Hello - I just wanted to touch base and make sure I'm assessing the situation correctly as we move forward. We've been doing fairly well at nights and for his morning nap. After some cuddling and holding - he seems to go down fairly quickly. It's his afternoon nap I'm really struggling with - where we are getting lots of fussing and crying - even when we carry him to sleep - and I can't quite figure out how to manage it. For reference, his waketimes are at about 3h30mins now. Rough schedule is as follows:
- 7am Wake up and milk feed
-8am breakfast
- 1030am Nap 1 (usually 1.5 - 2hours)
-12/12.30pm Milk feed
-1pm lunch
- 3.30pm - 4.30pm Nap 2
-4.30pm milk feed
-5.30pm dinner
-6.30pm milk feed
-7pm bedtime
The morning nap seems fairly consistent at the moment, and I just go 3.5 hours from the time he wakes up to the afternoon nap. For the afternoon nap, he often takes a long time to go down, if he goes down at all (which he hasn't been doing for the last 3-4 days), and then will often do a nap of 30 mins, which suggests he is overtired. I try and not let him sleep after 4.30pm so I can keep bedtime to 7pm. If he misses the 2nd nap - I push bedtime up to around 630pm. He's been sleeping around 12 hours at night. The routine for naps and bedtime is fairly similar. He's always struggled with his afternoon nap (he hated the 3rd nap when he was on a 3 nap routine) but I know it is way too early to transition him to 1 nap because of his waketimes. I'm also not sure whether 2.5 hours of naps (which is a good day for us) is enough at his age. When he skips his second nap, or when it's too short - he does have some night wakes and early morning wake ups though they have been fairly brief.
Is the fussing because he's near a transition? How do I manage this afternoon nap? I have occasionally been getting his nanny to take him down in a stroller at that time as a last resort and sometimes he'll nap and sometimes he won't, but it will be 30-40 mins at the most.
Would appreciate any thoughts or advice you have on - the schedule at the moment and any adjustments he might need; length of naps (should I cap the first one to get a longer second one even though he sleeps much better in the morning?); and how to check if I should be transitioning him?
I have tried shorter waketimes and they do not work - just lead to lots of crying.
Thanks!
