One nap at a time

[shimmer]

I've been trying to extend 2 of my DD's naps for the past month.  She is approaching 5 months now.  We have her on a 3.5 hour EASY because she wasn't gaining weight well.  She has major night waking problems, but that's a whole other thread.

I've used w2s (has never worked) and pat/sh... which can take another 1/2 an hour, but I get her back to sleep always.

We went on a trip this last weekend which made it not possible for me to try extending her naps, and so she just took 5 short naps instead of 2 long and a catnap.  Her nights were the same. She survived the day ok, however, she was a disaster in the evenings (stil;l possibly leftover - we've been battling colic).

So, I wonder if anyone has read, "Heallthy Sleep Habit...." byt Weissbluth.  He makes it sound like I should work on it one nap at a time.  Since extending my lo's naps hasn't necessarily helped the night sleep, should I just work on the morning nap, and eventually, hope that the afternoon nap falls into place...?

8 wake/bf (after a night of wakings)
10 nap (extend with pat/sh)
11:30 wake/bf
1:30 nap (to extend or not extend)? - I was trying to extend it
3:00 bf
5:15/5:30 catnap (sometimes this nap is 1/2 hour, sometimes 45 min... all of her naps are generally 1/2 hour)
6:30 bf
7:00 bath
8:00 bf/bedtime (which sometimes can take up to a 1/2 an hour to get her to sleep)

[shimmer]

P.S.

She's never been a good night sleeper, and trying to extend her naps has not shown any improvement on this. Any ideas why?

[alyssa1]

I would think that she's not napping well because she's overtired from all the waking at night.  What do you do in the night to get her back to sleep?  I'm just wondering if you can get her to have a better night sleep then the naps might improve?  My son was the same - he woke a lot at night and then had short terrible naps in the day - it went round and round until we fixed his night sleep.  Just a thought.

[shimmer]

I nurse her 2 times at night and the rest of the time we do pat/sh.

We try to put her to bed at earlier times, as is recommended, but she wakes up every 1/2 hour.

Should we just put her to bed at a ridiculously early time tonite and pat/sh every 1/2 an hour until her normal bedtime... and keep doing this hoping her nights will improve? & then put her normal bedtime back when it's better?
 
 Or would that be a lot of work in vain?