EW and schedule for the rest of the day

[IrinaSh]

I'm sure there is a whole bunch of posts addressing this issue, I looked through several pages and didn't find anything..,
My 8.5 mo started waking up at 5-5.45 in am (normally wakes up at 7). She recently transitioned from having 3 1hr naps a day to 2 1-1.5 hr naps. her routine bedtime is 7 pm.
Now with this EW I don't know what to do with her naps: she finishes her 2nd nap at 2 pm and then she is tired at 5 pm. Should I allow her to have a catnap - which she usually has troubles falling asleep with, tossing and turning until 5.30 and then there is not much sense in any nap at all, coz it's almost her bedtime by the time she is done with it. Or should I just extend her A time until 6 pm and risk OT and put down her for the night at 6?
any advise would be appreciated.
Irina

[jess, lukeys_mom]

hi irina,

would you mind posting your new routine just so we can have a closer look?

in general, when lo is waking early the best thing to do is give her a super early bedtime to prevent her from getting extremely OT, and then slowly creeping up her routine from there. usually i would suggest 12 hours in a day from wake up to bedtime.

[IrinaSh]

Thanks for your reply.
Yesterday went like this:
5.45 up - happy and ready to go. Would not settle down to sleep.
6.30 Bottle.
6.30-9 A time
9.20 -10.40 Nap
10.40 Bottle+solids
10.40-12.30 pm A time
12.45-2.30 Nap
2.30-5 bottle, solids, A. At 5 she was so tired, but just couldn't settle down for entire hour, so I just quickly changed her, gave her bottle and settled her down for the night. She slept pretty well, woke up at 4.30 am, I gave her just a couple oz's, she wiggled in her crib for about 30 mins and then fell asleep and slept until 7. Today was a little bit more like her normal day.

[jess, lukeys_mom]

sounds like it was a better night/morning.  i used to do that at her age too when we had ew's - i.e. give a little bit of milk to get ds relaxed and full and let him sleep a little longer. i always made sure we then started the day at 7.

let me know how today goes. i think your best stretegy going forward would be to have a little flexibility with her routine, and on the days she wakes up early put her down +/- 12 hours later for bed.

oh and congrats on your pregnancy - brave woman for such a close age gap but i'll bet they will be the best of friends if it's of any interest please come join us on the may/june EDD thread: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=136857.0 x

[IrinaSh]

Thanks! Yes, yesterday was better, but we again had to go to bed earlier: 6.15 instead on normal 7, but then she again slept until 7. Will she always go to bed at 6 now??? I thought 7 was early enough!!!
Re new pregnancy: it wasn't exactly planned and I already went through freaking out phase! I will check out the club, thank you for the link!

[jess, lukeys_mom]

oh hon, i don't think there is ever an 'always' when they are this young! before you know it, everything will change again;) if you can go with the flow for a little while, enjoy your long evenings to catch up on some nice needed pg sleep, and i bet she will sort herself into more of a 12 hour routine soon.

[IrinaSh]

oh hon, i don't think there is ever an 'always' when they are this young! before you know it, everything will change again;)

LOL!!! this is so true!!! especially at this age - they come up with a new thing every other day!
So your advise is to stick to 12 hrs of "day time"? I wasn't able to do it yesterday because she just can't stay up more then 3 hrs. In fact, I'm afraid that if she doesn't have longer naps we will be stuck with really early bedtime - dd is very sensitive to OT and no matter what you do you just can't push her to have longer A time, especially in the evenings. I will observe her for a couple of days, but I think I will try to slowly extend her A time in the morning, while she has pretty good reserve.
Thanks for support!

[jess, lukeys_mom]

well i wouldn't stick to the 12 hour thing at the expense of her getting OT (and actually if naps are really short i used to build in an extra nap in the stroller or car with a slightly later bedtime rather than be rigid with 12 hours). but i would just keep it as a general guideline. hope tonight goes well for you