Need help with CN length / timing

[ENMS]

Hi! DD2 is 14 weeks. We don't have a 'standard' EASY because she usually likes to take a super long midday nap and short naps the rest of the day. I think I'm getting the last CN wrong, either too long or too late? We struggle with BT for the past few days. She falls asleep ok but doesn't get into a deep sleep and wakes up in the evening.  Her Wake ups in the morning have gotten earlier too.
Today went like this:

WU 6:45
E 7:00
S 8:20-9:00
E 10:30
S 10:50-2:00 (this A time is longer than usual because we had to go to DD1's school - usually A is 1h30-1h40). I had to resettle this nap after 40 minutes)
E 2:10
S 3:40-4:10
E 5:10
CN 5:30-6:10
E 7:00
BT 7:45

I leave the CN to be a bit longer because I want BT to be between 7:30 and 8 ideally so if I make the CN 20 minutes she gets OT and then BT is more difficult. But this does not seem to work well for her so I am open to suggestions?

She used to do 12h nights with 2 NF's but since this week the nights are shorter, like 11h or so.

[newkidontheblock]

Hi there. Just one suggestion- how about moving straight to bath and BT routine after she wakes? Would that work, do you think? That's what I used to do with my baby. She preferred a short A to bed

[ENMS]

Ok that can be done. I muat admit I never troed it since I was letting her have a longer CN I thought she would need a full A

[newkidontheblock]

Again, I can only speak from my experience but with E, even when CN ended late, and it did get pushed later as her A times increased, she still went to bed at 7pm sharp. That is, even if CN ended at 6/6.15. It was astonishing for me but she is very clock oriented and her BT was fixed.

[Martini~]

Hi Honey! I was posting on your previous thread and hope previous problem was solved:)!

Re this catnap, I agree with Fleur. DS really didn't mind short A till bed if the catnap was short like 10-20min.

[ENMS]

Yes Marta previous problem was solved thank you so much!

I will definitely try it. I really thought she needed a full A!

The good news is I was able to get her back to sleep this morninh after her 6:15 feed and she slept until 9! So at least that will give her a little bit of rest!

[Martini~]

In general, I would also think that you may be going towards a 3 naps per day routine at 4 months old. Standard EASY would go for 2x 1.5-2h and one catnap of 45min, but with a 2.5-3h midday nap I would just go for two shorter and mid-day long nap. Worth to keep in mind in coming weeks. And you last-nap-of-the-day problem will solve:).

[ENMS]

Yes but she wakes a little early from her third nap (4ish). Maybe if I can get her back to 12h nights (instead of the current 11) it would work. Should I push her A times you think? She is at 1h30-1h40 currently

[Martini~]

It's up to your judgement Honey if she is ready. At 3mo they usually are at 1:30, at 4mo they are doing 2h - but my DS to get a good nap needed 1:45-2:00 A at 3mo already and that's when we moved to 3.5h easy and 3 naps. Third nap on 3h EASY was getting shorter here and frankly speaking dropping 4th nap /catnap/ didn't help. I just had to push first and second nap to lengthen them to push the routine.

[jessmum46]

Just a thought from me as well - don't fall into the trap of thinking you can make the 12h night come back!!!  It may come back but it may not, got in a big mess here for ages thinking we could achieve it when in fact DS is an 11h man most usually. Accepting that (reluctantly!!) actually helped us get on a better sort of track x

[ENMS]

Thanks Katherine I will keep that in mind!

[ENMS]

So we tried it tonight and it went well. We did a 15 min CN from 5:40-5:55 and then went on with BT. She went to sleep a little later than I was hoping for bc she was hungry and we had to make her a bottle but she was easy to get to sleep and stayed asleep!

[newkidontheblock]

Great!