Cat Nap or Early Bedtime?

[kal]

MY DD is 5 1/2 months and recently has gone to extending most naps from the 30/45 min to atleast 1 hr. The issue were dealing with is she wakes for the day between 5-6am and was doing four naps per day, two were 30 mins and two 1 or 1 1/2 hrs.

Recently her afternoon nap after about 1 hr or so ends between 230pm-330pm, I'm really not sure if I should give her a cat nap around 5pm with a 7 or 730pm bedtime or move her bedtime to around 530pm or so, it seems soo early to me and we've been having issues now with NW so I'm not sure how to handle this...any suggestions?
I know she should be taking atleast 2 long naps (2 hrs each?) but I try to extend normally with no luck or if I can get her back down its for another  30 min or so.
Here was are schedule from Friday--- any suggestions?

Woke for day-- 530am  (tried to get back to sleep but no luck, she had just eaten at 4am)

E--—700am
A--
S--—730am—9am

E--—1015am
A--
S--11am—1130am (car seat)

E---100pm
A--
S--130pm—230pm (tried to extend for 20 min)

E----400pm
A--
S--430pm-445pm

E---- 630pm (had solids at 500pm)
A--
S—705pm

Woke 2 times between 705pm and 820pm for resettle,
1200am (gave 6oz bottle)
100am resettle
300am resettle
330am (gave 6oz bottle gave me a hard time going back to sleep, finally laid her in bed with me, she woke at 610am for the day)

 

[brenda2]

i think she is OT.  the NWs are probably because she is OT from too little day sleep. at 5 1/2 mo she should be still doing 2 2 hour naps and a catnap in a 12 hour day.  they don't usually go to 2 2 hour naps until 7 or 8 mo.  if she does a shorter nap than 1.5 or 2 hours then you have to reduce the next A time and try again earlier for another nap.  friday she did a few 30 min naps but the following A time was still 2 hours which is way too long and led to another short nap and ultimately meant she was Ot by the end of the day causing her NWs.  if she does a 30 min nap try for a 1 hour A time after it and put down early for the next nap.

i think you should try to shorten up her A times following the short naps and see if you can get a few more naps in there if they are going to be short.  also, if you shortne up the A times you may get longer naps which would be great (30 min naps mean OT).  then go for a bedtime about 12 hours after she got up.  so i she got up at 5:30 then yes try for a bedtime of 5:30 to 6.

[kal]

I've tried doing shorter A times but she seems to be UT then and only sleeps 20 min and fights me going down
I'll give it a go again on Wed when I'm home with her and see how she does

Just to give you an idea of what some of her days look like here is also Wednesday and Thursday of that week...

Wed—

Wake-450am
E--—615am
A--
S--645am---830am

E--—915am
A--
S--1045am—11am (Car on way to Dr)

E--1215pm
A--
S-- 1230pm—215pm

E--—245pm (6oz)
A--
S--400—430pm (catnap)

E--600pm (500pm Solids)
A--
S--615pm
Woke at 700pm, 930pm (4oz), 130pm (6oz), 430pm (6oz) up for day at 610am

Thur—

Wake—610am
E--—700am
A--
S-—825am—945am

E--—945am
A--
S--1200pm-1245pm

E--—100pm
A--
S---240pm—400pm

E--—4pm
A--
E--600pm (Solids 5pm)
S--640pm (tried to give her 10 min to go to sleep on her own started to cry and it was getting late so I was nervous about getting OT)
Woke 710pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm (gave 5oz bottle), 4am (gave 5oz bottle) –Woke at 530am for day
 

[brenda2]

those days don't really look that bad in terms of naps (except the 15 min in the car...nothing you can do about that).  you're getting 2 longish naps and a short catnap, the order doens't matter too much sometimes it happens that way.  i think your bigger problem is actually the NWs and the EWs.  have you posted over on the NW board for help?

OT does cause NWs, as does props or habit.   the EWs also indicate OT.  the wed you posted it looked like you were feeding at every NW.  is that typical? at this age she shouldn't need to feed that often during the night.  usually only once or twice.   

when did you start solids?  maybe the solids at the dinner hour is causing her tummy to be upset hence the early evening wakings?  she's still a bit young for solids and usually when you start them you start with just breakfast first and then just breakfast and lunch.  dinner is the last meal you add at around 7 to 7.5 mo.

[kal]

Thanks, we just started solids last week but we were having the EW and NW before starting the solids so I don't think that's what's causing the issues.
I agree we seem to be getting two half decent long naps and one short nap, I try to only feed her one time overnight (6pm-6am) but recently she's been crying and won't go back to sleep so we've been feeding her twice but try not to
I did post on the NW board for helps with nights.
Thanks  for your help, I'll hope that the semi long naps continue and maybe I can just do an early bedtime and that will fix the NW/EW, just wanted to make sure my naps were ok
and I will try a shorter A time after a short nap going forward
 

[brenda2]

shorter A times after the short naps and earlier bedtime.  sounds like a plan!  good luck and hope it gets better for you