finding it hard to extend A time in the AM and nap in the PM

[lyssie28]

Hi, my lo is 6.5 months old.  She has always been a little bit lower in her A time than the average for her age which is fine but lately I'm finding it hard to keep her awake in the mornings.  For instance this morning we got up at 7.45 but by 8.45 she seemed so tired and was getting upset and rubbing her eyes. I managed to keep her up until 9.30 but it was hard going.  Her EASY changes every day as I don't go by nap times I just go by her cues.  Should I have nap times at this age?  She wakes at different times in the morning so I'm not sure how I would do that as she wakes between 6-8am.  Lately she has been sleeping longer which is a major bonus as she did go through a time of waking for the day at 5am sometimes 4am.  She can go to sleep by herself and often I can just put her in her cot wide awake say night night pat and shush for about a minute and walk out of the room with her watching me.  Within 5 minutes she'll be asleep and I think this has been the major thing for her early wakings as she now just turns over and goes back to sleep.  She has dropped her catnap herself too.  Her EASY yesterday was:

wu 7.30
S 9.30 -11

S1.00-1.30

tried to get her to nap at 3.00, 4.00 and 4.30 but wouldn't sleep.

bt 6.30

A lot of her days go like this.  She'll often have a proper nap in the morning and then short in the afternoon. Is it because her A time isn't long enough?  If it's better having the same nap times ever day what times would you suggest?  Her normal bedtime is 7pm.

[brummum]

What is she like during the day? does she seem happy/settled? There's a part of me that thinks if you aren't getting nap/bedtime resistance or poor night sleep then if it ain't broke don't try and fix it you know? On the other hand if she's needing a nap that soon after waking even after a 12hr+ night then she could be high sleep needs and need that longer second nap. The theory goes that at this age the 'average' awake time is 2:45-3:15 and they are usually needing 2 long naps (so 1.5hr+). How does she wake up from that second nap? Are you able to extend it or is resettling out of the question? Have you tried offering that second nap later?

[lyssie28]

Most of the time she is happy but can get very grumpy sometimes although i'm not sure if teething is to answer for some of it. I tried increasing her A time to 2hr30 but then she just had 30 minute nap after it.  She still wakes a couple times a night and sometimes i think she might wake early but just lie in her cot but she's not in my room so i dont know unless she starts to cry. When she wakes from her nap she just rolls over and starts playing.  I used to be able to extend but shes gotten quite independant and i think i actually keep her awake more which means if she doesnt want to go back to sleep its hard to extend.  I have started to leave her awake 2hr15 to start with and just going to keep doing that until she gets used to it so she can increase her A even if it just results in half hour naps for now.  Is this a bad idea? I just think 2 hours is not long enough for her age.

[brummum]

I think that's good plan, gradually increase that awake time. We always found there was a much better chance of us resettling an overtired 30min wake up that if he was undertired and woke up happy so at least there might be more chance of a resettle even if initially she is a little overtired as she gets used to the increase in a time. You don't have to do a big jump in awake time alot of people increase gradually so 5-10 mins every 2-3 days. Let us know how it goes.

[lyssie28]

well we are onto around 2hr30 now I have started putting her in her cot at the 2hr15 mark and she will fall asleep within 5-15 minutes.  Still with the short nap but it's gone to 50minutes to an hour now.  It was hard extending her A in the morning as she was cranky all the time but I realised that she was also wanting more milk  the poor thing.  We have very recently stopped doing nightfeeds and I was putting an extra ounce in all of her bottles but it mustn't have been enough.  I've had to put it up by 2 and she will play for a little bit longer.  She has also cut a tooth so that might have been bothering her.  Her PM nap is still short but is getting better also 

[MarciaMSPT]

Good info to know...

I too had the same question... my 15 week old does not fit into the average A times either... usually tolerating only 1.5 hours in the morning and when I start extending that even by 5 minutes, nap times fall apart 30 minutes into the nap...

So, is it better to continue to help my LO stay awake longer or do they just naturally start doing that themselves?  I'm a bit confused on that one

[lyssie28]

I've started to pick a time for her naps and try to get as close to it as possible.  For example this morning she woke at 6.30 so I thought 9am.  She got to 8.45 and I couldn't keep her up any longer and she fell asleep more or less as soon as I put her down but for her lasting that long in the morning is great and every couple of days, if she gets up around the same time, I'm going to extend by about 10 minutes until she's at 9.30 or even 10am.  I guess they start to get used to it.  I think if I just put her down when she first starts showing signs of tiredness she would only be up an hour and a half especially in the morning.  So in my experience I would say keep your LO awake but not so long as they will so totally crazy from tiredness lol.  At first she would just have short naps but gradually as she's getting used to it they are getting longer and so far she has been asleep 1hr and 10 minutes