18 week old and short awake times?!

[shinysarah]

Hi ladies, my DD is 18 weeks old and has an awake time of 1.5 hours. Anything more and she's becomes way overtired if I try to push it...Looking at the average awake times she should be staying awake for longer?!?! Any other LOs similar? Xx

[becj86]

How long is she napping when she does sleep? How are her nights? She could be upset because she's so used to the 1.5hr A time and quite OT in which case increasing A time can help.

[shinysarah]

She naps well. If I put her down after 1.5 hours (including wind down) she'll slepp for 1.15-1.5 hours.
Her afternoon sleeps are usually in car, pram, picking other DSs up so she doesn't have as longer sleep...
her nights are great. She goes down for a bottle at 7, asleep by 7.30. Wakes between 4-5.30 for a feed than back off until 7amish.
If I extend her A times then she wakes after 45 mins?!?!?!? She's been at 1.5 for about 2 months now! I fell stuck! She's 19 weeks today!

[becj86]

Well if its working, I'm tempted to say "don't fix it".

I've not seen a baby this age sleep decent naps on such short A times... but in reality, she's only sleepin gone decent nap, right? Have you tried resettling the 45min WU when you extend A time? I would imagine she's possibly extending her night with that long AM nap after a short A time and just having a short day with short naps. 

Can you write out an EASY?

[shinysarah]

Not sure if I mentioned she was 3 weeks prem and 5lb...And I also have to be a lil flexible as she's my 3rd LO...

Well, have gone for 1.40 mins A time today for her morning nap...and so far so good! She's got past the 45 mins mark!!! her longest A time for this nap EVER!

Wakes between 7-7.30 but won't have a bottle because she has one between 4.30am & 5.30am early hours, every morning/night. 

This is kind of a usual day although she can now go for 1.15-1.20 between feeds so she's starting to transition, hence the need to increase her A times.

E 8AM 3oz
A Play at home 1.5 hrs A time
S 8.30-9am depending on what time she woke up & sleeps for 1.15-1.5 hours


E 11am 5oz
A Play at home & A for 1.5 hours
S Between 11.30-12 but this sleep is usually out on chores in pram or car. She usually has 1 hour-1.15 hours

E 2pm 4oz/5oz
A Is usually awake for 1.5 hours then it's the school run so she's either in pram or car.
S 3.15/3.30ish for 1 hour because of other children and teatime

E 5pm 3-4oz
A for 1.5 hours
S catnap in pram or car for 45 mins

A for bath
E 7pm 3-4oz
S 7.30pm

1 wake as said between 4.30-5.30.

The wake in the early hours I could do with getting rid of as she will only have 3 oz on her first feed of the day!!!
Do you think it's worth reducing the volume I give her?

[becj86]

Alright, so prem and little makes a difference at this point. Your usual day looks pretty reasonable really, she doesn't seem to be getting OT. She could likely cope with longer A times - those naps are mostly UT but not drastically so, so a 15min increase here and there may get rid of that last nap and give you longer naps.

WRT the NF, she's doing well to sleep such a lovely long stretch already You could reduce the feed and see if she'll take more in the AM when she wakes.

[shinysarah]

Thank you so much...yes, I'm now stretching the A times...again we're on 1hr 40-45 today so feel v pleased that I'm heading in the right direction...The NF is now being reduced too...I love a plan ...Thank you for the advice! xx