Any tips for settling OT baby?

[~Emma~]

Yesterdays wake up was 6.40. Today 7.45 and I woke as I felt the day needed to get started other wise I struggle to fit in all the feeds as the chances are she'll need an early night due to the afternoon always going pear shaped. ( I also think yesterdays shorter am nap was due to a much longer A)

 Whenever she wakes at 5am we tend to get these late lie ins with her, she woke at 5ish this morning and it was 6 by time she resettled, it just felt mean to wake her at 7! This stretch to 1.5 hours in the morning is also fairly new, it had always been at the hour mark sometimes less. She's pretty textbook in that her morning A has been shorter so I pushed the second A today only by 10 mins to 1 hour 40, she's asleep now but the cynic in me doesn't hold out much hope! 

 I do love my weekend BW'ing! During the week its so winged and I'm a planner at heart so love getting down to the nitty gritty with her as DH is here! Although I will say that I am also enjoying the winging it during the week too and that surprises me. If the nights were better I'd change my ways to a winger for sure. 

 I get exactly what you are saying about the morning nap, DS was the same. I can remember trying to stretch to a 4 hour EASY with him but he was still on a short cycle at the start of the day as he just needed to be back in bed fairly quickly.

 I also think everything is developmental here. I mean I have no prop issues going on, dont use AP as she wont let me so there has got to be an element of riding it out here but it can be so hard to quieten the BW voices in your head. 

 Thanks for letting me get it all out, it helps to out it here rather than try to go through it in my head. I think it might just take a few BW minds to work out this kid. 

[elf]

I used to feel as though DS was a 4 hour EASY guy by 4 months in terms of him being able to last that long for food, but it's like he was on a 3 hour EASY for naps , with that need to go back to bed early which made it tricky.  The other thing is to just accept Night Feeding and try to worry about that in another month or 2 and just stick to a 7am awake time regardless and see if a 'routine' falls into place.  Then when it does, tackle the night feeds.  Not that we are planning a 3rd but I often think that if we did, I would just wing it til 6 months, feed in the night without worrying and then when solids are introduced re-think it all then!

[~Emma~]

 Just wanted to give you a wee update on today. Still got the lovely long morning nap and all other naps were short (about 45 mins) but she did settle herself independantly for each one, even the late nap at 4.30pm. She has really seemed to have grasped the independant sleep thing. This girl is so inconsistant though that she may have forgotten by tomorrow! 

 So I'm happy if the naps are short for the moment, at least she's settling herself which I think is pretty amazing. NOw I just need to deal with this annoying evening waking....

 Thanks for all your help. 

[clazzat]

Yay for the independent sleep - it's a great building block if nothing else.  In my experience, evening waking is always OT - can you manage a really short A for the last one of the day if she is having short naps in the afternoon?  I seem to recall that E could only really manage about 45 mins at the end of the after a catnap.

[~Emma~]

Its a pesky habitual wake I think. We started DF a few weeks ago and it didn't work but I persevered for 10 days with it. I ended up dropping as it didn't make a difference. Since then she wakes at the same time every night at DF time and wont resettle without a feed. Trying w2s tonight.

[elf]

It sounds really positive, especially that she's putting herself down to sleep so easily.  Once they've got that sorted, the rest is sometimes time and developmental readiness to nap longer.  I remember once we were just over 4 months we were in a much better and predictable place and he was able to move to the next sleep cycle during that second nap.  How many naps are you doing?  My DS was a little inconsistent during the day, even when he was doing good naps, the nap lengths were sometimes slightly different and even wake up times varied slightly, until around 6/7 months when he stopped night feeding and it was really then when the consistency came.  And he ended up being a great sleeper.  It sounds as though she is a good sleeper and really it's just a matter of her being able to get that second nap sorted.  Life is also a lot easier when that catnap no longer needs to be there and I am just loving the fact that we are on 1 nap now, boy that's when you feel as though you end up being able to go out so much more easily without having to make 1 of your children tired, because having that big chunk of activity time in the morning and again in the afternoon is just great.

[~Emma~]

 Yesterday we did the long morning nap then 3 x 45 min naps for the rest of the day. I did w2s for that waking last night and it worked but maybe she didn't wake due to better naps? Who knows?

 After all my hard work at the weekend I need to be out and aboot today to the osteopath and dropping DS at nursery so it will be a terrible nap day no doubt.

[elf]

Given that a few months ago she wasn't napping hardly at all, it is all very good progress and all your hard work is definitely paying off.  It sounds as if you have quite an angel baby there.  Even with the shorter naps throughout the day, at least she is getting good day sleep and the activity times aren't becoming high, so you sound as though you're on top of the overtiredness.  Hope it's another good day, despite the outings.  Just the way it is some days