Nap advice - timings, dummy and shush/pat

[creations]

Sounds like you 've made great progress with the naps and cutting out the walking

Many LOs go thorugh a phase of short naps at this age but would you like to post your current EASY times for us to look at?  We may spot a possible tweak that could help.

[Sunnyday01]

Last two days have generally been like this

6.20 WU (but resetting every 20 mins or so from around 5am)
7 feed
8.45-9am go down for nap - 30-35 mins max though could be OT but wakes up happy, thought could be UT so extended a time and got same result!
11am feed
11.45-12 go down for nap - 1 1/2 hrs - one day went through, the other day need settling aroubd 45 minutes
3 feed
4.30-4.45 - nap - 30 mins
Bath - 6.30
Bottke/bed - 6.45
DF 10.30
NF - anywhere between 2.30 and 4


I don't mind the short naps too much as we are getting the long nap at lunch generally which is good but we are getting that 5am wake up pretty much every day not always at exactly same time but within a 20 minute window. The only time he has gine past it in the last week without waking us when he didn't get much sleep in the day which makes me think we shouldn't try to get more sleep?l

Also we have upped his feeds to 9oz (!) in an attempt to eliminate the NF (or push it later) but he is leaving milk in the bottle during the day but drains the bottle at night. should I rescue the amount in the bottle in theNF to try and get him to take it in the day. Both DH and I feel with the amount of milk he is taking in, he should be able to go a lot longer through the night than he is. He is a big boy though - nearly 8kg.

[creations]

If it was me I'd try extending the first and second A times another 15 mins.  Extending the first A time may not give a longer nap but it could help to bring the morning WU a little later which would be an improvement even without a longer nap.  The second A time increased could help to eliminate the need to resettle at the 45 min mark and help him to get through without help.

There's a much longer A time between nap 2 and nap 3, how is he during that time? Looks like 3hrs.

[Sunnyday01]

He's generally ok, I'm starting to wonder if we are pushing the two nap territory as he just doesn't look tired in the morning, thus morning we were pushing 2hr 45!!

[creations]

If his mood is okay and he doesn't look tired in the morning then I'd be very tempted to move his nap later.

[Sunnyday01]

What a typical routine at 6 months?

[creations]

A guidance routine at 6 months would be 3hrs A, 2 long naps.  So something like:

WU 7
A 3
S 10 - 11.30
A 3
S 2.30 - 4
A 3
BT 7

But bare in mind we rarely have such perfect routines like that as it depends on LO.  Some LOs like longer first A and shorter after, some do 2hr naps which changes the length of the day, some do shorter nights and will not do 12hrs... so it really is only guidance and not a schedule to adhere to.

Rather than CN, long nap, CN, you be looking at combining those 2 CNs into 1 long nap to make 2 long naps.

Solids are usually introduced at 6 months which sometimes means LO can go a bit longer than usual between milk feeds as they are getting a bit of something between (which accounts for the A time plus nap time equalling more than 4hrs also because LOs will tend to wait a bit longer between E if they are sleeping).

[Sunnyday01]

Ok thanks for that, it's useful to see a rough idea. Where do feeds/ soles fit in to that though?

I'm keen to push that A time more in the morning but then his sleep would coincide with his 11am feed.

[creations]

How old is your LO now Sunnyday?  I thought around 4.5 to 5 months?

[Sunnyday01]

He's 19 weeks to tomorrow!

Last 2 nights he's woke at 9.30pm after a 7pm bedtimem usually goes to 10.30 dream feed easily. Luckily has been relatively easy to settke. Definitely seems like he us going through some sort if change with his sleep.

[creations]

Some people find that they can give a little top up milk before the nap to see LO through over the nap.  But looking at your EAS times on your NW thread if he wakes at 6.15am then you can go up to 3hr A time and a 1.5hr nap before worrying about E.
WU 6.15
E 7
A 3hr
S 9.15 - 10.45 (1.5hr nap)
E 11

Speaking of your other thread - it may be time to choose where you would like your advice. I see bec gave the same advice I did about moving the first nap later but it can be very difficult to have information in two different places and at times when people have different information advice may vary and appear conflicting due to not everyone having all the info available (for instance I have gone over to your other thread to look at your recent EASY times to work out your E question from here).  it also takes up more of your time to give information in two place - time when you could be getting a cupp

What do you think?

[Sunnyday01]

Yes that makes sense. I guess the other A Times would need to depend in how he is after his nap.

The other thread was meant to be about DF and amount of milk rather than morning nap but I think we got on to it because bec asked for the routine.

[creations]

I guess the other A Times would need to depend in how he is after his nap.

Yes and how long the nap ends up being.
It's not impossible to run your E and S times separately. If you track the E at every 4hrs but track the A/S times as needed you'll be able to see if a nap and feed are going to bump into one another and adjust the E accordingly by either bringing the E a bit earlier or trusting LO to wait a touch longer whilst he finishes his nap and then E on waking.  Honestly we never had a routine like in the books, but we did have a regular routine of our own with suitable E times, A times and S times which worked.

[Sunnyday01]

It all seems to be getting worse, he had just over 3hrs of naps yesterday and didn't seem to be overly tired, went to bed about 7 although took a while to fall asleep in cot after bottle. He then woke up at 2 (went back with dummy), 4.30 - took feed snd fell straight back to sleep then woke up ready for the day at 5.30 - was chatting to himself etc.

I just feel so stressed and confused about it all, his naps now seem to coincide with our morning baby groups and I just feel stressed and cinstantly worrying about when he should sleep and how long for rather than enjoying him and spending some quality time with him. I just want this EW to be a bit later but whatever I do it doesn't seem to work.

[Bella89]

Hey, how old is he now?

Sorry, I haven't have time to read through all your story, but is it possible that the morning light is waking him up? I find it confusing for LOs especially in the summer when the sun is up sooner :/