6 months - are 45min naps just a phase?

[sjworthington]

Hi there,

Our LO has never been a great night sleeper due to reflux and MPI, but until about a month ago she was at least napping well during the day - 2x2hrs + cn.

We've now sorted out all her digestive issues but the closer we get to 6months the less she seems to nap during the day.  For the last few days we've been having 30min-1hr sleeps, which means she's getting four short naps during the day and going to bed for the night at around 5.30pm.

She's quite happy to lay in her cot babbling for anything up to an hour after she wakes up from a short nap so I know she's not hungry or in pain etc, but it makes it pretty impossible to stick to an EASY routine. 

Please tell me this is something she'll grow out of soon!?!  With a toddler in the house I desperately need my Y time!!!

[Smurfette]

Could you post your EASY for us to look at? Perhaps your routine just needs some tweaking.

[Hedgehog17]

Sounds like you LO is ready to increase her A time!

How long is she doing on average now?

I'm finding it really hard to figure out with mine at 6mo as it seems to change day-to-day 

[sjworthington]

Thanks for the quick replies!

At the moment I'm really struggling to work out if DD is OT or UT so having a second and third opinion would be a big help!

She's had a couple of really unsettled nights which has meant I haven't been able to extend her A time during the day without her getting OT.  Then there are days where she just won't nap so her subsequent A time is reduced...  I'm sure that if we could get out of the OT cycle then she would be able to manage 2.15-2.25hrs of A most days. 

A typical EASY for the last week has been something like this:

E - 7am bf then solids during A time
A -
S - 9am - straight to sleep for 1hr then woke and happy to lay in cot for 40mins
E - 10.40am bf then solids during A time
A -
S - 12noon bed but not asleep until 12.20.  Woke at 1pm but lay in cot for over 1hr
E - 2.10pm bf
A -
S - 2.50pm back to bed early due to previous short nap (1hr)
A -
E - 5pm solids then bf before bed
S - 5.45pm
DF - 9.50pm
NF - 3.50pm (probably not needed any more but want to get naps worked out before tackling this issue!)

DD takes a dummy but will continue to sleep if it falls out.  Often if she wakes in the night popping the dummy in will put her back to sleep.  She doesn't respond well to typical PU/PD as she never calms down but prefers if we sit beside her and hold her hand - although at the moment this doesn't seem to work to extend her naps as she just lays there smiling at us. 

Any suggestions would be most gratefully recieved as I'm really not sure how to extend the naps again without the OT monster taking over!

[Roseii]

Just to let you know, although we do still get the odd short nap, DD2 seems to have just grown out of that hideous phase, routine tweaking didn't help me massively, but by about 7.5m she seemed to have passed it. So obviously worth looking at your easy but I def think it's a phase you have to put up with with a lot of LOs xx

[Smurfette]

Hi there

I agree with Hedgehog17.
Try increasing her A times by maybe 10 mins with low key activity and see if that gives you a longer nap.

Have you seen this link?
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg476652#msg476652

[sjworthington]

After a bit of trial and a lot of error over the last few days I think we may be starting to get there.  She only managed 45min this morning but her next nap was 1hr 40min so much improved!  I think the difference may have been due to an extended A time of 2hrs 20mins before her second nap. 

I did try and keep her up longer for her first A time but she was such a grump that we only managed the usual 2hrs.  Tomorrow I'll be better prepared for the grumping and see if I can push it out a bit longer. 

Fingers crossed

[Smurfette]

Congrats on the longer nap! Just keep extending A times at a gentle pace to avoid OT.

Good luck tomorrow!

[sjworthington]

Wohoo, we finally seem to be having some success with longer naps!  Yesterday I managed to kept her up for a 2hr 20min A time and she slept for 1hr 40.  Then she did the same for the midday nap too!!!  Unfortunately we had a terrible night, but that was because I reintroduced dairy into my diet as a challenge and it's obviously still a problem - but that's a different story.  It will take another few days for it to get out of our systems but she still slept pretty well today regardless.   

She's super grumpy from about 1hr50 into A time, but I'd much rather try and entertain a grump than do PU/PD for 1.5hrs!!! 

Many thanks to all for the advice.  The joy I felt when I looked at the clock and realised she had been asleep for over an hour was just brilliant

[Smurfette]

Yeah!
Congrats!!!!!!
 

[Hedgehog17]

Fabulous news!

Well done both of you