Help with nap timings - 6months

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Think I’ll have to live with the 5.45 wake up! L

it's certainly not my favourite time of day.  Mine woke as early as 4.30am on occasion, but usually 5/5.30am. I eventually managed to drag it through to 6.30am through sheer determination.

If the W2S really doesn't work aftera few days trying to extend the nap maybe add 5 min on the A time, it doesn't always need a big increase.

[Mummy1982]

Yes thankfully it’s not as early as 5am at the minute! He’s waking every other night at the moment and has a feed (tried upping milk in day but not worked)  and in those days he sleeps later but only about 45 mins.

The last 2 days his second nap has finished at 2.45 - I can’t do bedtimecwarlier - should I push him through to 7 and see if it makes a difference to his naps - I sometimes wonder if he wakes early because he knows he’s going to get a catnap later?

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Hmm..it might be worth trying to shift both naps later so that you don't end up with a long A before BT or else you'll need a CN and maybe later BT.  A very long A time before BT can cause EW. A nap too early in the morning can also add to EW.
What if you put in a CN one day then later BT and try to shift it all around when you go back to 2 naps the next day??

[Mummy1982]

Ok I can try that.

Yesterday he woke up at 2.45 - I tried a catnap at 5 but he just moaned for 40 mins so I got him up in the end as I had no option of going out in buggy or car to get nap. I guess ideally his cat nap would have been around 5.30 at the earliest in terms of a times but then bedtime would have been pushed back until 8/8.30 which I don’t really want to do.

Anyway he was in bed for 6.45 and asleep by 7. He woke at 11.30 but he was wet so not sure if he woke due to being it at bedtime or because if that. He also had a feed and went back to sleep pretty quickly and then woke at 6.15 this morning.

[Mummy1982]

Hi - I’m back again we are still really struggling with naps, the last few days we have had a 5.30 wake up it doesn’t seem to matter when I offer the morning nap or if I do a cat nap or not we get the same time usually 5.30-5.45. Because he is awake do early, the first nap is early - around 8.30-8.45. He is sleeping well here - I guess because he is tired from waking early - we get 1hr 20 - I have tried extending it using w2s but it makes no difference at all. Wakes anywhere between 9.50-10.05 which means next nap is around 1 - this can vary from 30 mins to 1hr 20, however again I cannot extend it no matter what I do. He’s waking so early from this which means he needs a cat nap to get him to 7 for bedtime, but I can only get it in the car or in a buggy not in his cot. I’m not really sure what to do and if I’m doing things correctly - I feel he should firmly been on 2 sleeps now,

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Hi
It could just be that he needs longer in the morning before his nap.  If the nap is too early it can lead to earlier waking in the morning.
As he is 7 months now the guidance is around 3hr 15 but you'll see on here:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=84884.0
that some get more than this. My own DS will have been on longer for his first A time of the day, he always needed longer than guidance for the first A time and shorter for the second and last.  As you are offering 3hr to 3hr 15 perhaps focus more on the 3hr15 or increase a bit, another 5 or 10 mins may help, if not it's okay to go a bit longer until you find the sweet spot.

Night length might be okay at 10.5hrs.  That's what mine did too.  If you have a CN and a 7pm BT he might be getting as much sleep as he needs and just unable to do a longer night.

[Mummy1982]

Ok thanks, will push towards that 3.5 hours or bit longer for the next few days

[Mummy1982]

We seem to be having some success- past 3 days we have had 2x2hr naps! In fact at the 2hr mark I’ve had to go in and wake him up!

However we’re back to 5.30 wake ups so wonder if I’m letting him sleep too much/too late in afternoon?

Yesterday was

6am - wake
9.15 - take up to bed read story and put down - asleep by 9.25
11.30 - I went to wake him up - was happy as he stirred as I went in
2.40 - in bedroom with story, asleep by 2.45
4.40 - woke him up as thought it may interfere with bedtime
7.00 - feed, story and in bed by 7.20. Asleep at 7.25/7.30.

Should I cap the afternoon nap a bit as I want to retain 7.00ish bedtime.

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We seem to be having some success- past 3 days we have had 2x2hr naps! In fact at the 2hr mark I’ve had to go in and wake him up!

Brilliant! Easy fix!

Hmmm...you could try a capped second nap but just be aware that capped naps do not suit every LO.  Sometimes their mood ends up so awful that it is preferable to keep the long nap and just put up with the later BT for a while. I know when my DS's BT moved from 7pm later and later up to 8pm I wasn't keen, I was always exhausted by the end of the day and really needed to stop at 7pm, but the reality for me was that he was easier to be with if he wasn't a terrible grump, so a longer nap and later BT was a much calmer routine and actually I surprised myself and got used to the 8pm BTs, so much so that when his routine changed and he needed earlier BT I found it hard to fit every thing in and kind of missed spending that last bit of time with him.  in a way I was resistant to my own routine changing but once it was changed I just got used to it.
so, yes, you can try a capped nap but it may not be the best option - just see.

If you do choose to cap the second nap shorter I think I might suggest letting him wake naturally from nap 1 so that he is not woken from both naps.  you might also find reducing the A time a little before nap 2 helps to reduce the nap length (I know you just increased the A time!).

[Mummy1982]

Ok naps are going well but we’re back to 5am/5.15 wake ups! Don’t think a push in a time is needed as he’s definitely ready for his nap when I put him down.

Here is the past 2 days routine

WU 5.15
Nap 1 - up at 8.30 asleep
Wu - 10.45

Nap 2 - 2pm
Wu - 4

Bedtime 7 askerpby7.15

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He's getting 2 great naps and might not actually need or be able to do more than 10hr nights with those 2 good naps during the day.
A couple of things you could try:
- check for black out in the bedroom. Another thread has just reminded me of how important good black out is. Any chink of light can have LO waking earlier.
- cap one of the naps, perhaps making sure that neither go past 2hrs.

[Mummy1982]

Ok thanks, his room is very dark as his window is the side of the house where the sun shines in the morning so I made sure it was dark even before he was born! Lol.

Ok I might cap one of his naps - potentially the afternoon one.

Is there a post on here somewhere saying roughly how much sleep is needed at each age?

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Rough guidance on sleep times, try not to get too focused on it as it can drive you a bit nuts if your LO doesn't do the exact amount  (ok it can drive me a bit nuts, I always worried my DS didn't sleep enough, he couldn't make those hours):
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0

reducing one of the naps is more common around 8 months I would say but as always every LO is different.

[Mummy1982]

Brilliant - thank you - I’ll try not to get hung up on it but I like having a guide!

He’s 8 months in 10 days time! Eventually I want to move to a 45-1hr nap in morning and then a longer afternoon nap.

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Ah quite close to 8 months.
Perhaps reduce the first nap just by 10 mins and see if things improve overall?  You can continue to shave a bit off that nap as the weeks and months go by on the route towards 1 nap but I'd only take a bit off when you see it is needed rather than as a matter of course.  You might also need to bring the second nap a bit earlier as you reduce the length of the first nap.

Hope that makes sense.