Catnap questions..

[katiepierce]

Sorry to be posting about naps again!

I'm currently increasing LOs A time in order to hopefully get rid of the pesky catnap but starting to realise there aren't enough hours in the day!

At the mo pm nap ends at 2.30ish, catnap at 5.10-5.40, bed at 7.30. But as the day pushes later how do you still fit it in? Shorter catnap? Later BT? Cold turkey the catnap and hope LO catches on?!

Sorry Im sure this has been asked a hundred times but can't seem to get the search function to work!

Thanks

ps - Lo is 6 months, 1 week

[~Sara~]

I think a lot of how you approach dropping the catnap depends on how long your LO sleeps at night and if he/she does make up for sleep at night.  So, part of it is trial and error (figuring out the aforementioned things).  That said, how long does your LO sleep at night normally?

For us, DS is an 11h night sleeper, and he doesn't make up for lost sleep at all.  I ended up doing a 13h day with an 11h night, sometimes a 13.5h day/10.5h night just because an early bedtime for him would usually mean an EW.  I kept the catnap until his A times were ~3h long.  Then, once that happened, I dropped it.  I could safely do an early bedtime of about 20-30 minutes early if need be, and it would throw off his awake time too much.

HTH a bit   Also, the average range of dropping the catnap is 6 to 8 months...so if your LO isn't ready to do it quite yet, there's absolutely no rush

[katiepierce]

Thanks for your reply.

At the moment LO seems to be sleeping for approx 11 hours at night. He was a solid 12 hour guy until about a month ago when we started getting EW. He now tends to wake at 6/6.30 but will happily stay in cot till we get him up at 7. Because we've struggled with EW recently I'm a bit scared to give him an early BT incase it results in a stupidly early WU! Maybe I should try it though cos at the mo I don't know whether he'd tac the missed catnap onto his nights or not!

Did you not find that such a late catnap interrupted nights? I've just woken LO now at 6.15pm after 30 min catnap because he didn't wake from pm nap till 3 today so now kind of dreading tonight will catnap being so late! Should I have stretched him to 6.30 BT instead? But then I might have got 5.30 WU!

I guess it's trial and era huh?!

[~Sara~]

Did you not find that such a late catnap interrupted nights?

Not for us, but a late catnap can for others.  So, you have to see what works best for your little guy.

About the 12h/11h night shift...it could be that he's just an 11h night sleeper.  An EW is only an EW if their night sleep is less than 10h.  If he's been napping well and STTN, but still only sleeping for 11h at night, then it's probably just his natural cycle and not an EW.

Let me know how the night went with a later catnap

[katiepierce]

Well the last 2 nights have been great even with late catnaps finishing at 6.15 and bed at 7.30! Woke at 6.50 this morning and 7.15 the day before! So looks like late catnap doesn't make much difference here either...phew!

We're still getting 1 hr 10/20 naps quite a lot though, really trying to figure out if UT or OT but can't seem to crack it. It's annoying me as if we had consistent 1hr 30s I reckon we could nearly drop the catnap. I know there's no rush but i hate having to wake him after 20/30 mins as he is quite cranky afterwards!

[~Sara~]

That's a great update!

With his naps being 1h10-1h20...how is he afterwards?  Like, is he able to handle a full A time, or does he get sleepy early?

[shresmummy]

Hi I'm just following along cos my lo is the same age and also does short 1.10 or 1.20 min naps like your lo. I also have to keep doing the pesky 20 min cn. But sometimes he reverts to 40 min naps then the whole day is messed up!

[katiepierce]

To be honest I don't know!

I feel at a loss figuring out his A times at the mo. Like this morning it got to 2hrs45 and he was still happy as larry with no sleepy cues at all but I put him down anyway and he slept 2 hours! So I thought great thats perfect so did 2hrs45 again and I've just heard him wake at 35 minutes...so OT i guess?

I think he can't handle as much A time on a 1.10/20 nap and I was leaning towards OT but after this mornings great nap on a longer A than usual maybe its UT after all!

Although this nap is bust so maybe I pushed too much for one day....off I go to pat/shhh!

[katiepierce]

Hi shresmummy..think we cross posted! Glad to hear I'm not alone, although sorry you've got issues too! I know it could be a lot worse though so trying not to become routine obsessed! No idea on the short naps, let me know if you figure it out! XX