1hr naps....UT or OT?!

[sianie]

Hi

I've had some great advice from here with DS's ongoing nap issues & we now have a new one! 

I weaned DS off his dummy just over a week ago which has generally gone pretty well & he is now dummy free! He can now self soothe and for most of his naps (unless he's OT or I've got his A time wrong) will go down without a fuss, babble for a few mins then mostly put himself to sleep in around 10 mins, which is fantastic!

Even with the dummy we have been battling short naps on & off for mths (DS is now 6 mo) & I've been constantly tweaking A times to try and sort them out (sometime works, mostly no change). DS's naps have got better since the dummy has gone, he always used to wake at 30 or 45mins & had to re-plug &/or HTTJ, now he seems to be able to get through to the 2nd sleep cycle without me needing to do anything, but the last few days he's been waking after an hour (still tired as he yawns & seems desperately to be trying to get back to sleep), sometimes I can put my hand on his back & he will go back down after 10 mins or so, but mostly this has started not working so I get him up but have to reduce following A time to compensate....

So is this UT or OT?! I'm really not sure so wondered if anyone could help?

Thank you! 

[lilisuze]

can you post your current routine and A times when he wakes at 1 hour? Its normally an UT thing, but then they take a short nap, and before you know it, OT is creeping in!!!!

[sianie]

Hi, here is yesterdays:

Awake: 6.50am
E: 7am. 8am: Solids
A:2hrs 10-ish
S:9am-ish (woke at 10am....took me 10 mins to get him back to sleep & he slept for another 30 mins)
A: 10.45am
E: 11am. 12pm: Solids.
A:1hr 45mins (tired from nap earlier)
S: 12.30 (woke at 1.30pm, took 20 mins to go back to sleep, but only slept for another 20 mins
A: 2.15pm
E: 3pm
A:1.45 mins
S: 4pm (tho woke up crying after 20 mins, had to sssh/pat to get him back down, woke at 5.30pm)
E: 5.30pm: Solids
A: 1.45mins
S: Put down at 7pm, asleep by 7.15pm-ish

I know his A times will look low for his age but I also have a toddler who makes him v. OS plus he has been teething too so A times have been reduced (also to compensate for shorter or disrupted naps). He usually wakes once around 3am/4am & I feed him.

Thanks for having a look....

[lilisuze]

hey sianie, thanks for sending that. His A's do look really low for his age. I think its time to extend.

At just over 6 months, i would think an A of about 2.5-3 hours would be about right. so you'd aim for a nap about 9.30am for 1.5 hours and another nap about 1.30pm. It might be time to drop the catnap too. how do you feel about that? Its gonna take time to get there, so for the next week or so stretch the A to about 9.10 in the morning and see what happens. it might work, it might not!

let me know how you get on over the next week trying to extend the A's by about 10 or 15 minutes (a good tip for doing this is in his room, like nap time, so curtains closed. do a nappy change, read a book, then go round and say goodnight to everything in the room (teddies/lightswitch/nappy pile whatever)) and see how you go.

If you can (i understand you will be busy with 2 babies) try and remember the A's where he sleeps through 2 complete cycles so 1h30nap+ without assistnace from you, and that will give us a clue as to his correct A time.

HTH

Lilixx

[sianie]

Thanks Lili!

His naps have actually not been too bad today (typical!!) but agree about his A times needing to be pushed out a bit.

His 1st nap today was around 2hrs 10/15 & he went down easily, didn't stir at 45 min mark and slept for over 1.5hrs!! Next nap he did 2hrs 15/20 mins A time & slept for 1hr 15, un-disturbed.......tho CN has been a bit of a nightmare as I put him down late as we'd been out & he only slept for about 20 mins (OT).

I do think he may well be one of those LO's who like their A time shorter 1st thing then extended a bit throughout the day. So what do you think, push A times by 5 mins tomorrow?

[lilisuze]

if you can, do those same A's again. Thats the length of naps we want so thats great! so 2hr 15 seems the magic A for him right now. It probably means you have to drop the catnap or keep it real short (like 15 minutes). I seem to remember it was a grotty time in the early evening until the A stretched a bit to make not such a hideously long A before bed, but it only takes a couple of weeks to transition from 3-2 naps.

yeah!

lilixx