5.5 month old w/45 minute afternoon nap-time to transition to 2 naps?

[melamont]

Hello! My 5.5 month old son (who was 3 weeks early), has been working on extending his A time to 2.5 hours. We are on a 4 hour EASY and he seems to be doing great with longer A time, BUT his afternoon nap has shortened drastically. He used to take 2 x 2 hour naps plus 45 minute cat nap, and is now taking one 2 hour nap in the morning with a 45 minute afternoon nap and 30/45 minute cat nap.
He is so OT from lack of sleep in his afternoon nap, it is making his evenings pretty fussy until bedtime. Last night I put him down early (7:15pm), and no matter what time he goes down he is always up at 6:30am.

Is it unreasonable to expect him to sleep past 11 hours at night? Is he getting too much sleep in the morning nap? I would ideally like him to extend that afternoon nap and perhaps shorten the morning one a bit. Do I need to push the whole schedule forward to account for his morning waking at 6:30am?

Here is our EASY lately:

6:30am wake in crib
7:00am bottle...8am solids
A
9-11am Nap

11:00 am bottle
A
1:30 nap (only 45 minutes at this point)

3:00pm Bottle
A
5:00pm cat nap 30-45 mins
A

Bedtime usually somewhere between 7:30/7:45

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[melamont]

I should add his 11am bottle he does not eat very much, maybe 5 oz, and probably because we have started solids. I also wonder if hunger is the reason why he is not sleeping well at the afternoon nap? I have tried doing solids at 1:00 before his nap, and he hasn't taken to it much yet.

[jessmum46]

11h at night is a good night for many LOs, I used to be of the mindset that all LOs could do a longer night as my first DD almost always did 12h and often longer if she needed an early night for some reason.  DS is an 11h night man though, occasionally a touch longer but when I stopped aiming for longer things did somewhat improve for him sleep-wise.

In terms of your routine I would extend his second A time a bit.  If he's only doing 45 mins he may not be tired enough just 2.5h after such a good first nap to sleep any longer.  Try a push to 2h45 for a few days and see what happens.

I wouldn't think hunger was a major factor, but if you're concerned maybe offer a bit more milk before his nap rather than solids.  If he has cut back on his milk intake since starting solids I'd be tempted at this age to ease up on solids a touch too. His main source of nutrition needs to be milk for several months to come, and at not yet even 6 months solids should really only be experimentation with taste/texture if at all. 

I'd also suggest if he is having a short afternoon nap then you pull his CN earlier and have him in bed a bit earlier.  You can probably do a 13h day on two good naps plus a catnap, but if afternoon naps aren't great then he's probably going to bed a bit OT and BT a bit earlier may help x