Am I ever going to figure this out?!

[Moogleit]

My life now revolves around fretting about naps and for all the time I spend thinking about them and planning for and around them I still feel as lost as I did in the beginning. Just after Xmas her sleep really went to the dogs and I haven't been able to make it any better no matter how hard I try! She will be 7mos old in a few days and for the past week has been having 45min naps again with the occasional 1hr20 thrown in there as well as a few 30 min naps. I can't figure out if I need to increase A time, keep it the same or do an irish jig! We hit the perfect storm right around that time of her figuring out she could roll around her crib, getting one tooth and now working on a second, going away for 10 days, her wanting to drop the 3rd nap and now she's trying to crawl. The rolling thing is kind of under control now so at least that is a positive. Here is an EASY from the other day and what I have so far today maybe you can see something to tweak? I should mention her nighttimes have sucked too...we haven't had a stretch of sleep longer than 3 1/2 hours in recent memory plus quite a few early evening wake ups.

W/BF 630
Solids 8am
A 2h50min
S 920 (10 mins to settle herself)
W/BF 11pm
Solids 1230
A 2hr50min
S 150pm
W/BF 230pm (is this UT?)
Solids 520pm
A 3hr45min
BT 615

So far today...

W/BF 6am
Solids 800
A 2h50 min
S 850am
W/BF 9:33am (UT?)
A 3hr15min
S 12:48 pm
W/BF 1:25pm (is this OT?)

I'm going to try to APOP a 3rd nap today at around the 2hr 50min mark and see what happens. She is normally a textbook baby but I'm starting to think this chapter is missing! Any advice would be amazing!

Thank you!

[Papaya]

45 min and 1hr 20 naps are common UT lengths - I'd try increasing to her A time to 3 hours, stick with it for several days and see how you go. If you get a 45 min nap, you may need to reduce the next A by 15 mins or so to avoid an OT nap - often 30 min naps are OT, so that's probably what happened for that second nap.

What do you think?

[Moogleit]

That sounds good! I guess I am a bit lost as to what length of A time to give her for her second nap too. 2h50min gives me short naps but so does 3h15min. I know I should work on 1 nap at a time but not sure where to stick for that 2nd A time. Here is yesterdays EASY...

W/BF 7am
Solids 9am
A 3hr
S 10am (950 quiet time, in crib at 10, 1010 asleep)
W/BF 1046am
Solids 1230ish
A 3hr40min (I tried 3 times starting at 145 to get her to nap but she was just wide awake!)
S 226pm (woke at 255pm but I resettled her in 5 min)
W/BF 353pm
Solids 500pm
A 3hr
BT 7

Do you think 3hr40min is a crazy A time for a 7mo old? It seemed to work yesterday but who knows?! Today will be interesting as we have swimming class right in the middle of 1st nap time so I'm going to have to get her down early even if only for a short one. Everyday is so different!

Your advice is much appreciated! Thank you.

[Papaya]

I think she just crashed for that second nap - it was a really long A after a short am nap, so she woke OT after 30 mins but could be resettled.

The average for this age is around 3 hours or a little more. A time includes settling time so here:

W/BF 7am
Solids 9am
A 3hr
S 10am (950 quiet time, in crib at 10, 1010 asleep)

that was actually a 3hr10 A. And an UT waking then, do you think? But for the next nap I wonder if she was already OT when you first put her down - so perhaps aim to have her in the crib 10/15 mins before you expect her to be asleep.

I would stick with 3hrs for another couple of days. If still 40 min naps, increase to 3hr15. In the meantime, reduce the next A to 2hr45 or so after a short nap. But if the morning nap is long, do that same A time again. Does that make sense?

Today will be interesting as we have swimming class right in the middle of 1st nap time so I'm going to have to get her down early even if only for a short one. Everyday is so different!

And on days like this, just reduce the next A if you wake her early from her nap. My LO always slept really well after swimming though   It helps if you can have a similar routine most days and then it's fine to have a day or two a week where you have an activity which changes her nap times.

[Moogleit]

I just wanted to give you a little update on where we are after our conversation. Yesterday was great, I extended her A time by 10 mins to 3hr10mins and she had 2 awesome 90 min and went to sleep like a dream at night. She only woke once super briefly 45 min after bedtime and then slept straight through until 1 when she woke for a feed and then again at 5 for a couple of minutes before finally waking at 630 for the day. That is a VAST improvement over the last month and a half.
I must say I was optimistic but today has been a mess. The morning nap ended up being 10mins late as she wouldn't settle, she is just starting to crawl so the crib roller derby has started up again, and then she woke after 40 mins. We went to run some errands and she fell asleep in the car for 30 minutes an hour and 10 mins before her next nap time and I haven't been able to get her down for another nap since.
Oh well, I guess we'll try again tomorrow!
Thanks for letting me vent and for the great advice!

[scruffymax]

Hi Moogleit, just to throw a possible spanner in the works, I thought I would let you know that my DD slept better when I decreased A times around the 7 month mark.  We did the chasing the A times to try to get a longer nap for a while and it would seem to work one day but not for the next few days so increase again, repeat... So I think from memory we did official wake up at 7 (ie she would usually wake before then but happy to play in the cot), nap 9:30-11, 2-3:30ish, 7pm bedtime.  Not saying you should do this routine but possibly she has a bit of accumulated OT and needs a few days of shorter A times to catch up.  The fact that she fell asleep in the car ages before her pm nap suggests a bit of accumulated OT to me.  Just a thought!

[Papaya]

she is just starting to crawl so the crib roller derby has started up again,

Hugs, this is such a frustrating phase! (and when they pull to standing...and are trying to walk... ) Not much you can do except give lots of practice opportunities during her awake time and hope the novelty wears off soon.

Hope you have more luck with today's naps.

[Moogleit]

Thanks for the support!

Today's morning nap was another 40 minuter - so I'm thinking I should add another 5-10 mins to her A time tomorrow? She has been at 3hr10min since Sunday. Or maybe I should stick to that for another couple of days and see what happens? I will definitely reduce her A time for her afternoon nap to try and combat OT but she has been fighting the afternoon nap with gusto for the last few days.

Scruffymax, that is an interesting thought but I hesitate to go the other way quite yet as we've been working so long to increase for longer naps. I think the car nap had something to do with the fact that we were driving for a little bit over 2 hours. Although she has been a bit under the weather for the past week. Ugh I don't know! Papaya, any thoughts on this?

[Papaya]

If it was a long car ride, maybe a bit warm, I think she could easily have dozed off before she normally would at home. Hey, I do on long car trips

I don't think her A times are particularly long for her age, so maybe she needs another 5/10 mins - but I think I'd be inclined to hold for another few days as it sounds like a little bit of illness and/or new skills could also be contributing to the short naps. I wouldn't increase A times until she's well.