Author Topic: Help with nap timings - 6months  (Read 7105 times)

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Offline Mummy1982

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #15 on: April 13, 2018, 12:05:40 pm »
No worries, sorry to hear about your back hope it's feeling better.

Naps are not great - only getting 45 mins at a time. He has just started sleeping through the night (7-6.30) the last 2 nights.

Today he'd been awake 2hr 45 and he was getting miserable so I put him in his car seat ready as we were going out and he fell asleep in it before we left the house - it was about 3hr by the time we left. He woke up after 45 but that may have been because we were getting out the car at that time. But if I do that time in the cot at home I still only get 45 m. I'm it sure what to do as I was hoping to drop to 2 naps but as we're only getting 45 mins then we are still on 3 as we need a cat nap later on to get to bed time

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2018, 08:16:16 am »
So the long morning nap has also returned to 45 mins? Is that daily now?  Have you tired the W2S again?

I think if the night has settled he may need more A time in the morning (having had a better night sleep) so aim for the full 3hrs and possibly another 10 mins.  Some times when they need a little extra A time they can get a bit grouchy about it because they feel tired, it takes a little while (a few days say) to get used to the longer A time.  It can be tricky to extend though because as you've just described, you put him in the car seat and he went off to sleep on his own so it's tempting to put down at the earlier time to keep LOs happy and to follow the cues.


Offline Mummy1982

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2018, 13:40:22 pm »
Yes all naps have got short - if we do manage to get a long morning nap - we always get a short afternoon nap meaning a cat nap is still needed.

Today he woke at 5.45 and went for his nap at 8.45 after 5-7 mins of talking he was asleep and he had just under 2 hours! We then put him down at 13.50 (3hrs 10 after waking) as he was getting fussy - after 5 mins he was asleep but awake at the 40 min mark

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #18 on: April 14, 2018, 13:43:45 pm »
He doesn’t seem to want a lof if sleep in the day which is fine by me - even days he’s had 3 x 45 mins he doesn’t seem to be miserable or overtired. I’m wondering if it better to give him a short nap in the morning and then try to push for a longer nap in the afternoon to allow us to go out and about to groups? Or is he still to young for that?

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #19 on: April 14, 2018, 18:49:52 pm »
It would be very unusual for a LO this age to only need one long and one short nap. He's only about 6.5 months, yes?

I think I'd probably increase the A time after a good nap and see if you can get another longer one in.
Is he waking so early every day?  He used to wake later so he could well need that morning A time longer too, to encourage him to sleep until a later time in the morning.


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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2018, 06:37:59 am »
Yes he’s 6.5 months (7 months in 27th April) we are also getting 5am wake ups too and no resettling (he’s not crying he just talks to himself until we get him up) which makes me think a push in a time is needed. Will go for 3hr 10 for a few days and see where it gets us!

What age can you introduce a short nap and longer nap? Is this the age that you can also have set nap times?

Thank you for your help - I’m sure I’ll be back!


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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2018, 08:16:52 am »
Back already - did 3hr 15 this morning after a 5am wake up and still got 45 mins

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2018, 08:19:09 am »
The age of one long and one short nap varies for each LO but it would be more like 8 - 10 months where people see the A times being so long that 2 long naps don't fit into the day any longer.  At around 10 months LO can show signs of moving towards 1 nap which can take a while so that really is the time of 1 long and 1 short until LO can handle the A time needed to move to 1 nap properly.
Your LO is a few months off yet.

Set nap times we don't usually advise until LO is over 12 months and on 1 nap.
Some families need set naps sooner than this because of their circumstances.  That's why we try to respond to individual needs to work with both the LO's and the family needs to get a reasonable routine.

With regards to this morning's short nap I'd do a full A time before you attempt nap 2 and then use the W2S to try to keep him asleep for a decent time.
I would do another day of 3hr 15 tomorrow I think and use W2S at the transition.

Is there a chance he is OT before BT? That can also cause earlier waking.


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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #23 on: April 15, 2018, 08:42:16 am »
Ok thank you, I’ll research w2s as I’ve never done it. I know he can transition as we do get longer naps occasionally!

Ok I’ll do full a time again before second nap and see how we get on. I don’t think he’s tired before bed as he’s having a 20-30 Mum cat nap around 4.30-5.15pm to get him through to bedtime at 7ish as he is usually awake from his second nap at 3.

