Need expert opinions!

[choc]

Due to a school run from 3pm to 3.30pm, I am having to work out an easy for my 6 month old that I am not overly happy with. We have dropped the catnap due to taking ages to drop off and also 5am wu.

Because of the restrictions with the school run I know some ot is going to happen but I would like opinions on how to minimise it! This is what we are currently working on for the last 2 days
Wu on and off from 5am, out of cot at 7am.
S 10 til 12
S 3.30 o 4.30
Bt 7.
The reasons I chose this were because I have to have a silly long A time somewhere so chose middle of the day instead of before bedtime. However he has seemed really ot at Bt and I wonder is it because of super long A then 1hr nap?
The other option is
Get out of cot 7am
S 9 to 10.30
S 1.30 to 3
Bt 6.45
This is the earliest Bt we can logistically manage.

So which will cause the least ot?
1) long nap, long middle A, followed by 1 hour nap and 2hr30 to bed
2) reasonable A times and naps then 3hr45 A to bed?

[lily_layne]

I would say the second option is better because that's what worked for my DS (and many of my friends' LOs). When he first dropped the CN, he could only manage 3hrs to bed but once he adjusted he easily did 3.5/4.

[choc]

Well he slept through last night after we have been on the first routine for 2 days, so might stick with it and see if that continues. If it starts to unravel (I worry he won't continue to pull a 2 hour nap once his ew improves) then I will try the other routine.

[lily_layne]

Good plan.

[choc]

So the sttn was a one off. Since then we've had 3 days in a row of 30 min 2nd naps because he is so over tired after the long A. Then we've had wu 1 hour  after bedtime for the first time in his life. And still having 4.30 / 5am wake ups. So not sure I should continue with that routine.
Should I give the second one a try? The 2 things I am worried about are the long last A time and the first nap being too early and reinforcing his ew. Currently he naps 2 hours at 10am. But I leave at 3pm for school run so naps need to be done by then as waiting til afterwards just doesn't seem to be working.
And advice /reassurance?

[choc]

Ok I have another plan! I've managed to work out that with the long easter weekend and then school holidays and also calling in a few favours I can avoid the school run for near enough 3 weeks. By that time he will be over 7 months and hopefully a little better able to handle a 3hr30 A time. So from tomorrow I will put him down at 3pm. It will look like this
Wu 7
S 10 to 12
S 3 to.......? Hope fully 4/4.30
Bt 7ish

Now this is probably a silly question but the last 3 days he has taken only a 30 min pm nap.  Will I be able to fix this by reducing A time? I am scared it is a habit now and I won't ever  get a longer nap! Am I being silly?!

[lauradj]

Nicely organized!!  It'll take a few days of a consistent nap time before you see whether it'll iron out or not.  Can you resettle him?

[lily_layne]

It'll take a few days of a consistent nap time before you see whether it'll iron out or not.

I agree. I don't think you'll be stuck with 30 min naps. I'm sure that once you shorten the A time, it will get better.

[choc]

No. I can't resettle him for that one, not sure why. Just had 3.30am wu so things are getting worse not better at the moment. Really hope I can change this now.

[choc]

Hi again, looking for a bit more advice please! So I have reduced his A time and am still getting short naps around 40/45 mins.
Yesterday I did 2hr45 A and got 45 mins. So today I went for 3 hours (the same as his first morning A)  and got 40 mins. Should I try 3hr15 tomorrow? I'm not sure what's going on as I thought 3hr would be the magic number!

Editing to add that I managed to resettle! First time in over  a week I've been able to resettle afternoon nap. So surely 3hr is close to the right A time then. Should I stick with it now?
I will wake after 1hr30 which will be 4.30 pm.  Is a 7pm Bt still OK or should it be later? If it needs to be later then I may start to cap at 1hr and keep Bt at 7pm.

[lauradj]

I would recommend you hold at 3hrs, particularly as you were able to resettle.  It really will take at least a week for you to accurately determine whether that' the A time that works for him.  Remember he's used to have his sleep disrupted so he's sort of starting over. 
If he's awake at 6:30/7pm, definitely make sure he's asleep by 7pm at the latest.  A 12hr day is pretty typical for little kids.  They just don't have the staying power adults do.  Not that we all do...

[choc]

Ok I will stick with 3hr 1st and 2nd A and then we put him down at 7pm so last A was 2hr30. Fingers crossed things start to improve now. Thanks for your guidance so far.

[choc]

I'm back again, sorry. So we had an Ok night and his nw was pushed back to 5am til 6am then back to sleep and I woke him at 7am. That's better than 3am! However what I am finding hard is that because of the school run I cant adjust my day if the first nap goes wrong. I am not doing school run right now so it's not so much of a problem but I am always keeping at the front of mind as I will be back on it in a few weeks.
So today he has slept 10 til 11.30 (which I known is a good nap) instead of 10 til 12. So his 3hr A time will fall at 2.30 which is no good on a school run day.  How can I get round this? Offer 30 mins at 2.30 then another 30 mins at 5pm? Then 7pm bed? I'm sorry for so many questions, as you may have gathered I'm pretty stressed with it all at the moment and wished I never had to do that flipping school run. It's made me so anxious about nap timings.
Any advice over what to do if he doesn't pull 2hrs nap in the morning would be great x

[lily_layne]

I actually started using set naps around that age because I found the unpredictability of A times to be too stressful. I did adjust the second nap a bit (15 minutes either way) depending on the first nap and I used EBT on days when naps weren't good. If it was really bad, I did throw in a CN (but not often).

I think the best plan for now is to enjoy this time when you're not doing the school run and sort things out when you're back at it. You can spend all the time you want making plans and often these babes don't follow them which makes it frustrating. I found my life got easier when I wasn't always thinking 2 steps ahead.

[choc]

Ok that's good advice, thanks! I will take it easy for now then think about set naps in a few weeks.
We're getting some really long nws so I might post on night wakings board for some help with that.