6 month old is not cooperating,!

[Emami]

Gah, short naps are back! It's been a couple of weeks but I held off posting because I thought either an A time bump or riding it out would help, but after today I think I need some extra eyes and opinions please. Today was ridiculous - 2x 30min naps total.

So a bit of Annabel background - she started life as a terrible napper but has been an independent sleeper since about 2 months old. Naps gradually improved until she was reliably getting a long morning nap, and either a long pm or two CNs in the afternoon. All was good. Her A time was hovering around 2.5hrs for a while, so when naps reduced to less than 1.5hrs I bumped it to 2h45 and started getting half hour naps. Now they are all 30mins all the time every time no matter what her A time - I've tried everywhere from 2.5 - 3hrs.  She just turned 6 months so since she short naps any which way I'm trying to keep it more at the 3hr end to make sure it's age appropriate.  Two weeks ago when this started I could resettle her, now I can't. I have no idea if she's OT or UT. She doesn't wake happy but when I go to resettle her she's all smiles and seems wide awake. And her mood is fine, she doesn't seem sleep deprived at all.  I, however, am going a little batty because she MUST be tired!!

Today this happened:
WU 8:00
Nap 11:00-11:30
Nap 1:45-2:15 (reduced A time because of short nap)
And that was it!!   
I put her down again at 4:15 and she just chatted and messed around for an hour acting completely UT, which she can't possibly be! No crying. So I got her up at 5:15 and did BT at 6 and am keeping my fingers crossed for tonight.  She just didn't seem the slightest bit tired - no crankiness, no red eyes, no yawning, no nothing. Just one happy awake baby!

In other news she is at a half birthday and a wonder week, her first tooth has just come through, and 3 weeks ago we changed country and time zone. She seemed to have adjusted fine to the jet lag though after a couple of rough nights so I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.  The tooth (and I'm sure the second one isn't far behind) may be partly to blame as she had a couple of cranky days about a week ago, but has been back to herself and meds haven't made any difference so I stopped giving them. Help?! Am I missing something obvious?

[Spandanna]

Have you tried cutting the A time back a bit? Possibly a bit OT? My youngest is 6 months and because he's the third it's really hard to get the routine sorted with school runs etc but I find if I get him down after 2h10-20 A time he does the best long naps! much longer than that and I get 45 mins....

What are the nights like?

[Emami]

I think cutting back wouldn't help as I upped her A time to begin with because her naps were getting shorter and seemed UT. Maybe I went a little too long.  Nights are good, she either STTN 11hrs or will do 13hrs with a NF.  Last night she slept 6-5:45, I fed her at 6 and put her back down hoping she'd stay quiet until 6:30ish, and I ended up having to wake her at 8:45. So she slept almost 15hrs. To be fair I wouldn't expect to get long naps if that was a typical night, but some of that was catch up from yesterday.

[Spandanna]

Firstly, I'm really sorry I haven't got back to you sooner. Had a lot going on here and not been back on BWF recently. How are things? Sounds like the nights are great...  Just wondering if the 6am could have been the start for the day? Although she clearly was still tired to go back to sleep and need waking.... but with that much sleep at night that definitely changes the game with regards to A time. After a 13h+ night I would say push the A time further.... and after a short nap cut it right back to help get a longer afternoon nap. For a while my DS coped on just 30 min morning naps on the school run and then after just 2 hours A time (at 5.5 months) he would then sleep for a good 2h, sometimes longer. I have also found that putting white noise on helps him go longer for naps, I don't use it at night time. On an 11 hour night I find DS, now 6 months can manage about 2h45 before he has to go to bed in the morning, he will do a couple of hours then, now I'm just playing around with the afternoon A time but 2.45 - 3h seems about right ...... so if 11h is more the norm then maybe cut it back just a bit or keep the last part of his A time super chilled?

[Emami]

Yep, I'm sure 6am should've been the start of her day on that occasion. If she'd slept 7-7 instead of 6-6 I definitely would've got her up, but 6am seemed dauntingly early to start a day of likely short naps.

Things are consistently inconsistent. She did a good morning nap for a few days and then yesterday they were all short again. Today she is sleeping now and I haven't heard a peep (45mins so far). I think I just haven't been able to get her A time right the last few weeks. I'm pretty sure she needed a bump but it seems like I went too far. She hard to read though because she's such a happy baby even when she's OT it looks like UT because she's all smiles. Its pretty rare that she wakes grumpy and stays grumpy.

I think I will stick with 2h45 for a bit as 3h seems too long for her right now. I'm wary of ending up with A times that are not age appropriate as I find it easy to get left behind when things change so quickly in these early months!

[Spandanna]

Yes I totally know what you mean. Also, at this age teething plays a big part and some days they just manage that slightly longer nap! We are having similar dilemmas with the happy smiley baby disguising his tiredness! Today I took DD swimming and DS2 ended up having 3h45A time because although he was tired after 2.5h I took him into the pool which perked him up, then fed him as it was lunchtime!! eeek. Seems a good idea to stick with 2h45 for a few days and see how that goes, can always play around with 5 minutes more or less if needs be? Is she taking solids now? Does she sleep better after a lunch time feed?