Can EW lead to short naps?

[ameliebob]

Hi there! For the past 3 days my lo has been having EW around 5:00, then back to sleep by himself around 5:10-15 and wake up with a full blown blast at 6:00. He usually wake up around 6:30-45.
Since then, I tried to keep the same A time as usual and he was doing ok with it but he woke up at 40 min each nap. Settled himself in 5-10 min and back to sleep for the rest of the nap. (Total of about 1.5 hour)
But yesterday I started to really worry as the afternoon nap, we only got 30 min (wich is OT if I got it right..?) his fussing was not like usual so I let him fuss a bit and 10 min after, he was back to sleep, BUT HE COULDNT STAY ALSEEP!  poor little guy, he slept another 10-15 min, woke up, fussing for another 10 min, back to sleep another 10-15 min, and then same story but this time I woke him up.

This morning I cut back the awake time to 2:10 as he was waaay too cranky and still got a short 40 min nap, but this time he didn't go back to sleep.

He usually sleep for 40 min only in the afternoon. Sometimes we get 1h+ but I don't know why sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. My mother got a 2-1/2 hour nap after only 2:20 of A time! When we manage to have a long nap he gets 3 hour of A time. I'm sooooo confused about this nap but my first concern is about EW... Any clue?

[ameliebob]

sorry i forgot to post the routine (in short: 2.5, then 3, then 4 hour of awake time between naps and sleep)

06:30 WU + feed
07:45 Solids
09:00 Nap
10:30 WU

11:00 Feed
12:30 Solids
13:30 Nap
14:10 WU

15:30 Feed
16:45 Solids
17:30 BT routine (bath, pj, tummy massage)
18:00 Feed
18:15 BT

and he goes to sleep all by himself, and settle in less than 5 min when put to bed at the right time. he has a lovey and suck his thumb.
the routine for nap is very short and easy but he knows that it's naptime ; close curtains, have lovey in my arms, kiss him good nap and put in the crib. he starts sucking his thumb right away when i give him his blankie  too cute loll

[anna*]

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
If you have a look here you can see he probably needs just a push in A times. At 7 months most babies are at 3-3.5hrs A time. 40 mins naps are a pretty classic sign of needing more A time.

[ameliebob]

Sure I get that. But he's already having a hard time to do 3 hour. I can't see why I should push him to do more... We did 3-1/2 hour already for a couple of days  and it only paid back with 30 min naps and a way overtired baby waking up screaming. That's why I'm having so much trouble with finding the perfect timing. At least with 3h he doesn't wake up screaming at 40 min.. 

[anna*]

It might be that you need to make the transition gradually, like add just 10 mins to the A time for a couple of days, then 10 mins more for a couple of days etc until you hit the sweet spot.

[ameliebob]

And when he has a "broken" morning nap (woke up but fell back asleep) he seems tired too. Should I stick to the usual 3+ awake time?

[anna*]

I'd think so, or very close to it. I think we more often see problems from cutting the A time back too much, yk?

[ameliebob]

  we did 3.25 today before afternoon nap (and didn't seem overtired and went to sleep pretty fast) and he's waking up screaming to death after 20 min

[anna*]

To me that would suggest discomfort or something else at play :/

[ameliebob]

That's so strange it's the first time we get a nap this short and I went to soothe him, rock him, and instead of crying/screaming, it was like he was just screaming not of pain, but for fun  he was looking around, making these kind of screaming sounds, then some fussing, then looking around... Put back to bed, he continued but stopped after a minute or two and now he's calm and there's not a sound. Maybe he fell asleep... We'll see, I'll keep you posted lol I'm so stressed out

[ameliebob]

Fell asleep for another 40 min... We will try again tomorrow.