Shorter A times = Longer naps!! How do I extend A then?

[Buba444]

Hi

can anyone let me know how much of the activity time is 2 month old supposed to have? my little boy is only able to go for 35mins, sometimes 45....

Many thanks

[Flightmommy]

Just updating quickly to say that the pm nap lasted 1h20, so not bad, but judging from his behavior from 5pm till bedtime...it still wasn't enough sleep. His last A time was 3.15, our shortest ever for the last A time, but he was just sooo grizzly, there was no way he could stay up later...i'd like to say he's teething and have a good justifiable excuse for fussiness, but it's hard to tell AND DS is just naturally a bit cranky, being the touchy/grumpy type. I'm a bit afraid of UT when that last A time is short...but I don't think that's even possible tonight as he was soo crabby.
  Sorry about all the venting, but his constant whinning is starting to make me crabby too....i feel like i'm listening to a broken record all day..ughhh! Having a touchy/grumpy baby is not easy...it really takes away from some of the joys of motherhood.
 In sum, here is today's EASY:
7:15wake (after a 2 hour crib party from 2-4am!!!)
10:25-11:25 am nap
2:25-3:45 pm nap
7pm bedtime
  Now that his pm nap is getting later, is there a cut off time where I should maybe wake him, to ensure it doesn't interfere with bedtime and night sleep....DS has always had such early pm naps that i've never had to consider that. If anyone could look at our EASY and see what I could/ should do differently, I would greatly appreciate it.....I don't know that I can take anymore 2am crib parties!! And based on DS's mood today...he clearly can't handle them either !!! lol!!

[*Liz*]

Buba444 - please start a new thread so I can help properly as your lo is sooooo much younger than the babies we are discussing here. Average A times can be found on the naps FAQ pages in the meantime  .

It is hard to deal with a whiny tired baby. I have a whiny toddler myself at the moment, who is driving me bonkers, and I am just hoping he gives up and catches up on some sleep soon  .

1h 20 naps were a tad OT for me at that age, and 3h 15 sounds totally reasonable as the last A to bed.

I used to wake DS at 4pm at this age (when we were still on 2 long naps) to preserve a bedtime of 7.30pm. I just used to vary bedtime a bit depending when he woke from the nap. In retrospect I think he needed a tad more A than I gave him, but you live and learn.

Hope you avoid the crib party tonight and ((hugs)) this is a tough age for sleep 

[Flightmommy]

Thanks so much Liz...i do hope your LO eases up on the whinning too, it's no fun! I swear, sometimes I think I hear it in my sleep...lol!!
 This morning's wake up was the best we've had in weeks....6:45!!!Yay!! Closest thing to our old 7am....funny though, cause yesterday's A time before bed was 4 hours and he had a 11h45 night, while the night before  last, our A was 3.15 and his night was shorter, 11h20. So, i'm thinking he does better with a longer last A...is that possible? I was afraid he was going to get OT and he did take a few minutes longer to settle at bedtime, but still had a great night. As for the naps, I've been waking him at the one hour mark for the am nap and the pm nap has been consistently 1h20...not super long, but better than a short nap. Ideally, how do I get him to extend this  pm nap? Alter the middle A time, or shorten even more the am nap? Also, is 2h20 enough day sleep? I see some babies this age getting 2 hours just in the pm nap.....Here was yesterday's EASY:
6:20 awake
9:40-10;40 am nap
1:40-3pm pm nap
7 bedtime (awake today at 6:45)
  Now that today's waking is later, that means that if I want to keep with the same A's, then all naps and bedtime will be shifted later and bedtime could be as late as 7:30...should I do that, or stick with a shorter first A to repeat yesterday's schedule?( so first A would be around 3 hours just to have am nap at 9:45 and then so on, same as yesterday)
  Thanks!

[*Liz*]

i would just stick to the A's even if bedtime gets a touch later. Something will happen to bring it back down again as it always does  . As long as it is within half an hour or so every day it should be fine.

I it possible your lo would like a long last A. I would guess nearer to 4hrs for maintenance though. I find a long last A gives me a fab night once, and then the OT creeps in.

