5.5mo UT night waking

[Melissa0785]

I'm new to this and trying to work out my EASY.  She's napping great, but the last 2 nights she wakes up around 12:30-1 to eat and I can't get her back to sleep.  She lays there and is mostly quiet/mantra with random yelling.  She's yawning and looks like she's trying to settle but can't.  She was up until almost 3 last night so I gave up, nursed her again, and she finally fell asleep.  Maybe it's a UT issue, but she seems so tired with a 2hr A and good naps that pushing the A doesn't seem like the answer to me.

Her day today looks like this...

7am wake up

E: 7:15
A:
S: 9am {awake at 10:22}

E: 11
A:
S: 12:25 {woke her at 2:25}

I don't know what to do with the rest of the day... catnap and possibly have too much day sleep and another UT NW or cut out the catnap to try and make sure she's tired enough for tonight with an earlier bedtime?

[creations]

Hi and welcome to BW

This is a prime time for LOs to move towards dropping the CN, but the transition can take a while and really you'd need her A time to be longer for it to work otherwise you'd be expecting her to do something like a 14.5hr night.
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months
Whilst I understand your reluctance to move the naps as they are working well, I'm afraid some changes will be inevitable in the longer term. With 2 good 2hr naps you could possibly look at dropping the nap on slightly less than the 3hr A time (which is where you'd be aiming for CN drop). Increasing the first A time could possibly result in a 2hr nap rather than the 1hr 20 she's doing at the moment, even if the nap doesn't increase in length though you'd need the 2 naps spread out more across the day. When you are ready to increase the A I would begin with an extra 15 min and hold it there at least 3 days to settle into it before increasing any more.

You might find that capping the nap could eliminate those NWs if she is UT. Without seeing your full day/night EASY it's hard to know what is usually happening, but if for instance her CN is 40 min then try capping at 30 and see how it goes for a few days.

The other thing to keep in mind at this age is developmental disturbances. If she is trying to learn to roll or sit this can disturb her night sleep and other than giving her as much floor time as possible to practice the skill you would really need to ride it out.

A few things to think about there.
What do you think?

[Melissa0785]

Thanks for the reply.  I moved her A time to 2:15 starting yesterday and both naps ended at just over an hour followed by a 25 minute cat nap.  She did sleep through the night except for her 1 wake up to eat.  Yesterdasy EASY was

7:45 wake up
E: 7:45
A:
S: 10:00 {up at 11:07}

E: 11:45
A:
S: 1:30 {went down a little late from being out during the morning; up at 2:45}

E: 3:45
A:
S: 5:00 {up at 5:25}

S: 7:00 up at 1:30 and slept until 7:30

I'll trade night sleep for shorter naps any day, but are the shorter naps coming from the adjustment to A times or should I take it slower and not start with a 15 minute adjustment?  Her morning nap today was just over 1 hour and she's waking up from her second nap now and it's only been 45 minutes.

[creations]

Increasing by 15 mins isn't likely to be too much in one go.  Do still consider other factors, development leaps, teething etc and also keep in mind it generally takes a few days to settle into a new A time.
If there are teething symptoms you could try medicating before a nap.
It could also be that she was a little UT from having a full nights sleep - meaning she needs more A time now she is STTN again. See how she is after 3 days on 2hr 15. (If WUs start being at predictable times you could pop in to do a W2S to help her transition).