Author Topic: 5-6months schedule change?  (Read 3896 times)

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Offline MiniNs

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5-6months schedule change?
« on: April 09, 2019, 13:18:39 pm »
Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on any tweaks I might need to make now that LO is turning 6 months this week?

Our current EASY is roughly this...

WU 6:30 (sometimes closer to 7, sometimes 6:15 lol)
E: 7:15
A: 2hours
S: 8:30 (45mins normally, sometimes 1hour)

E: 10:30/11:00
A: 2hours-2hrs15
S: 11:30/45 (tend to go on tired cues for this one) (has anywhere between 45mins-2hours. In cases of only 45mins I can sometimes resettle him)

E: 14:30/15:00
A: depends on Nap wake up. If  lunchtime nap was a cat nap, I tend to just keep him going until 15:00 earliest. If he had longer then it tends to be 2-2.5hrs A.
S: catnap at around 15:30/16:00, wake him by 17:00 latest.

E: 18:30
BT 18:45

22:30 dreamfeed (he sometimes wakes for this himself nearer to 22:00)
02:00-3:00 night feed

These are generally the only times he wakes.


Does this look ok? Should he be having this many naps etc? I think his A time is a little low and maybe I could tweak some things? Have also heard that babies might drop to 2 naps around 6 months too?

« Last Edit: April 09, 2019, 13:26:31 pm by MiniNs »

Offline ZanesOTmom

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2019, 17:27:34 pm »
Hi there. I’m no expert by any means but my DS1 was at 3hrs A time before 7mo and looking back, he was UT. My DS2 is on 2hr A time right now and he’s 4.5 mo. Very easy to resettle if I can get him to stay awake for 2.5hrs so I definitely need to bump A time.

Having said that, all babies are different and you may only need 15-30m bump up. I would say though that your first nap seems to be an UT nap.

Hopefully you get expert eyes on your routine soon. :)

Offline MiniNs

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2019, 20:44:11 pm »
Thank you for your reply - I really appreciate it!!

I’ve had tried tweaking his A time, as from what I’d read I thought  for his age he might be ready for a little over 2 hours,  but after around 2hours he starts to get really cranky, often tears, yawning etc. He also self settles straight to sleep when I put him down at that time - particularly on the first nap! Sometimes on the other naps I can stretch him to 2.25 or 2.5hrs. Perhaps I need to try harder to stretch his A time, but when he gets hugely cranky and I have a 2.5year old at home I find it a bit stressful! 😆

Offline Katet

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2019, 03:12:24 am »
He may get cranky from learned tiredness...think when we stay up later. So sometimes changes of activities can help extend A time. A quiet activity like reading toy boys always helped push out A time.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline MiniNs

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2019, 12:32:12 pm »
I guess he has maybe got an element of learned tiredness and nap times etc.

He’s had an awful head cold for the last week and his naps are currently all over the place (having 4 per day!) and his nighttime sleep very disrupted due to coughing and sneezing etc. He’s still so congested and I refuse to try and do much about our routine while he so clearly needs to rest.

Once we are back to 100% health, I will have to make a conscious effort to get back to routine anyway so perhaps it’s a good time to start edging out those A times.

Just one more question though (if that’s ok!)... if I push his first A time and therefore get a longer nap, would this mean he drops to 2 naps per day? He currently naps st around 8:30, 1145 and 15:30. But if he napped later and/or longer on the first nap then he wouldn’t need the second nap until after lunch which I think then wouldn’t leave any time for a third CN?

Any tough ideas on timings that I might be aiming for would be great.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2019, 12:34:22 pm by MiniNs »

Offline Katet

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2019, 23:23:23 pm »
It's not always easy to give a pattern for naps when they transition, some days can need to be 3 naps others 2, My eldest always had a shorter first A time and a longer last, my youngest consistently gave a long nap in the middle of the day, but random catnaps at other times.
 If you are moving to 2 naps then it would kind of be roughly 3hours A time with  naps in between. So a 7am wakeup 10am nap. Wake up say 11.30,next nap 2.30 to4pm and 7pm bedtim... About 0.01% of babies would do that, so it's more it might be 2.5 hours in the am then longer in the evening. It's kind of somewhere in a rough routine, that you find and it works for a few glorious weeks and changes again.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline MiniNs

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2019, 05:55:33 am »
Ok, thanks.
I’m genuinely not sure he can cope with more than 2.5hours awake, so once he’s over his cold and I can comfortably try enforcing his routine again then I think that’s what I’ll aim for... but I don’t see how I can squeeze in a third CN that way?
WU 6:30 (this is realistic for our household, with siblings etc)
S: 9:00 - 10:30
S: 13:00 - 14:30
S: ??


Also, he is starting to NW which he never used to. It started when he was poorly and I put it down to that, but now he’s almost 100% better and it’s still happening. He has a feed at 10-10:30pm (sometimes wakes, sometimes DF) and one at 3am which I’m trying to figure out if it’s for comfort or not. But is now also frequently waking at around 2am and then up for the day with some EWs of 5:45/6am. Could this be linked to his daytime routine?

Offline Katet

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2019, 06:29:25 am »
I'm sure you'll know from other siblings, it's not an exact science and set routines are a westernised thing that in some ways goes against nature and natural routines. The most natural thing for a baby to do is wake and feed and sleep next to a mother and other family members, but culturally we don't do that. So temperament comes into play, also things like pre teething pain, emotional connection, gastrointestinal differences etc. Some babies just seem to be more sensitive to the world and need reassuring in light sleep cycles and wake, others not so much. The day routine could influence night sleep, but more in an overturned baby being unsettled at the start of the night rather than night waking a 2 or 3 am. My eldest was a good day sleeper by 7 or 8months, but had night waking right up until nearly 3yo... His sleep improved when he stopped daycare and I was home FT with a new baby... In hindsight it may well have been he was uncertain I was there for him and so it was 'trust waking' to check or it could have been fluid in his ears that we found he had at age 5.

So while it could be routine, it's also possible it's 10 other things.
 
At the point you are now I'd try shortening one of the naps so the second wakeup is around 2pm and then give a 20 min catnap at around 4.30pm then a 7pm bedtime.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline MiniNs

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Re: 5-6months schedule change?
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2019, 20:22:08 pm »
Thanks that’s really helpful.

Today, he ended up having 1 x 2hr and 1 x 2.5hr  naps (with 2.5hour A time), awake by 3pm and then we couldn’t get a CN in and BT (@ 6:15pm as I brought it forward)  was very tearful. It’s. Ow 9pm and he’s already woken 2-3 times. I presume from going to bed OT.

I had already thought today, after letting him nap as long as he wanted, that I probably need to cap his naps to enable a 3rd catnap. Until he is more able to stay awake longer, I.e 3hours+.

Obviously, like you said yourself, it’s not an exact science and often with school runs for older ones I cannot comply to a schedule anyway, but I do like to have a rough idea what I should be aiming for.

I’m thinking 2.5hours ish A time and then 2x 1.5hr naps and a CN.

WU 6:30
S 9:00 - 10:30
S 13:00-14:30
CN 16:30
BT 19:00