Help with getting 3.5 month old to sleep longer

[donvitol]

My 4th child is 3.5 months old. From 2 weeks till about a month ago he was a 45 minute napper. He has AR and I found that he sleeps better on his tummy, and he started taking longer naps. For the last month we are struggling again. I go in at the 35 min mark and. HTTJ which helps sometimes. His first nap is usually longer, but really struggles extending with the other naps during the day. His A time was 1 hr 30 min.  I tried increasing to 1 hr 40 min with limited success. It seems like it is the right A time for him as he starts to get pretty fussy then.

Typical day:

Up at 730
E- 7:30
S-9-10:30
E- 10:30
S- 12:10-1:00
E-1:30
S- 2:15/2:30ish-3ish

And so forth

It is weird that he starts squirming around the 40 min mark and finally wakes at 50 minutes.  I am usually patting his back when he is squirming. He is swaddled so the jolts aren't a huge issue. If I am able to get him to sleep past the 50 min mark I have to stay in there for a lot longer because he keeps squirming.

Thoughts?

[Ima shel Alon]

1.5h and 1:40h A times give you the same length of naps? For how many days have you tried the new 1:40 h A time?

[donvitol]

Yes , same length of nap. Been doing 1:40 for almost 2 weeks now. Though it has decreased some since I am having him take any long naps after the morning one. But his ATime after the first nap is 1:40.

[donvitol]

So things were a little off today due to an appt we had. He took a short nap for his first nap, and then was kept up for 1 hr 55 minutes. So super tired, but now he easily is taking a long nap. So maybe he does need longer A time. Could he be ready for a 4 hour Easy at 3.5 months?

[Ima shel Alon]

I would say yes, more A time sounds like it's worth a try. I would try and stick with 1:50-1:55h A time for a few days and see if it help. He might not be ready for 4h EASY but 3.5 cycles (more or less of course).

[donvitol]

Will try, thanks!

[donvitol]

Still not having any luck over here. Have pushed a time to up to 2 hours and it didn't help. Pu out more or accept that it is developmental?

[donvitol]

Also Ds just turned 4 months now

[Ima shel Alon]

Can you please post your day in an EASY format? I would need to see exactly the A times, how long he is napping, how is waking from a nap (happy or grumpy) and how is he sleeping at night.

[donvitol]

Today's schedule:
Wake 7:20
E-7:20
S-9:15-10:30
E-10:30
S-12:30-1:30
Partial waking at 45 minute mark. Ap back to sleep
E-1:30
S-3:35-4:35
Partial waking at 45 min mark. Ap back to sleep
E-4:35
This is where we are right now. Think I will just do an early bed time instead of trying to squeeze in a catnap

While I am usually able to AP him back to sleep, he will eventually wake up as I can't sit in the room with him the whole time. Have 3 other kids. Am already in there for 25-30 minutes.

He always wakes up fussy but think that is more due to him being hungry

So he is still taking that first nap.pretty good, it is the other 2 I can't extend

[Ima shel Alon]

There are couple of things you can try, there is HTTJ and W2S, there is info about it here: How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods) both methods take time to work, so IIWY I would actually start with the quickest one which is to increase the second and third A time by 5-10min. We don't want to increase it too much so he doesn't get OT, but perhaps he needs higher A times than average and that would do the trick.

[donvitol]

Have tried w2s consistently in the past with no success. I do httj for every nap already

Have upped a time to about 2:10 for the last week with no success. Still waking at 45 min mark, but at least he is easier to AP back to sleep.

For about the past week we have states having a lot of NW. He is a little sick, and just turned 4 months so I thought it might be a growth spurt, but is going on too long now. Could this be from him being kept up too long?

[Ima shel Alon]

NW can have lots of reasons - Ut, Ot, first nap too early, too much a time before BT... it's really difficult to say.
If he is still doing 45min naps then I'd think it might be developmental and you might need to just wait it out.