[Flightmommy]

Here's to another crib party!!! Ughhh...this time I woke at 3:40am to find DS just staring into space, playing occasionnaly, but mainly just doing the staring thing.....I don't even know how long he'd been awake before that, but he only went back to sleep at 4:45am...he never cried or fussed once...I know some mommies would think that's great, but I just wished he'd do something so I could intervene and get him back to sleep. Is this behavior terribly strange?lol
   I don't really think he was OT at bedtime, but our pm nap was a bit late, mainly because I had left him with the sitter with specific instructions on when to start the winddown and when to ensure he was in the crib....with plenty of time to allow him to fall asleep without crossing the OT mark....well, I guess to the general public, 10 minutes late is just 10 minutes and shouldn't make a difference, right? Not with Caleb though....10 minutes is enough to mess up his sked, just such a sensitive baby. So, when the sitter put him down 10 min later than i had instructed, he took about 35 minutes to settle and had an OT nap of 1h10. Here's yesterday's EASY, which preceded last night's crib party:
6:45awake
10:15-11:15 am nap (i woke him)
2:45-3:55 pm nap (ideally, i would have had him asleep by 2:15pm)
7:30pm ( didn't even seem tired during his bedtime routine, usually his eyes are closing while drinking his bottle, but not this time....strange considering his pm nap was a bit shorter than usual)
   I'm going to look back at my sleep notes, but I'm starting to wonder if the crib parties haven't started since I've been waking him during his morning nap......maybe he's the type that would just prefer to go the long stretch during the am nap and shorter for the pm nap. I would let him do that if he just wasn't soooo miserable after the short pm nap.
  Anyways, I just can't figure out if he's waking at night because he's OT..he doesn't cry at all and is playful, so it looks like he's making up for not enough A time during the day......however, his A times have increased dramatically lately and he's getting LOTS of playtime. Here I though our set nap lengths were working wonderfully!!!
  Does anyone please have any advice on how to tweak this??? Liz? Mashimaro??

[Flightmommy]

Just wanted to add that he's taking forever to settle for his pm nap...not fussing, just rolling around and rubbing his lovey...then after about 25 minutes of this, he starts to fuss. This is just my amateur guess, but i'm thinking he could use more A time then..i read somewhere here that when they start off calm and playing and then move up to fussing, it's because they went down UT and through the process of staying awake, then become annoyed and also OT slightly...is this right?
  Since he was up during the night, I let him sleep as long as he wanted for the am nap instead of waking him at the one hour mark....his am nap was 1h15, and i know he went down slightly UT as well...we did 3 hours A time and he can do up to 3.30 after a great night, but last night wasn't great, so I put him down a tad bit early. Here's our EASY today:
7:15 awake (approx, as I woke and he was already awake, but DH said he looked at the monitor at 7 and DS was still asleep, so anywhere between 7 and 7:15 really)
10:20-11:35 am nap, woke on his own
2:55-? just fell asleep for pm nap....my guess, will be about 1h10-20.
  If this brings us past 4pm, when do I do bedtime....last night's A was 3.40 before bed and we had that awful crib party....the night before, 4 hours A before bed and greatest night in weeks.....what to do, what to do???
   Any thoughts? These night wakings are starting to give me anxiety, especially before I go to bed cause I just don't know how the night will go and it stresses me out....DH is no help during the night, cause he has to "WORK"  in the morning!!! I guess he thinks i'm on vacation or something...lol!!

[Flightmommy]

Sorry to be a bother, but could someone pleeeease look at my EASY from the last few posts......since i've started cutting the am nap, DS is doing no more than 2.20 total day sleep and usually around the 11 hour mark for night sleep. I just don't think this is enough sleep combined, especially for a LO who has been high on sleep needs since birth?!??! And we've been getting NW, as posted above....my EASY needs a tweak, please help!!! Thanks!

[annette.xx]

hows it going?

im sorry ive been locked out of my laptop due to it picking up a virus which crashed everything!!

hope you are having better luck than me!

Annette.xx

[*Liz*]

Argh... so sorry I missed this too... I have no idea how  .

Really sorry.

Are you OK now? Happy to help if I can