5am.  I can't put him to bed at 5pm! 

I know you'll ask my routine, but really with his horrible naps, I can't write anything out that is consistent.  Yesterday was the best day we've had in ages so I'll pretend that this is normal (I wish).

up for day at 610
E 630
A
S 725 - 810, lots of AP and another sleep from 825 - 910

E 1020
A
S 1110 - 1140 (was ready a few minutes before but had lots of wind that kept him from getting comfy)  I did W2S at the 30 minute mark for this nap and as always it didn't work and he woke fully and wasn't too happy with me for waking him.  Got him back to sleep
S 1225 - 130

E 215
A
S 305 - 435 (what's up with that?! he did an hour and a half ON HIS OWN!!!!!! unreal, i tell you, UNREAL!)

500 - Bath

E 530
S 600 yawning, asleep 615ish

Several NWs, which have been getting worse over the past week or so - but I think that's from his lack of good naps.  Honestly, the above is NO indication of a normal day. We aim for 3hours of naps a day because shooting for any more sets me up for failing.  3hrs of naps is about average. 

The main consistency is that he eats at 630, 1030, 230 and 530, does lots of 30-45 minute naps and so I am constantly putting him to sleep it seems.

What I don't know what to do is how to deal with the fact that he can only do a 12 hour day and an 11 hour night -- someone forgot to tell him that he needs one more!

Any ideas?

[ckcole]

can you keep him up longer for A time? note that when you kept him up for 1 hr and 35 mins, he slept longer than when you kept him up for 1 hr and 15 mins in the morning... just a thought?

[Mashi]

his A times are adjusted according to how long his naps were and when he's tired.  keeping him up longer than when he's yawning just results in 30 minute naps. i know naps are something we have to sort out and have been working on diligently for months now, but the problem is more that regardless of how many naps he's had, he really can't handle more than a 12 hour day and can't sleep more than 11 hrs at night.

[TDR'smom]

Hey Mashimaro,  So are you trying to push his bedtime later?  I'm confused?!?!?!   

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Sorry, if he is up for the day at 6.10 and in bed by 6.15 ish then that is a 12 hour day? And a  12 hour night?

[Mashi]

sorry, i didn't write it out in my EASY to explain it properly -- he actually woke for the day at 5am, i just refused to get out of bed and start the day at that time!   

Judy, we're not trying to change his bed-time, just find the one that works for him.  when we were putting him to bed at 7 and he was waking at 6, i was doing what i could to work with this - but naps were all over the place. so, i started putting him to bed at 6pm, thinking maybe that was the problem, that i was trying to force a 7 - 7 on a baby that wanted a 6 - 6.  But the 6pm bedtimes are resulting in a 5am wakeup. 

so i don't really care if he does 6am - 6pm or 7am - 7pm or even 6am - 7pm but the problem is that either way we have an extra hour we have to deal with somewhere!

[TDR'smom]

I see what you are saying.  Let me think about it and see if I can come up with any solutions.  Right now we have a 7pm bedtime and 5:30-6AM wake up.  So I think we are in the same boat?!!?

[Mashi]

Yes it sounds like we are in the same boat Judy! But, can your DD handle the 6am - 7pm day without getting OT?  Maybe if he was a better napper he could do it, but we do EVERYTHING we can to extend naps, get extra naps, etc and it doesn't work, so I'm at a loss?  I can't keep moving his day back by an hour!!

[TDR'smom]

Thankfully DD (for now) is a decent napper.  But definitely by 6PM she is ready for bed.  We do the best we can to stretch it till 7PM with a long bath etc, but for the most part it is closer to 6:45PM that she is in her crib, asleep. 

DH was just commenting tonight on how hard it was to keep the poor thing awake till her 6PM bath.  And many times that is with a 4:30-5PM cat nap.  In fact today she slept from 4:50PM-5:20PM and was STILL exhausted by 6pm?!?!?!

Sorry to hijack your post.