Where do I start from?

[öykü]

Dear all,

I need help with my 6,5 month old DS' routine - he is a spirited baby, breast fed and started solids during his 5th month.

We have been following a 3-hour EASY since he was 3,5 mo, but it clearly is not working anymore. About a month ago everything got upside down and we started waking
multiple times a night. He has never been a good sleeper anyways, but it feels it is progressively getting worse.

Here is our routine (what it used to be);
E 6:00 wake up and BF.
A
S 7:30 - 8:30
E 8:30 BF (mom tops up before leaving for work)
A
S 10:00
E 11:30/12:00 fruit puree + EBM
A
S 13:00
E 14:30/15:00 vegetable puree + EBM
A
S 16:00/16.30 catnap
E 17:00/17:30 BF
A
S 18:30 BT routine with bath and BF, sleeping by 19:30
DF around 10.30-11 pm
Wakes up once to BF during the night

There are also some major changes in his life. Both his grandmas stayed with us, for about a month each (living in another country than our families) to help us with him
as I started working when he was 4 mo. Now they are gone and after the holidays he is starting daycare for the first time, so I do not have the time for transitioning to 3,5 or 4 hour EASY.

Here are my specific questions;

- I have been observing him these two days. His naps have never been worse - no matter what I do, I cannot get past the 30 min mark These two days we put him to sleep 4 times, each 30 min. - horrible.. Should I just start enforcing two naps? His first nap is always around 7.30 - he gets very sleepy only after 1,5 hour A time. If we are lucky he sleeps 45 min to an hour there. Should I try to extend his A time here?
 
- Currently for naps, if I start his wind down the minute I recognize his tired signs, he goes to sleep in 10 - 15 min without fighting, so no problem there. But he has problems staying asleep - can it still be UT?

- He is starting day care in 10 days. Any suggestions/tips on how to adapt to this change?

I know this has been a long post and my apologies if it is all over the place. It seems there are just so many things to address but I do not know where to start from. 
Thank you for reading and I look forward to the suggestions.

[jessmum46]

Hi there,

You are definitely right the routine needs to move on . Babies tend to move to a 4h routine around 4 months and to a two nap routine by around 6-7 months, so I would say that's where you need to head fairly quickly.  The problem with sticking to a too-young routine is that you get in a nasty cycle of short naps and undertired night wakings so LO ends up very overtired, then extending A times becomes a struggle.

How many days per week will he be at daycare?  Is there a set nap routine there or will they do what you ask?

Overall though I would start extending A times, aiming to increase 10 mins or so every few days until you get closer to 3h and can drop to two naps.  That should hopefully help you.  To give you some idea my LO is a similar age, and can handle well over 3h A time, up to 3h30 sometimes.  His first A time tends to be shorter, but still at least 2h30 x