Naps still short... can't make this routine work - please help!

[cocoisland]

Really struggling here 

Been plagued by the 45 min (or shorter) nap for weeks now. DS2 is 15 weeks. A couple of weeks ago we were managing it ok because lo was on a 3 hour easy but needed to go back to sleep after a short A time, so we were getting EASAS but it was working! Now he's 15 weeks and doesn't seem to need a shorter A time after his short nap which Is making his E and S times come together!
For example this morning:

E 7am
A
S 8.40

Then awake again at 9.20.  So we did

E 10am
A
S 10.50

And he woke up at 11.35, which makes his S due at 1.05 and his E at 1!

How do I manage this? I have an older son so routine has to fit around school run. Please help!

[anna*]

I would try pushing your A times longer. Morning A time of 2hrs, see if that gets you a longer nap. When naps and feeds clash, just feed before hand but make sure he is properly awake before you start your wind-down.

Havign said that this is a notoriously difficult age for short naps, so you may be limited in what you can achieve. Is his room pitch dark? Got white noise running?

[cocoisland]

Hi Anna, thanks for your reply 

I have blackout curtains in his room but it's by no means pitch black. I actually was purposefully avoiding doing the blackout thing because I did it with ds1 and it made him a very inflexible napper if we were ever anywhere else for nap time. Do you think it would make a massive difference?

Re the white noise I haven't tried it, he already uses a dummy would it become a prop? At the moment he's a pretty good night time sleeper and I would be scared to make him reliant on anything else!

I guess the question is - are more props the only way to fix this as I'm not keen to make him a less independent sleeper?

Keeping him awake in the morning is a tricky one because of the school run, he falls asleep then. He is giving sleepy cues at an hour and a half, would I make him overtired if I pushed him?

[anna*]

Well, darkness and whitenoise aren't generally considered props because they can be gradually reduced. At this point I would probably just want to do whatever worked. The darkness COULD make a massive difference but you don't know until you try and I understand if you are reluctant.

Do you think he's waking because of losing the dummy? Its pretty common for it to become problematic at this age.

If he's going to fall asleep on the school run and you want to extend the A time, can you wake him up a bit earlier? You can end up with some OT when you extend A times, but you're dealing with UT at the moment I suspect, and the end result is the same (short naps). If you keep the last part of the A time low key - an extended wind-down - that can help. Also if you're worried then extend it quite gradually (but not toooo gradually )

[cocoisland]

That's great thanks. I think I will give the white noise a try and if that doesn't work I'll try dark room too.

I guess it could be the dummy but he doesn't really wake at night for it, I don't know if this is different? He can also suck his fingers and will do this in the night to resettle. I did try taking the dummy away but it didn't stop the short naps and made getting him to sleep so much more difficult so we decided to keep it.

I could try waking him earlier - he has woken at 7 by himself on a few occasions so he's had 2 hours A time and still a short nap! I thought his A time was right for his age and together with the sleepy signals I was afraid to push him! I will def try to extend, anything if it will help!

Thanks for the advice :-)

[anna*]

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
this might be useful

Like I said though 4 months-ish is AWFUL for short naps. There may be nothing that helps. Still worth trying though!

[cocoisland]

Thanks that's good. Stretched his a time to two hours before this nap and he woke at 30 mins screaming - is this an OT nap?

[anna*]

Yeh that's OT. Maybe too much of a push at once? But you need to expect it to take a few days for a new A time to 'bed down'.

[cocoisland]

Ok thanks Anna. Will make one nap one hour 45 first then stretch other naps one at a time then when that's working move to 2 hours.