Catnap Question...am I doing it right?

[carlicost]

As much as I seem to try to figure it out, for some reason I'm still not understanding the whole catnap situation  .  I have a 13 week old who is on a 3 hour EASY, starting to transition to 3.5 hours.  He is a habitual 45 minute napper, which I'm working on as I can usually get him back to sleep for another 45 minute nap after he wakes up, thus getting 1.5 hours in total.  The question is however, when he is supposed to have his catnap at say 5:30 and wakes at 6:15 am I supposed to hold him off to feed him until 7?  I have a very tough time with this as when he wakes up he cries until he gets fed.  Then once he has eaten he seems to want to stay up for 1.5 hours anyway.  Should I adjust this somehow?  Perhaps the catnap doesn't work so well for a baby that doesn't nap that well during the day to begin with?  Any suggestions?

[carlicost]

Yesterday our routine looked like this....

E: 640
A: 700
S: 810 had to go in and shh/pat him back to sleep after 45 min

E: 940
A: 1000
S: 1110 same as above

E: 1240
A: 100
S: 215 same as above

E: 345
A: 405
S: 515 had a 45 min nap, was very cranky after

E: 620
A: 640 lots of yawns
S: 730 didn't fall asleep right away so we played quietly in his bed for about 15 more minutes then he fell asleep

Today I'm trying to extend his time between feeding an extra 15 minutes.  He is just in his first nap now and I had to go in and shh/pat him after 30 minutes but he should sleep the 1:15 until his next feed.

[lilac83]

Usually with the catnap the idea is to let the LO have a 30/45 minute nap, then wake them and do bath and some low key A time. After that you would give the final bottle and put LO down for the night. One thing I did with my DD until she was about 5 months old was to give her a cluster feed in the evening. She was still only having 5 bottles per day, they were just spaced a bit closer in the evening. It looked like this: 7am, 10:30am, 2:00pm, 5:00pm, 7:00pm.

Have you tried giving him more A time to see if he'll take longer naps? The 45 minute nap can mean either UT or OT. However, it looks like his first A time is only 1hr 20min, so I'm guessing he could handle a bit more. You could try adding an extra 10/15 minutes to see if that helps any (it may take a few days before you see results since his body will need to adjust).

[carlicost]

We had a bit of a regression yesterday as my LO didn't sleep hardly at all during his first nap and ended up being OT the rest of the day and had a bit of a rough night as well.  This morning he was up at 6 and back in bed by 7 because he was just so tired.  I will try to get back on track over the next couple of days and see what happens....

thanks!

[Bobbyc]

When you LO wakes at 6am have you tried to paci or shh/pat? I would try and keep the cat nap helps them not get OT..Maby try wake 2 sleep to extend naps..