Need Help ASAP-quick question on accidental very long A!!

[JennVanessa1083]

Hello!

I have a quick question for today's mishap. Very briefly:

My DS is 7 months old and on the following EASY (give or take 30 minutes):

WU 7:30
A 3.25
S 10:45-12:15
A 3.25
S 3:30-5 pm
A 2.75-3
S 7:45-8 pm

I'm working on tweaking his EASY since napping lengths are all over the place. Anyways, today he went out with my husband to do some shopping leaving me to have a nice break!

Well disaster struck and my very alert DS ended up not napping at all and stayed awake 4.25 hours!!!!! That has never happened. Needless to say he was a mess when he got home. I nursed him to sleep quickly and he knocked out...whew!

My question is now what? This is uncharted territory and I am unsure what to do with the rest of the day. This is his first nap (started at 12:20 pm). Do I let him sleep until whenever (up to 2 hours) then carry on with the regular A time then cap his second nap to make BT at 8? He woke up at 8 today due to a rough night of teething and UT/OT cycle yesterday. I don't want a 9 pm bedtime bc that will throw everything off and we are FINALLY establishing an earlier routine ugh!

Any quick tips asap would be soooooo appreciated thank you!!

[trimbler]

Personally, I'd let him sleep up to 2h now if he will, but be aware that you may need to reduce his next A as he'll likely still be tired, so you could make it 3h even if you think he'll settle then. If he does a short UT nap then that's ok too as you'll get to BT at a reasonable time. Of course you may not need to worry about BT getting too late if he does an OT short nap, although I'd try to resettle a 30/45min nap if that's what he does now. Keep in mind the total A time you think he needs in the day, and think about what he 's already had - so you're looking for another 5h or so in total split between his second and third A times. Perhaps someone else has a different opinion, but that's what I'd aim for

[JennVanessa1083]

This sounds great and very helpful!

I was thinking capping the next nap at about an hour after a 2.75-3 hr A  and reduce the last A to 2 hours or so before BT. Does that sound ok?

Do I look at total awake time for the day to figure this out? How do I know what his total awake time for his age should be?

[trimbler]

Yes that could work, depends of course on how the first nap goes/went! Overall sleep needs vary, so I just looked at your EASY from the first post to see that he gets around 9.5h awake time or a bit less, so just bear that in mind - of course that's assuming he's getting about what he needs usually? Sorry, I can't guarantee anything but we all have days that don't go quite according to plan and I tend to consider their usual sleep/awake requirements to work out what they need to catch up again, if that makes sense. You may find that tomorrow is just as usual or it may take a couple of days to get back to normal again, LOs vary in how they cope with these things. Hope it's not as bad as you fear, as I said, these things happen all the time

[JennVanessa1083]

Thank you!

Well it was worse than what I feared 

Major OT led to an hour or so scream fest 30 minutes after BT. He will be 3 hours below his usual daily sleep. I'm bracing myself for a rough night and dreading it since I'm exhausted from last nights bad night. Feels like I'll never have a sound sleeper sigh...

Anyways, he usually bounces back in a day or two so depending how the night goes will determine if I should shorten A times tomorrow.

I do appreciate the help though.

[trimbler]

Oh dear, sorry to hear that, hope as you say that he does bounce back in a few days, how was the night? Yeah just take it easy with A times today...