not sure about my easy 8 month old

[lindseybanks]

Hi,
Quick question, what should I do when my lo wakes up early from her nap. Lately her morning naps have lasted anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours. So I have tried to adjust the afternoon nap so that she has the appropriate a time. However when I put her down for her afternoon nap it is becoming more and more of a battle. Am I doing it wrong? Should I just aim for consistent times?

her easy look somewhat like this she is almost 8 months.
5am  bf and falls back asleep
615 active
7:30 solids
9 bf
9:30 sleep
10:30-11:30 sleep (this is where I really need help)
when she wakes up I bf and then 1 hour later solids
1:30 to 2:30 I try to get her down for a nap
for this nap it seems she sleeps anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours
then I just bf when she wakes up and do solids at 5:15
6 bf, bath
6:30 to 7 bed
also she wakes up sometime between 10pm and midnight, sometime around 2-3 and then almost always at 5am

[amayzie]

Ok- I reckon you could start by trying to push up the A timeat the start of the day and after the nap. At this age they can tolerate quite large A times- 3.5-4 hours at times. Also don't panic if the afternoon nap is shorter- lots of LOs do a long AM and a short PM nap- my guy always did.

[lindseybanks]

Thank you for your response!!!! I will try that!

I just want to confirm that it is best to use A times to regulate the day and not the clock. It just seems like every day is sooo different.  I dont feel like I am ever on an actual routine.

[amayzie]

The BW routine is really more of a flexible routine. Following the baby;s lead. You may have a couple of days where the times match up- but often the times on the clock will be different from day to day for the naps.

At 8 months i did actually have my guy on a set morning nap at about 10.30, with a 7am wake up. This worked well for us at the time- but i think you might do best to find an A time that works best for your LO and then think about setting the naps from there if you are wanting the nap to be a little bit more of a predictable time.

[lindseybanks]

Thank you again for your response! Her sleeping patterns have always been such a struggle for me. I feel like as soon as I figure out what is working I will have one decent week where she will go down fairly easy and then sleep for 1 to 2 hours. Then it will start to be completely erratic all over again ie: sleeping 30-50 minutes, playing in her crib for 45 minutes before her nap and waking up supper early in the morning. Until she was 5 months old all of her naps were 45 minutes. Even now it seem like every time I get in the car even if she just got up and ate she falls asleep! I have been trying so hard to stay on an schedule. I cannot tell you how many times I have said OK tomorrow we wont go anywhere and we will figure this out. I do believe that the bw method works, I just cant seem to get any sort of consistency. I am a first time mom, so that is probably part of the problem and I also have not gone to doing the pu-pd method. She fall asleep semi independenly. Mostly I use the shhh patt. Which I completely credit to BW.  I wish I could just ask her, are you sleepy. I am sure by the time she can tell me she will just say no to everything. haha

Anyway I cannot tell you how nice it is to have somewhere to turn for help!

[amayzie]

The do your head in! See how you go pushing up the A times- the 45 min naps and the fussing about before the nap is usually a sign of being under tired. Sometimes they can handle quite high A times and you don't expect it! Is she crawling yet? My guy was also one to fall asleep as soon as we got int the car- EVER!!

[lindseybanks]

Wow you were right on, I increase her morning A to 4 hours. She is still in a good mood, I thought she would be a wreck. She is starting to crawl, so fun! She is teething too, not so fun.
But now I am having a different issue. Early wake ups. She has always woken up early to eat but usually she falls right back to sleep for another hour or 2. But now that I have started this new routine she is waking up and trying to wake me up too!

So my easy for that last few days has been like this:

bf in early morning 5ish
615 active
7:30 solids
9 bf
10:15 to 12:15 sleep
12:30 bf and then 1 hour later solids
3:45 to 4:45 sleep (capped) sort of I think she would wake up soon anyway.
4:45 bf
solids at 5:30
6:30 bf, bath
7 bed

The last time I had early wake ups was when I she needed to drop her cat nap. Do you think I should cap the first nap and try to get her to her second nap earlier? Or should I just give it some time to see what happens? I have to be honest I have really enjoyed the 2 hour nap. haha