Where did my napper go??

[Edhmore]

Hi, desperate for advice since we are on a nap strike and we're about out of ideas!  A bit of background, LO is now 4.5 months old.  We were doing the 3 hour EASY like a champ (was actually a little weird how great that was with 3 solid naps and a cat nap) until a week before his 4 month to give us a week to transition before I went back to work/nanny started.  So, we successfully transitioned to a 4 hour EASY with respect to E and A but somehow left the S behind... LO does get pretty cranky in the evenings but poor little guy is only getting 2-2.5 hrs on average so makes sense.  Here is our schedule the past two weeks:

7:30 - Wake
7:45 - E
8-9:15 - A
9:15 - wind-down
9:30 - S (usually falls asleep fairly easily after chatting with his mobile or getting a pacifier if a little fussy) for 30-45 minutes
10:00-10:15 - Wake up.  Usually not really upset but awake! 
10:15-11:30 - Try to soothe in crib to go back to sleep.  Sometimes succeed in getting another 30-45 min nap in, but usually fail
11:30 - Wake/give up
11:45 - E
12-1:15 - A
1:15 - wind-down
1:30 - S for 30-45 minutes. Sometimes succeed in getting another 30-45 min nap in, but usually fail
2-2:15 - Try to soothe in crib to go back to sleep.  Sometimes succeed in getting another 30-45 min nap in, but usually fail
3:30 - Wake/give up
3:45 - E
4-5:15 - A
5:30 - Catnap
6-6:15 - Wake
7:30 - E
8 - wind-down
8:15-8:30 - asleep

We're at a loss!  The bright spot is that he sleeps through from ~8:30 (with a DF at 10:30) until ~7:30 (some times with a wake up a little earlier but goes back to bed with a pacifier until ~7:30).  I know that there's been a lot of transition for him with the new schedule (although no issues with the 4 hour spacing for eating...) and my going back to work/nanny starting but surely there has to be something we can do to get his naps back!  Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!

[lily_layne]

That is a lot of transition for a little guy and 4 months is typically a tough age for sleep so that certainly doesn't help. Lots of moms notice short naps cropping up around this age. I am thinking that since he's getting such a good sleep at night he may need a little more A time before his am nap. He may be waking because he's just not tired enough for a longer nap but then ends up OT for the next naps because he started the day with a short nap and has 3h A time until the next nap. Does that make sense?

What about trying:
WU: 7:30ish
Wind down at 9:30 and aiming for sleep by 9:45 (ideally until 11:15/11:45)
S: 1:30 (until about 3/3:30)
CN: 5:30
BT: 8/8:30

If the first nap is short, I would bring the second nap forward 15-30 minutes.

[Edhmore]

Thanks so much for your advice.  I hadn't thought about extending his morning activity time.  We tried to extend today and did our wind down at 9:30 and he was asleep by 9:40.  Fingers crossed for this nap...

[lily_layne]

I hope you get a long one!

[lily_layne]

How have naps been lately?

[Edhmore]

Hi!  They have been much better (knock on wood).  Extending the first A to 2.25 hours was a great idea, it helped push that nap back closer to 1.5 hours and makes the rest of the day flow a little better.  A couple of other recommendations that we got that we incorporated was:

(1) to sit in his room towards the 30 min mark (when he had been waking up) and be at the ready to put back in his pacifier before he was able to totally wake up.  Seems like a variation of the wake up to sleep method, but was effective.  After a couple days of that, he seems to have gotten sleeping through that first cycle.

(2) to introduce a lovey - we have one of those super soft small blankets with a fox attached to it - that I've been carrying around/sleeping at night with to help smell like me.  Sounded a little weird but you can see him stroking the blanket in between cycles and I think probably helped with the transition to my not being there for going down for naps, etc. This only works if your baby is old enough for you to feel comfortable with something loose in the crib, and you can watch him on a monitor, etc.

We're traveling to see family this weekend, which will be nice but I'm hoping that it doesn't cause a regression on this front!

[lily_layne]

Glad to hear things are going well. Both of my LOs have a lovey. DD actually weaned herself off her pacifier because she started sucking on her lovey instead.

Travelling does generally throw things off but try not to stress about it and just enjoy your time with your family. We're always here to help you get back on track if you need!