Hi there Sarah,
I am still having trouble and/or am confused by the first A time / nap of the day. When you say stick to ONE A time, do you mean for the entire day or ? Since the first nap is always messed up, the rest of the day, I have to shorten A times so they're never the same. I have been trying to do a 2 hour A time and then shorten to 1 hr 45 min as the day goes on if her nap is less than 1 hour and sometimes I get a OT nap (30 min) and sometimes a fairly decent one (1 hr 15). I can't seem to get the 1st nap right.
Going back, I think I tried to push her too hard too quickly. She had been doing 1 hour A times for a long time and we jumped to 1.5 hours and then a few days later to 1.75 and now 2 hours. I don't know if we should go back to something shorter or stick with the 2 hours now.
She is getting her top two teeth in and I can see them bulging thru the gums (not broken thru) so I am fairly certain that is causing most of the NW's now. I do give her Motrin but I can't really tell if it helps.
This morning, she woke up at 5:20am and I wasn't sure if it was a NW or an EW. I fed her and put her back down and she fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes longer. But then, she seemed really tired and ready for a nap early but I kept her up for 2 hours. She gave me a 26 min nap! I tried to extend using pat/shush but she was wide awake, trying to lift her shoulders off the mattress, and arms were flailing. She seems too old for that method and never having done it when she was younger she doesn't seem to know what I am doing. I've also tried rocking/nursing down/patting and nothing has ever helped her extend. When she wakes up, she is AWAKE. So I got her up and after 1 hr 40 min, put her back down and she is currently sleeping. In hindsight, I probably should have gotten her up for the day at 5:20am but I didn't know if that was her wake time or EW (bedtime was 6:06pm last night).
She was swaddled until 6 months old and now she sleeps in a sleep sack. She sucks her fingers to self-soothe and was busting out of her swaddle for a couple months before I stopped swaddling; she seemed ready. She has a white noise machine in her room and darkening shades. She generally goes down without a fuss for a nap unless she is really OT or OS.
As for solids, she has been eating rice cereal or oatmeal in the morning and then fruit or veggies in the lunch/afternoon time. Just two meals right now. She eats a fair amount though - 3 TB's of cereal, 1 jar of solids. I don't know if she's ready for more yet. I haven't given her probiotics, should I?
Thanks for the link on increasing from 3 to 4 hour EASY. That is helpful. I just need to figure out the first A time and nap of the day and then I can go from there. I am just so baffled by it. She is a textbook baby with maybe some touchy when it comes to sleep?
She is scooting backwards and sitting up which are new developments in the last couple weeks; teething for sure; and starting solids. So, I know there is a LOT going on. And I had her on a newborn type schedule for too long without realizing it. I just want to fix things but feel like I'm spinning my wheels and confusing her.
Appreciate all the advice!
