Struggling to extend activity time

[Msbrown]

Hi. I'm hoping for some advice please. Our baby is 7 months old today,although he was a month premature. We have him on the following schedule, which results in 45 min naps through the day. Hes very sleepy during day and can give eye rubbing and yawning messages fter 11 hour sleep. Sometimes he gets himself back to sleep, sometimes he doesn't. He does sleep through night, and goes to sleep really well during day. He just struggles to go through sleep cycles. I've tried stirring him at 23 min mark of first nap then leaving room and it has worked. For some reason he sleeps better first nap of day. Here's our routine, any suggestions will ne greatly received. I've previously tried extending activity time by 10 mins but it's resulted in 35 min naps.

6:30 E breakfast (milk and solids)
7:00 A
8:30 S ( 45 mins but can be extended with W2S to 90 mins)

10:30 E lunch ( milk and solids)
11:00 A
12:30 S (45 mins can't be extended)

2:30 E bottle
3:00 A
4:30 S (30 mins- without fail

5:00 E tea (milk and solids)
6:00 A bath
6:30 bottle then bed
6:45 Sleep

Not sure if I'm missing something glaringly obvious!

[RachelC]

Hi there and welcome to BW.

Yes, you are correct in knowing that the A time is likely the culprit.  You are looking at 2.75-3 hours of A time at 7 months.  Seeing as you did not see results with a 10 minute increase, I may suggest jumping to adding 30 minutes.  Yes, it will be a struggle, just keep in mind that his little body is stuck at the 2 hour A time and will need the push to extend.  Just keep the activity low key... read, sing, slow dance, etc.  Sometime the "stuckness" is boredom and he needs something new and different to do.

His middle A time is quite long (due to that short nap) and maybe you can get those A times evened out a bit.  You may find that in the very near future, with the A time increasing, that cat nap at the end of the day drops.  Many drop that around 6 months.

What do you think?

[Msbrown]

Thanks Rachel, yeah i'm sure A time is the culprit. I'll give it a go for the next few days and report back.