Should I??? What do you think??

[Sarahboh]

Should I start moving towards a four hour in the near future and how? Ella will be 13 weeks on Monday, some of her naps are becoming 45 minutes, some are still 1.5-2 hours. She is able to stay up 1-1.15 max. Here's the schedule

7:30am wake and eat
8:30 wind down and to sleep within 5 minutes (sits in bed chewing on hands, not sure how long?) This nap is the most often 45 minutes
10:30am wake or if has been up, feed her
11am wind down and to sleep in room (this is usually the best nap)
1:30pm wake and eat
2pm wind down and to sleep (sometimes shortenend, sometimes not)
4:30pm wake and eat
5:20 catnap for 20-30mins
5;50 cluster feed
6:00pm change, bath, hair wash,sing
6:25pm get ready for bed,
6:30pm feed before bed, off to sleep

1.My cluster feeding seems to work in the evening, she typically only wakes 1x per night to eat. Is this too close together
2.No df as it hasn't worked well in the past to keep her going through the night.
3. Will her awake time get longer eventually so I can transition or should I work towards it now with a lightfeed at the end of activity.
4.She doesn't have a dummy, I am finding extending naps IMPOSSIBLE, shh/pat, reassurance, etc.

Please help me understand what I should do and if I can tweak anything to make it better.

[Mom2katiebug]

We are transitioning our 11 WO DD, Katie to a 4hr EASY.  Or maybe we've just completed the transition.  She's eating every 4 hours - almost on the mark and sleep...well, the nighttime has always been pretty good.  Naps have been terrible (20-45 minutes) for 3 weeks now.

I tried to pencil out a plan for short A and longer naps, but Katie just wouldn't sleep.  But today, she did 2 hrs of A time this morning (second hour very non-stimulating) and took a good nap in the car during errands.  Was up for 2 hours this afternoon and napped terribly.  So, I think, for us, if she could nap well, she'd be a gem on a 4hr EASY plan.

[Deb_in_oz]

personaly i don't think she is ready nor do i think it is necessary yet based on your routine and the fact that she still does some longer naps - it is normal as they progress in the 3-6 mo to have varied nap lengths - it is more a concern if most/all naps are 45 min or less where you are then dealing with chronic overtiredness etc.

you could factor in that she might have 1 x45 min nap + 2 x 1.5+hrs naps + 1 catnap of whatever length is needed to "round out" the day.

as you go through the next 1-2 mo you can watch how her A time develops (when she moves towards 1hr 30-1hr 45 a 3.5hr EASY coudl be a start at transition) and start to increase the gap in her feeds according to times when she sleeps longer or just is not hungry at the 3 hr mark - this coudl mean having some A time before and after the feed - this is fine and not a problem.  you can see if she is ready to move out her A time over the month when she starts playing too much before nap (in bed, but not "settling", just playing as that woudl be a sign that she could have been up and extra 5-15 min...) a good indicator that A time is pushed too far is difficulty settling / crying rather than self settling/easy shh/pat etc

transitioning to 4 hours depends on the individual child and although the guide is 4 months, some wil do it earlier and a lot will do it later. itis complicated when they may not be hungry at 3 hrs but not able to do longer A time. when that happens you can start a very gentle transition by pushing out the E to towards the end of A time so you catch her when she IS hungry but still get her to bed before overtired.   HTH

[Sarahboh]

What I am finding is some days are better than other. On very rare days she might do the whole day 45 minutes, then on some days 1 or 2 naps might be 45-1hour, then another one long. The 45 minute days are obviously very frustrating as I blame myself why they happen (may I made her overtired, overstim,etc). I think I seem to take her short naps to fault. She sleeps from 6:30-6:45pm until 7:30am (seeing this is about 13hours) at night with one night waking, what about the day, am I beating myself up about that naps and maybe she doesn't need as much since they say at around 3-4months they only need about 15 hours total sleep a day. I don't know how to get more bm into her to eliminate the night waking??? Am I doing okay, I think most of all I need some reassurance.

[HeatherC]

I think you are doing fine, and shouldn't blame yourself at all.  My dd did 30 minute naps for every nap until she was 5-6 mos old.  She just never could make the transition on her own, and I was unsuccessful at helping her.  But that's not to say that it can't be done, b/c it most certainly can.  Do you swaddle?  That very often helps babies sleep through the 45 min sleep transition.  As long as you are watching your babies cues, and putting her down when she's tired, you are doing what you are supposed to.  It is worth it to use Tracy's sleep training methods to help her extend her naps.  I don't want you to go through what I did for 6 mos.  But b/c she is doing many naps past the 45 min mark tells me that she is capable of doing it.  It's just a matter of getting the right window of opportunity for putting her down and that takes close observation and lots of tweaking.  It's okay if you miss it sometimes, that's where you learn from it. 
13 hours of night sleep is wonderful.  I think one night waking is good, also, but I don't think it would hurt to retry the df again.  Yet, you know your baby best.  On pg 94 of Tracy's new book she says that if a baby takes the cluster feedings in the early evening, but not the df, that you should concentrate on the df if you have to choose one.  She says to give it a couple of days worth of trying.  Also, she recommends not cluster feeding after 8 weeks, but you might be able to get more help on this from someone else.
As Debra said, her A time will gradually lengthen.  You'll notice that she takes longer to settle to sleep when going down for naps.  The morning A time tends to stay the shortest of the day for awhile.  If you think she's ready to lengthen A times, a good rule of thumb is to try it in 5-15 minute intervals.

[Deb_in_oz]

wow 13 hours at night! that is awesome!


i woudl defnitely guess that the daytime issue is a combination of toital sleep in 24 hours (she is getting lots more than many of our lo who generally do 10-12hrs) + like Heather said, some sleeps she either has gone past her window or just does not need the extra sleep (that's why i think she does a combo on many days - a 45 or 2, a longer one etc)

do not beat yourself up over the nap lengths (i still do this too - if olivia totally refuses a nap i think it is because of something i did or did not do so i blame myself - but my husband reminds me that i am providing her with an opportunity to sleep in a great bedroom with white noise and blackout curtains - he says i am doing a lot and the rest is up to her now  )