6 month old ready for 3 to 2 naps?

[newbie_momsie]

Not sure if DD is chronic tired or just ready to transition to 3-2 naps. She is 6 months and almost 1 week old. Been an EW baby past 2-3 months around 5am. Past couple of weeks she stirs and sometimes even babbles around 4:15-430am.

She usually gets tired around 2-2.5hr A time before first nap. Then 2.5 hr of A time before 2nd nap. Both naps almost 1.5 hrs long. By the time cat nap arrives it gets hard to put her down because she needs exactly 2.5 hrs A time to be tired enough to go down and fall asleep by herself. After 30 min cat nap she needs 2.5-3 hrs A time before bed which draws out bed time and her day ends up being 13-13.5 hrs!

Yesterday we were out a bit later so we missed her cat nap and she ended up doing 3 hr A time By the time we got home. So we fed her and put her straight to bed at 630pm since she was up at 630am. But then she woke up wide awake at 430am this morning! So we fed her at 5am and put her back to sleep. She woke at 630am and we got her up. But after 2 hr of A time she napped for 1 hr 45 mins. Not sure is she was overtired and hence a shirt A time and a ling nap to catch up from the EW? Then she did 3 hr A time and napped 1 hr 50 mins for her second nap. Now I am at a cross road deciding to to eliminate cat nap or not.

So since she doesnt consistently do 3 hrs of A time, should I try to cut out the cat nap and put her to bed slightly earlier?   But I worry this will cause her to wake early again

Can anyone shed some light on what DD is going through and what should I try? I am leaning on skipping cat nap and let her do 3 hr A time since she had a 1 hr 50 min long nap beforehand.

[jessmum46]

Sounds like 3-2 with that ew being encouraged with a short first A and a long day. I would start from the beginning of the day, slowly extend that A time a few mins every few days. And shorten the CN to prevent the day getting longer than about 12.5-13h max. If she does 3h after a 30 minute nap, try cutting it to 20 and getting her down for bed after 2h or so. On days where both main naps are good I would skip the CN and do 3h A before bed if that gets you to a reasonable time it can be a rough transition but try to resist the temptation to allow an early first nap to catch up. Better to keep a longer A time there and if the nap is OT at least you should have a chance of a resettle or just bring the second nap earlier x

[newbie_momsie]

Thx for your help jessmum! I appreciate your reply.

Can you clarify some things you mentioned?

1. How does a short A time encourage her EW?

2. I can work on extending her A time each day for several dAys. Should i increase by 5 mins each day and for how many days? For ex, 5 mins on day 1 and another 5 mins on day 2, etc? I read someone else advice on another thread to increase by 15 mins and hold for 3 days?

Does A time mean from the time DD wakes until the time she falls asleep (or put in crib awake)?

3. I think at 3 hrs she gets OT though. Some days she can barely do 2.5 hrs probably due to EW. So I don't know to drop the cat nap or not. Part of my gut instinct is saying she isn't ready.

I gone over her eat, play, sleep journal and her pattern is wake up around 5:15am and falls asleep at near 7:15pm for the past 3 months. That is 14 hrs! I tried reducing cat naps but she still won't fall asleep until close to 715pm.

Example of her day but varies depending when she wakes up before 6am:

510am WU - lie in crib
600am Eat
738am Nap for 1 hr 25 mins
1106am Eat
120pm nap for 1 hr 20 mins
200pm Eat
305pm nap for 35-40mins.
3:45pm WU
500 Eat
600pm put in crib but she didn't fall asleep until 6:55pm
*almost 14 hr day. Usually she wont fall asleep until 7pm or so. Yesterday she was put in bed by 645pm (fed her at 540am and put back to bed and woke at 620am to start her day) but she didnt fall asleep until 713pm. Some days she fusses and cries which i suspect is OT.

I am struggling to shorten her day because she won't fall asleep earlier than 7pm

What can I do to fix her EW and bedtime Which affects when she naps during the day?

[newbie_momsie]

Just want to add today DD woke at 510am. slept 1 hr 30 for nap #1 and then 35 mins for nap #2. Since she had a short second nap we let her sleep for 1 hr 30 for nap #3. She woke at 415pm. We put her to bed at 550pm since she rubbed her eyes twice. She rolled around andcwas quiet until 630pm. It is now 645pm and DH went in to soothe her cuz now she is crying. Almost 13.5 hr day. Just like all the other days I have been recording.

Should I have kept her last nap to under 45min and even though her second nap was so short and just put her to bed earlier? or was it ok to let her have that long third nap and should have increased A time afterwards so BT would be closer to 7pm so it is long enough for her to get tired But this will lead to a very l9ng day for her?

[jessmum46]

A short first A time means she may wake early as she knows she has a chance to make up for lost night sleep pretty soon after.  We'd usually suggest pushing that first time slowly to stop her having chance to do that.

When increasing A I would increase 10 mins or so, 15 is ok too, just depends on what you think she can handle, and then don't increase again for a few days to give her chance to adjust.

A time is eyes open to eyes closed

She may not quite do 3h yet, but part of that is because of the long day/short night thing she is doing currently.  She won't handle longer A times because she's tired from short nights, so you keep doing shorter A times, her night stays short etc etc.....it's a cycle and pushing A times is the way to break it.  You know her best but just from experience here (and with my own ) I know that mums often think LO isn't ready for the 3-2 and can spend weeks trapped in an UT/OT loop.

I would bring BT much earlier actually, I suspect she's OT by the time you put her down and struggles to settle.  I would actually do only 2h, maybe 2.5h after the catnap.  Yes that means a very early bedtime but with an early waking sometimes it's what you need to do temporarily to allow her to catch up on sleep.  The best way out of the cycle though is to push the awake time and get rid of the catnap.

If you get a day like today again I would do a short catnap rather than a full nap and keep the day to a sensible length x

[newbie_momsie]

Thanks jessmum!

Is this what  DD EASY should look like if I push first A time by 10mins for the next 3 days?

515am WU
6am Eat
755am (before 745am so ifbi push first A time then this nap will be 10mins later)) nap #1
925am Eat
1155am nap #2
125pm Eat
355pm nap #3 for 30min? 45 mins? Which?
425pm Wake up
530 pm Eat
625pm bedtime (this is 2 hrs from waking up ar 425pm)

13.25 hour day is ok?

[newbie_momsie]

One more thing to add jessmum. I look back on the past 2 weeks logs for DD routine. Found out that i tried from 30 to 45 mins cat nap before bedtime. No matter how early i put her to bed, tried 1 hr 45 min to 2 hrs, she still won't fall asleep until she reached 2.5 hr A time and some days 3 hrs but at 3 hrs she is crying and fussing

So i dont know how short or lobg her cat nap should be and how short or long her A time is before bed. What do u suggest? Thanks so much! I am going nuts about her routine as I tried different time frames and nothing is working to get her to sleep earlier and longer to prevent EW.

[newbie_momsie]

I also forgot to ask...

Do i increase all A times by 1p to 15 mins or just the first A time of the day?

[jessmum46]

Sorry I was at work to weekend so not much time online, how are things?

There's no 'right' answer but I would say if you get a good nap after increasing the first A, try pushing the second one a little too.  I know this is a frustrating phase but honestly if you can stick at it and work towards two naps things should settle down x

[newbie_momsie]

No worries! Thx for replying! This morning I increased her A time by 10 mins and she is napping now. Waiting to see if she will sleep 1.5 -2 hrs. Will see how the next few days go. Thx so much!

[jessmum46]

Keep us posted

[newbie_momsie]

Hi jessmum!

Tomorrow will be 3rd day holding DD's A time at 2 hr 40min. I only incteased it by 10 mins. So after the 3rd day, do i bump A time up by another 5, 10 or 15 mins?

[newbie_momsie]

We had a good day yesterday with extending A time and she napped about 1.5 hrs for first 2 naps. She still had a 30 min cat nap though as A time is only at 2 hrs 40 mins right now.

Her day looked like this:

6:03am WU
6:30am eat
8:43am nap 1 - slept 1.5 hrs
10:15am WU
10:30am eat
12:59pm nap 2 - slept 1hr 27 mins
2:26pm WU
2:40pm eat
4:37pm cat nap for 30mins
5:07pm WU
6:15pm eat
7:00pm bedtime
7:30pm still awake so hubby went to hold her until drowsy
10pm dreamfeed

This morning she still woke up early...around 430am. What am I doing wrong? She is still waking up early

By 5am she didnt self soothe back to sleep so at 5am i had to hold amd rock her for 30mins to get her back to sleep. She woke up around 625am.

[jessmum46]

Doing nothing wrong hun the 3-2 is a pain and we had a good month of EWs with both of mine before it sorted itself out.  Just keep going, you will get there. Stick where you are on A times until naps start to be a bit less than 1.5h, then I'd go for maybe another 10 mins x

[newbie_momsie]

it has been since March that she mostly wake up around 5am-530am. Will she ever sleep longer than 9.5 hrs lol? It has been so long that she constantly wake up so early. I worry if her bed time is at 530 or 6 pm then she will wake up before 5am