Author Topic: 6m naps all over the place!  (Read 2198 times)

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Offline helspells

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6m naps all over the place!
« on: March 05, 2018, 11:24:56 am »
My little girl turns 6 months ina couple of days. She was an angel baby as a new born and would sleep/nap anywhere. At about 3-4 months I introduced napping in her cot using 90 minute awake time as suggested on the sticky threads. She has done so well I took my eye off the ball until it all went wrong a week or so ago as I was still working on a 90 minute A time.  I see from other threads that for 6 months A time can be as much as 2h 30. I need to extend her awake time but I’m really confused. She still seems to need a 90 minute awake time first thing in the morning and gets quite grotty at the 90 minute mark. She sometimes naps for 2 hours first thing. But then we struggle with the next nap. Takes ages to settle her and often only a short nap or some days no nap at all. I’ve been extending second A time towards the 2 hour mark but she’s being v difficult to settle then short naps. She only seeems to yawn or show tired signs an hour or 90 mins after naps so quite difficult to read. Generally at night she is great apart from the occasional 4-5am party in her cot but she usually resettles after 5-20 minutes until about 7.  Given her A time is so short for her age what increments should I extend it in? And what A time should I be aiming for??

Offline becj86

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2018, 22:19:33 pm »
I see from other threads that for 6 months A time can be as much as 2h 30.
or even 2:45-3hr though I suspect not 3hr for your LO since she's been pretty content with 1.5hr as recently as a week ago.

She still seems to need a 90 minute awake time first thing in the morning and gets quite grotty at the 90 minute mark.
She's very used to it - she's been doing it for half her life. Babies can get into the habit of acting tired because they're aware this is their normal sleep time when they're not actually tired. Sleepy cues can also signal that its time to move to another activity at this age.

I’ve been extending second A time towards the 2 hour mark but she’s being v difficult to settle then short naps.
This can happen for a few different reasons - sometimes LO is OT because they're used to napping at an earlier time and will nap 30mins. Sometimes LO is UT having pushed through the previous nap time but not made it to an appropriate A time and this manifests in a 45min nap.

Given her A time is so short for her age what increments should I extend it in? And what A time should I be aiming for??
I think you should aim for 2:30-2:45 initially. WRT how you do that, there are a couple of options:
- Fix the routine in one big jump of 1hr A time which will result in some OT nap wakings that you can probably resettle and all should be sorted in a week or so though you may need to do another increase to 2:45 to get there. This option does have some OT involved and you have to stick with it or your days can get very messy very quickly.
- Increase A time by 15mins every 3-4 days and you should be just about caught up to where she needs to be in 4-5 weeks. This option runs the risk of being very complex with OT/UT loops establishing and patterns not being reliable to tweak routine plus given she's difficult to settle for naps at ~2hr, probably a lot of nap refusal.
- Somewhere in the middle of the road is to do one big jump of 30mins in A time, hold it there for 3-4 days then increase by 15mins every 4-7 days if necessary. This runs both risks stated above.

Offline helspells

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2018, 09:04:32 am »
Bec thank you SO much for your reply. This is massively helpful.  Think I will do the big jump as suggested in the first option. I’m pretty good at sticking to my guns and she’s generally a fairly amenable baby! 😁 thanks again for your help xx

Offline becj86

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2018, 10:21:40 am »
Keep us posted :) Don't be too disheartened if the first day goes well and the next few are a bit messy.

Offline helspells

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2018, 10:36:21 am »
Still struggling with this... have extended to 2 h 30 A time and she seems fine but now she only naps for one sleep cycle then won’t resettle - is she UT do you think?  Should I extend to 2h 45A time? Also I’m wondering if she does wake after one cycle then won’t resettle should I reduce her next A time to prevent gettingOT and if so by how much?

Offline helspells

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2018, 13:50:10 pm »
Just to give an idea of today’s crazy schedule so far

0630 wake and bottle (she usually wakes at 7 or 7.30)
0900 fell Asleep in car on school run transferred to cot then
0945 woke and bottle
1230 nap
1340 woke and bottle

Rest of day tbc but would imagine a third nap or catnap may not happen! Unless she dozed off on school run at 3.30. So will have to plough on til bedtime and she will probably go through but wake at 4/4.30 am then will resettle her which usually works but can take 30 minutes....

😭😭😭



Offline becj86

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2018, 02:08:29 am »
Yes, I think UT, needs a bump, perhaps try 2:45...

Offline helspells

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2018, 11:03:41 am »
Thanks again Bec for your help! I’ve stretched to 2.45 things are much better but getting 1 x 45-50 nap and 1 x 1.30-2h nap. They also seem to alternate. Sometimes the short nap is an sometimes pm. Should I extend again? Is 3h A time to much for a Just turned 6mo??

Offline becj86

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Re: 6m naps all over the place!
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2018, 07:29:24 am »
No, 3hr is within the normal range for 6mo - give it a shot. Just make sure she's had 3-4 days at least on the 2:45 consistently before increasing again.