Routine to fit in swimming lesson

[BeeAnn]

Hi

My daughter is coming up to 5.5 months and I have just increased her A from 2 hours to 2 hrs 15 mins.  She seemed to take to that quite well yesterday.  However, we have a problem on the day that she goes swimming when we need to leave home at 2.30pm (ideally having just eaten).  With 2 hour A I could get 2 x 1.5hr naps in still but now I am not too sure what the best option is so would like people's opinions.

Our typical day is:

WU and eat 7am
Nap 9.15am - 11am
E 11am (we do typically wake her up from naps)
Nap 1.15pm - 3pm
E 3pm
CN 5pm
E then bed 7pm ish

So you can see that her second nap is when she would need to eat / go swimming.

So my options are:

1) I could cap both naps at about 1hr 15mins in order to have her wake and eat at 2pm but then they would both not be the magical 1.5hrs for a restorative nap!  So E would be at 7, 10.30, 2pm, small feed at 4.45ish and then bed time (which is what we do now on swimming days).

2) We could get her up 15 mins earlier for the day and then have one nap at 1hr 15 mins and the other at 1.5hrs?

3) Do a first UT nap for 45 ish mins and then (hopefully!) a longer second nap so the day would look something like:

WU and eat 7am
Nap 9.00am - 9.45am
E 10.30am
Nap 12pm - 2pm
E 2pm then swimming
Nap after swimming 3.50 - 5pm latest
E a snack when she wakes
E then bed 7pm ish

What would you do in this situation?  Just not sure what is best for her in terms of being the least tired and grumpy when she goes swimming (which is already quite overwhelming for her!)  And also what she would probably follow the best.  She is textbook / angel.

It's just going to get harder and harder as her A times increase!!  I think I obsess too much about the routines....!

Thanks!

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi there!
Is it just once a week that she is going swimming? If it's just once a week I wouldn't worry about it too much, would just let her nap a full nap in the morning and then cap the next one when it's time to go out for swimming.
BTW, she would probably need another A increase soon anyway (and is on her way to drop the CN, you can read about it more here: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months) so your day will anyway look different.
When she'll be around 6-6.5m old her A time will be approx. 3h and that will change the day:
7-10 A
10-11:30 Nap
and then the next nap would need to be at 14:30, so you either have a short CN before it or stretch her second A as little as you can passed her normal time and then put her straight down when you are back.

[Ima shel Alon]

Also forgot to say that if it's just once a week then she'll probably be OT on that day but if you make sure you are at home the next day and allowing all naps to be good then she should be ok.

[BeeAnn]

Ima

Thanks for your reply.  I think I'll try for a 1.5 hour nap in the morning and then maybe an hour or so before swimming.  It is just one day a week and I think that she should be able to deal with it. It is probably me that can't deal with the deviation to routine!!

I do realise that we are going to go through the 3/2 transition and have actually just increased her A from 2hrs to 2hrs 15mins as she did a couple of short naps.  That seems to have worked for now so will leave it awhile before increasing again.  I guess as we go through it then we will need to just keep adjusting that day!

[Ima shel Alon]

I am sure you'll be fine. You are right, they are usually fine and we are stressing about it all, I think it's called motherhood .