How much awake time for 16week old?

[becky1969]

My LO just turned 16 weeks, and I'm wondering if we need to start extending awake time in the morning again! I had to MAJORLY adjust awake time at 12 weeks (we were only doing 1hr15) because his naps went to hell. We've been doing FABULOUSLY the last month with full 2 hour naps and doing 2 hours awake time in the morning and about 1 hr 45 and 1 hr 40 and 1 hr 30 for other awake periods. However, the last couple of days his morning nap has started getting short again and I've noticed that he's not seeming as sleepy when we go down for our nap. He's still going down easily at 2 hours, and during our wind down I get the first yawn, but maybe he's now sleepy enough, so that's why he's waking up at 1.5 to 1hr45 during morning nap? Or is it because he's getting older and just doesn't need 4 hours of naps during the day any more? i do feel like I'm sort of cheating since he's going to bed at 7 pm and not getting up until 7 am. However, the last 2 mornings he's also been waking up at 6:30 - 6:45 whereas before I was having to wake him up at 7am! so what gives? Is he getting older and needing less sleep? Or do we need more awake time before naps? Or both?

[becky1969]

Cat nap is around 30 minutes (sometimes 45, but rarely) at 4:30-5:00. Latest ending time is 5:15. I think you're right - I think he's just getting older and needing less sleep. Perhaps just shortening that morning nap will do the trick?

[becky1969]

OK, today we did 2hr20 at the morning awake time and I got almost 2 hour nap out of him with only a brief stirring at the 1 hr mark! (He woke at 6:30 am, so that's why the long nap and we are still on schedule). Then for our 2nd wake period we did 2hr10, and he's still asleep at 1hr45, so I'm pretty hopeful! I'll be waking him up in 5 minutes to keep us on scheudle. I think extending awake time was the key.

Do these awake times seem about right? He'll be 17 weeks tomorrow. I'm just not sure how much awake times for a baby this age. I thought that at 6 months they were supposed to be shooting for 2.5-3 hours, isn't that right? So, aren't we kind of having a lot of awake time really early on? Will he sort of stablize here until 6 months now?

[becky1969]

Ok, great! Thanks so much! This makes me feel so much better! Today went so well, and it looks like we've hit the sweet spot. We did two hours awake time right before bed, and he went down like a dream and is sleeping soundly after a 7:15 bedtime. He's sleeping about 11.5 hours, so this will give a 6:45 wake up, which is just about perfect for us!