Hi, just popping on to lend an extra pair of eyes.
LaraAndrea has given wonderful advice and support. I just wanted to offer another perspective from years hanging around on these boards and having seen babies with A times a long way short of average for their age and how long it takes to get them on the right track. If you were to consider that on average you'll add 15min to your baby's A time per week (this accounts for setbacks, days when you just can't push, etc.) and that between 4 and 6 months of age, a baby's A time goes up by 15min every 2 weeks or so, you've a long, long time to get back on track. You know the song about the frog that goes up two jumps but slips back down one - that's what ends up happening when people add A time gently when they're a long way off appropriate A times and things can get very messy and it can take months to get on the right track. I've supported a few mums here through jumping straight to average A times then tweaking from there. It is a hard and very intensive couple of weeks but things tend to end up much cleaner much sooner. If that's something you'd like to try, we're happy to help with that. It is a hard few days initially but often the self-settling issues tend to resolve at least partially just because baby is tired enough to take a proper nap and that resolves the undercurrent of chronic OT that builds up from so many short naps.