Short naps can't make it through A time

[hlc662]

My 5 month old tends to only nap about one hour in the two hour time.  WHen nap time is over, she is so fussy and can barely hold on until the next time.  Do I need to keep her up until the next nap time, or should I put her down early?

[Meg's Mom]

Very good question - i always took several factors into consideration...when is next feed, how long until next nap, and what time will it be after she wakes.  At this age - If there was no way she could make it, i would split the difference...  does that make sence.

R you on 3hr or 4hr EASY?

[hlc662]

We are on the 4 hour Easy.  Naps are still a nightmare, but she is doing better at night.

[jade's mum]

Hi there,

My lo also does short naps on some days (45mins instead of 1.5hrs!) I try to put her back to sleep but if it doesn't work, I'll give her a little bit of A time (say 10-20mins) and then put her back to bed, where she'll sleep for another 45mins. Hence, we are doing EASASY which I find works fine.... as long as you can fit the two naps in before the next E time. We're also doing a 3.5-4hr EASY routine.

Ofcourse I'd rather her sleep for the full 1.5-2hrs!

HTH! 

[Mom2X&F&V]

What is it with 5 mo old babies... she is just becoming a great fun baby, but doesn´t seem to want to sleep or eat, she just wanna play and laugh. Is it a transition time or what... everything is changing with her... she is waking at nights, having a df back again, waking up early, refussing her bottle, and sleeping shorter naps, but laughing and playing all day long and in a great mood... can someone please explain what is happening to my textbook/angel baby or should I say no more angel??

[Meg's Mom]

Just wait until your angel is a toddler - she will have a new name- heee!

Mom2...To answer your question: From 0-3 months babies work on organizing their night sleep. From 3-6 they work on organizing their day sleep.  So the day time fun starts now!

hlc...what is her current A time?

My LO started the 45min nap at about 3 months.  I search high and low for information and found Tracy’s work, then this site.  By this time Megan was now well into 4mos and I moved her to 4hr EASY as Tracy recommends and the short naps got a bit better.  I then used shh/pat, pu/pd (very little) and wake to sleep techniques to get her body used to sleeping thru the 1st sleep cycle as by now it was a well ingrained habit.  We saw improvement almost immediately (although small, but it was improvement) and I was convinced Tracy’s work was a godsend. 

We worked on her naps for 2 weeks solid and after much shh’ing and back aches we started sleeping about 1.25-1.50 for most naps.

Things were great for 2 wks after beating the 45min nap monster.  But then the monster came back.  I thought I would fall off the deep end.  What I didn’t take into consideration was that she was older now.  So I increase her A time by 15min and poof…the monster was gone again.  At 5mos 2.25hr of A time was the magic number for us. 

We have now been thru the 45min battle several times over, every time she is ready to increase her A time she starts the short naps.  So when that happens I know it is time to adjust her schedule or prepare to drop a nap.

[hlc662]

She is only able to make it about 1:45.  She is a grump all day without these good naps.  By evening, she is ready to go to bed early.

[Meg's Mom]

Yes, i know exactly what you mean.

What I suspect is happening, is that she is catnapping the nap because of the brief awake time.. it's like "I've only been awake for a short time, so I just need a short amount of sleep". This is creating the 45 min nap.

I think you will find if you can keep her awake longer the naps will lenghten.  Try 15min every 3 days.  I like to extend A time by increasing the nap wind down so that it is low key or take a walk if you can keep them awake.  Keep her awake for just the first cycle...if she gets a longer nap then she can go longer in her A times for the next cycle of the day and so on.

If she still naps short, then go w/ a shorter A time the rest of the day and just go w/ the flow.  But when the 3 days is up and she is still taking the short naps, extend A time again.

Does that make sence?

[hlc662]

Yes I will give it a try.

Thanks