Shortest A time right before bed? Can this be right?

[Mommabird]

I feel like I've always read the longest A time should be at the end of the day. Here is what our day yesterday looked like, bear in mind that just last week we were stuck in a UT/OT loop with only 2 hour A times. My 8 month old was not happy with that. This week her naps have lengthened and her A time has almost tripled! (3 3/4 hr) I'm mostly confused about the timing of our 2nd nap. She's been going down at 2:30-2:45 and only been sleeping for 45. Then overtired and in bed for the night by 5:45-6. Do I need to extend this A time in order to get a longer more restful nap...and wake her around 4... Which will still only give us a 3 hour A time before bed....

W 7:00
E bottle and solids
A 7:00-9:30
S 9:30-11
E solids and bottle
A 11:00-2:45 added snack
S 2:30-3:15
A and solids
Bath bottle bed 6:00 was overtired, could have put her to bed 5:30

She did however sleep until 6:45am the next morn. So she made up for loss of afternoon S. Just looking for a bit of advice for more balance. Thanks momma's!!

[Kellyjs]

Hi Mommabird,

I went through this at the 8 mo mark and nearly tripled her A time too. Had tons of help from the EASY board and found my DD wanted a short A before bed if that helps. Thought I was doing the right thing all these months with a shorter A in the morning and a longer one in the evening before bed, turns out it was the opposite! Thanks to help from these boards it was finally figured out! I too went by the recommended A's and where they should be and didn't think much more of it.

My DD is 9.75mo old now and we're doing 4.5hrs A (used to be 4-4.25hrs at 8.5mo) in the morning, followed by a 3.5hr A to get an UT nap (as we can't fit everything into 1 day anymore  ) then 2.5hrs before BT.

Hth xx

[weaver]

Really, there are no rules about which A time should go where.  You need to look at what works for your LO. 

Having said that, your first A looks an hour shorter than the second. Is that right?  I would push the first nap forward to 9.45 (and then on to 10 after a few days) so that the rest of the day shifts later too and evens out a bit.  It might be that that short am 2 hr A plus 1.5 hr nap means she can do the long A and a short nap in the PM because she's well rested.  Pushing her first A a bit might even it out. 

[*Ali*]

I thought the exact same thing as Anne about pushing the morning nap later.

Our A times were always short after short naps yes. Mine did also like a shorter second A times when on one nap. Even now on a nap day my 2.5yo DS2 will do a 5.5-6hr A time before his (1.5-2hr) nap and 4-4.5hrs after.