Stretching out activity time

[Linda74]

Hi

This is my first posting in this forum.  My son Josh is almost 6 months old - May 05 baby.  I'm struggling with 45 minute naps but also my inability to keep him up for activity time.  Almost like clockwork...within an hour of waking up, he's tired.  He gets fussy so I put him down to nap.  Is it wise to try to keep him up longer?  Will this make him overstimulated and have a more fitful nap?  Or will it make him sleep longer?  Because he's only up for such a short time, he's still on a 2 hour schedule when he should be on a 4 hour schedule.  And I also feel silly for asking this question...what are the hunger cues for a baby their age?  When they were younger you could tell...crying, rooting etc.  But now I'm being told that they really should only need to eat every 4 hours....and because he was on a 2 hour schedule, I would feed him every 2 hours (but he would only eat a little bit or not at all).  ... to sum things up...I'm having issues with the following areas:

short activity time
45 minute naps
2 hour schedule
night wakings

Should I try fixing all this things at once or one at a time?  Or will extending the A fix everything else?  I'm so confused and frustrated!  I'm been feeling depressed the last few days trying to decide what I need to do.  Sorry for the long post...but i'm just sooo confused.

Linda

ps - here is what happened today...

7 am - wake & feed
8 am - nap (because he was fussy)
9 am - wake-up ( do i feed him now or not?...if i don't, i won't be on E.A.S.Y.) - my choice today was not to feed him and put him down for a nap at 10 am....if he goes down for a nap, then he'd eat again at 11 - which is 4 hours from his breakfast.   However, he didn't nap at 10am...he was wide awake...and is still awake...as you can see...his inconsistency is confusing and i don't know what to do to get him back on the right track...

[Noelle]

I think moving to the 4 hour schedule would help a lot.  I would just increase his activity time slowly by 15 minute increments.  If he is tired 1 hour later, keep him up for 15 minutes the first few days, then 30 more minutes, etc.  Does he put himself to sleep?     If he does, you may have to tweak EASY a bit and feed him right before a nap but that is ok as long has he isn't using the bottle/breast to fall asleep.

[Linda74]

I put Josh to bed when he's awake, except during his DF.  If I stretch out his activity time, will that fix his 45 naps?  Or will I need to do either wake to sleep or PU/PD to fix his naps?  Josh really seems content and happy when he wakes from his naps, so I'm not sure if I should try fixing them or not.  If I do have to adjust his naps...should I fix both things at once (stretching A and S?)

Thanks for the advice!
Linda

[Noelle]

HI again!
Adjusting the awake time may help with the naps but it's not a guarantee     With two kiddos, I have learned that if he/she is waking up happy from a nap it is nearly impossible to extend it    That just means they may end up having an extra nap during the day which is OK.  For each nap I tell myself it's only 45 minutes.  So when it goes longer - woo hoo!!!  :wink: