miserable after evening cat nap

[lilac83]

It looks like he may have needed one more day of those shorter A times to get over the OT. I would go back to those shorter times again until he's caught up. Then wait an extra day just to make sure before lengthening again. Are you ever able to resettle him after a short nap?

[mmom]

I normally can resettle him, but yesterday and this morning he was inconsolable.  When I put him down at 6 this morning, he cried until 6:45.  I didn't know if he was in pain or tired or both, so I gave him some Tylenol.  He then fell asleep for only 1/2 hour. DH took over when he woke, because I was at the end of my rope.  I don't know who was crying more - me or my LO.  Then at 9:15, I tried to put him down again and at this point, he did end up sleeping 1.5 hours.  I am going to try and put him down at the 2 hour mark.  This is just so frustrating.

[lilac83]

Do you think perhaps he's teething? That could also explain his need for the short A times. You may just need to keep his A times between 2hrs/2hrs 15min for a week and then depending on how he's napping, increase the A times from there. Really though, there's no real rush to increase his A times. If he's going to be happier with shorter times for awhile, that's fine too.

[mmom]

I feel like he has been teething for a while now, but still no tooth.  I have no idea if this is what is causing him to be so miserable.  The rest of the day went much better though.  He did end up taking a couple  of good naps.  He did wake at 5 this morning and has been in and out of it for 1/2 an hour.  I will take that compared to yesterday morning.  Hopefully, he does ok today at day care.  I will tell her to keep the A times short.

[mmom]

The last couple of days have been so much better.  The first nap is still short, but at least it is more than 45 minutes!

[lilac83]

That's great! Hopefully he'll continue with the good naps for awhile!

[mmom]

Today we actually had a 1.5 hour nap in the morning with a 2 hour and 50 minute A time ( that was not on purpose).  My LO woke at 5 this morning and the provider couldn't get him down soon enough and ironically, this is the longest he has slept in weeks.  The only problem we are having tonight was that he fell asleep early and it was a short A time prior.  Then he didn't want his cat nap at all and I tried to put him down early because he was miserable.  When I put him down, he did a major puke and we had to change everything.  Then he got all wound up.  It is an hour later and he is just settling.

[lilac83]

How old is your LO now? Things can start to get crazy when LO's starting going from 3-2 naps. This usually happens fairly quickly though and then it's over and the LO is on 2 solid naps. What was the A time before the second nap and how long did he sleep?

[mmom]

My LO turned 6 mo. on the 23rd of January.  Yesterday when he crashed early, his A time was only 1.5 hours. That is why it was bizarre.

This morning he was up at 5:15 again.  But given that he couldn't settle last night and didn't fall asleep until 7, this was not enough sleep.  I told his provider to put him down early.  But with my commute to work and other things going on, he still didn't fall asleep until 7:45.  Today that nap was only 1 hour and 5 minutes.  When I spoke with her earlier, she said that he looked really tired and wasn't himself.  I told her to shorten the A time as much as she needs to and put him down early so that we don't get into an OT cycle.  I haven't heard how the 2nd nap went.

[lilac83]

He may have woken early because of that skipped catnap and going to bed OT. Hopefully that second nap goes well today. He really seems all over the place lately in regards to A time. At 6 months he should be able to handle 2.5 hours A time. I would try to stick pretty close to that for the next few days. If he ends up with a nap under 1 hour maybe take 15 minutes off that, but otherwise let's see what happens. He seems out of the OT cycle he was in for the most part, he's just kind of in limbo right now. Hopefully some consistency will balance things out.

[mmom]

I know, it is crazy how I can't get anything consistent!  The 2nd nap went better.  But because it was still so early and he looked so tired still, he has had 2 more cat naps.  I am hoping that I can extend his bed time with them.  Waking at 5 is not helping things.  I am hoping that tomorrow brings something more normal.

[lilac83]

Yes, those EW really can kill a routine. Sometimes it seems they are purely developmental at this age and there's not much you can do routine wise to fix things. EW can also be either OT from the previous days naps, or UT from the catnap starting to cut into night sleep. Early bedtimes help with some LO's, but for others it just makes the EW earlier. I was never brave enough to attempt early bedtime! So, tomorrow is a clean slate. Try to start getting a bit of consistency going. Remember, at this age tired cues can become unreliable, so you may need to do a bit more clock watching.

[mmom]

At this point, I think the EW is just my LO's clock.  He went down at 6 last night and was up at 5 this morning.  That is pretty normal in terms of night sleep.  I wanted to keep him up later last night in an attempt to get him to sleep later.  But he was so tired and there was no fighting it.  I am going to try and go with the longer A time this morning, since that is what produced a good nap and we will go from there.   Sometimes I am able to go with a later bed time if I let the last cat nap be longer.  But that has back fired on me in the past and he has woken even earlier.  I have found that he sleeps better if I make the cat nap no longer than 35 minutes.  But that means an early bed time and early wake up.

[lilac83]

What you may have to do is push his day forward once he's down to a solid 2 naps. That catnap is probably eating into his night sleep, but his A times aren't quite long enough to drop it. I had this problem from 6.5 months until 7.5 months when DD finally transitioned. Good luck with the longer A times today!

[mmom]

Disaster!

As I said earlier, he woke at 5.  But at 5:45 he fell back asleep and we had to wake him at 6:35 so I could leave for work.  So I counted that as the start of the day.  I had his provider do a longer A time (2 hours 40 minutes) because our only good nap in weeks was with a 2 hour 50 minute A time.  But that didn't work because he went down at 9:15 and woke at 10:05.  At this time, he chugged a bottle.  But when I called, the provider said he was miserable and his eyes were all red because he was so tired.  So I told her to put him back down when she needs to.  He went back down at 11:35 and fell right asleep.  This time he slept for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  But this is where it gets even worse - he was in his exersaucer and the provider left the room to use the bathroom.  When she returned, he had fallen asleep in it at 2:20.  What the heck?  He has never fallen asleep like that and this was the 2nd time this week he passed out very close to a nap.  What do I make of that?  Could a growth spurt do that?    She moved him to his cot and he woke at 3:10.

Now my bigger issue is what do I do about a bed time?  He will want to go down at 5 and there is no way I am doing that.  This just isn't getting better.

RE: your previous post - what do you mean push the day forward?  I am open to any suggestions.