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #24 on: April 15, 2018, 08:53:40 am »
If you scroll up to my first reply to this thread there is a link to the W2S (wake to sleep) method.  It thought you'd already given it a go which is why I didn't expand further in my latest post.
have a try, sometimes it just takes a few days to get the nap consistently longer. It can help LOs to get into the habit of longer naps.


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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #25 on: April 17, 2018, 05:38:01 am »
Ok so things are just getting worse

Today I really watched to see when he seemed tired and also tried W2S to see if that would make a difference (I read that it can take 2 or 3 days to make a difference).

He woke at 5.30 and at 8.45 he seemed to be tired - showing disinterest in any toys. So I took him in to his room read a short story, sang a song and put him down. He cried (seemed to be resistance rather than OT but was asleep in 5 minutes. Went in at 30 mins and stroked his cheek to make him stir and then left. He woke up at 40 mins. He was happy though and not crying. Kept him up for another 3 hours. Started to fuss so did bedtime routine and put him down, thinknhe may have been OT as he cried out at 20 mins. Went in at 30 mins and he woke up at 40 mins crying but would not resettle. ( he doesn’t seem to like my help to get him to sleep - it seems to make him worse. Anyway I ended up getting him up and we had to go for a walk in the buggy to run a few errand, he fell asleep at 3.45 and woke at 4.30. Bedtime was at 7.

After sleeping through for the last 5 nights, he woke up at 2 firstly he was just chatting to himself but after 30 mins would not resettle at all and was getting upset so he had a feed and went back to sleep he then woke at 4 and 5.30 but went back to sleep both times within 10 minutes..

I feel at a real loss. I’m not sure if I’m doing too much a time or if he needs a really long first a time

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #26 on: April 18, 2018, 08:47:14 am »
It sounds like he is UT (under tired) for the first nap.  You could increase that A time without necessarily increasing all the A times across the day.
Maybe try a change of scene, move to a different room, if he loses interest in the toys.  Or perhaps a small snack?  Would he be interested?

If you read through the W2S link look at option 1 for naps, instead of disturbing him at 30 mins sit and wait for him to start stirring. Have your hand ready or on him and begin a little rocking or patting with a firm hand.  This can be more successful and also if you catch him when he is barely waking he may not realise you are there but be soothed back to sleep by the motion.  Mine would also be annoyed with me being in there if he fully woke and only wanted to get up out of bed, it was better he didn't realise I was there.


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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #27 on: April 26, 2018, 05:30:34 am »
Back again! Naps seem to be getting slightly better. I took naps back to the 3 hour mark and we are now generally getting 1hr 20 naps which is great. I’m slowly working on increasing the A time now by 5 min intervals to see if we can extend them anymore.

The majority of nights we are going with no wake ups now. Bedtime us 7pm but no matter what naps he hands had in the day and if he has had 3 hours before bed or 2 hours before bed - he wakes up every morning at 5.45 in the dot! It’s only about 15-30 mins earlier than I would like him to wake up really but not sure if it’s sonething I should just go with and eventually he’ll sleep longer? It does cause an issue at the moment though as 2 x 1hr 20 min naps doesn’t quite get us to bed time but I can’t do an earlier bedtime due to having a toddler to sort out. Any thoughts?

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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #28 on: April 26, 2018, 18:51:43 pm »
The 1hr 20 naps are likely UT and he'd need to do a third cycle of 40 min to get 2hrs (LOs with 40 min cycle can do 3 cycles). This could mean you need to teach him this habit as he is used to waking.  Again W2S can help with habit forming on nap length - not just A time increase.

The mornings sound like that's just when his body clock is set to wake, mine was the same. Always waking early no matter what. I just put up with it until he was older as nothing I did seemed to resolve it.  I did though manage to shift his body clock when the clocks changed by shifting the day by 1.5-2hrs instead of just 1 hr. You could try that, it leads to short term OT before the body clock is overridden and they wake later.  You may also find that it just works out fine once you get one or both naps up to 2hrs though as that will take up more time in your day, BT can be later.



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Re: Help with nap timings - 6months
« Reply #29 on: April 26, 2018, 19:30:13 pm »
That’s great thank you, I hadn’t thought that his 1hr 20 was still due to UT so will definitely try wake to sleep to try and extend them. Plus if this works, like you say we should be able to get to bedtime easier.

Think I’ll have to live with the 5.45 wake up! Lol. His brother wakes between 6-6.15 anyway so it’s not like he’s up extremely early!