To shorten am nap?

[BabyBsMommy]

My ds is going on 7 months old and has been sleeping through the night for about 5 weeks now from 7:30-8:00pm ish until 7:00am.  He is on 4 hour EASY, bf with a df at 10:30 and has been on solids since 4.5 months (cereal only, started fruits and veggies just before 6 months).
He has been a decent napper for about 3 months now, after a long time working through nap and sleep issues from 2 months on.  Recently, he has begun to take 1.5 hour naps in the morning and then only a half hour -45 min in the afternoon and then a 3-=45 min catnap later on.  For a while before this, he was taking a longer pm nap and had pretty much been refusing the catnap for a few weeks so we were putting him to bed an hour early.
Any ideas on how to solve this?  At this age, I know he does need less daytime sleep but it would be much better for him to have a longer nap in the afternoon and begin to move away from the catnap at some point soon.  Should I wake him up early from his am nap?  I tried that about a month ago when this happened for a week or so but nothing changed....

[Mom to M&M]

Can you post his whole routine? How long are his awake times?

[BabyBsMommy]

I was thinking that his A times are a little short but he is so fussy by the end of them.  Here is an idea of where we're at....what he did today which has been similar to the past week....I should also mention that he is on a nursing strike and teething right now (though thank goodness he just took his before bed bf).
Wakes at 7am -diaper change
E - 7:30
A 7:40 - play quietly on floor or in playpen (back, tummy, sitting) always, other A time activities will vary
Solids 8:15 - 2
A 8:25 -
S 9:10 (usually start winding down around 8:50 and in bed at 9:00)
A 10:40 -
E - 11:30
A 11:40 -
Solids 12:15
A 12:25 -
S 1:35 (started winding down at 1:10, in bed at 1:20)
A 2:10 -
E 3:15
A 3:30 -
S 4:40 - started winding down about 10 min before
A 5:20 -
Solids 5:30 -
A 5:40 -
Bath 6:40
E 7:10
S 8:00 (put down at 7:40)

Thanks for looking at this! 

[Mom to M&M]

The nursing strike and teething could definitely be a factor here. Are you giving any teething meds?

Also, at 7 months, some of his A times are definitely a little short. I'd try to extend that first A time so he's up for 2.5 hours (so first nap at 9:30. Limit that nap to 1.5 hours top, maybe 1.25 even. Second nap should start 2.5-3 hours after end of first nap and catnap the same. Jsut try to extend slowly and keep it low key.

[BabyBsMommy]

I figured the teething could be part of the problem - those afternoon naps were dipping in and out of getting shorter since the beginning of the month which I thought was weird because he had swimming lessons Mon-Fri the first two weeks of the month so we were often having to cut his morning nap short after an hour and 15 min and then for some reason he was doing A times from 10:30-1:30 no problem but often still sleeping less than an hour and waking up happy.  I should mention most of these early wake ups are happy these days.  Maybe his gums were already bothering him a bit then. 
I tried baby orajel with him a few times but it did nothing obvious to me to relieve his discomfort and he clearly did not enjoy the sensation.  I have not been able to track down any of the natural remedies some of the UK mommies have mentioned on tbw site.  I have been giving him infant motrin for the past three days, the first two days at around noon and then at seven before bed and today I just gave it to him before bed.
It seems that his morning A time is slowly extending itself as he is staying awake and playing away in his crib a little past nine these days.  Since he is usually in bed by 9 for his nap, I'll try to keep him going until 9:10 before I put him down tomorrow and hopefully that will extend his A time to 2:20.  He rarely goes longer than 1.5 hours for his AM nap, anyways.  He does seem to not be falling asleep for his pm nap until close to 3 hours but do you think it's that we actually need to keep him out of his crib longer?  For example, if he sleeps from 9:20-10:50 for his AM nap, should we try to not physically put him into his crib until 1:20 (well, that was today, 2.5 hours after his wake up)?  Coincidentally, this shortening of the afternoon nap has also coincided with his consistently sleeping through the night which started up about 4 weeks ago.....If he continues this trend he is sleeping from about 8pm-7am which is 11 hours at night and then 1.5, .5 and .75 for naps which is 2.75 hours of nap time....  I don't know how the cat nap fits into all of this because if he is up for 2.5-3 hours after his afternoon nap, it is getting to be between 5:00-5:30 so I find he won't go down because he's hungry for his solids and then if he does, he is not tired enough for bedtime at 7:30.  Drat! 

[Kate A]

I would definitly drop the cat nap.  Once you move the morning A time it will make the rest of the day fall into place.  We slowly moved to naps at 9:30 (1.5 hr) and 2 (45 minute)  You will have to push through the catnap, but for the first couple of weeks move up bedtime and that might help relive the overtiredness.  Mine dropped her catnap at 7 months.  good luck

[BabyBsMommy]

  I was hoping not to have to shuffle things around until the middle of August since we're heading home on Aug 4 for a 10 day visit with my parents and the inlaws.  Guess babies have their own agendas, though!  We'll have to see what we can accomplish over the next 9 says or so!

[Mom to M&M]

Boys tend to drop the catnap a little later than girls so you may be able to keep it a little longer if you like. For now I'd focus on his A times - I agree, don't put him in his crib unitl 9:10 or 9:15 even for the first nap. Wake him after 1.5 hours (you may have to cut this a little after a week if still having problems) and put him in his crib for second nap no sooner than 2.5 hours after waking from first nap. I used to do catnap in the stroller whenever weather permitted - my DD would doze off more quickly and lightly and even if she didn't at least she was relaxing while I got errands done!

Try to find the natural remedies if you can! If you post on the health/medical thread some UK Mommies might be able to help.

[BabyBsMommy]

I remember reading that about boys and catnaps.  We have tried walks or a car ride around catnap time with him but he gets very mad in his car seat almost anytime we put him into it these days (too constricting for our active little man) and although he's relaxed in his stroller, I can count on one hand the times he's fallen asleep in it!  I guess you're right in that at least if he can relax quietly for a bit around that time, it's better than nothing!
This morning was a bit of a bust.  He woke up at 4am and at 4:45am was still fussing so DH went in to try and settle him.  He was still going at 5:15 so I went in and he took a bf.  He then went back to sleep immediately and I let him sleep until he woke up (figured it couldn't hurt now that he's consistently slept through for a month) and he woke up at 7:40.  He nibbled at the breast around 8:30, had his solids right after and at around 9:15 started getting grumpy.  I offered a bf again and again he only nibbled for a few more minutes.  He was off and on, off and on, both times.  I managed to stretch him out until 9:45 before putting him down in the crib and he was asleep about 10 min later.  Oh well, at least it was 5 min longer than usual!  I won't let him sleep for more than an hour and a half anyways, as we have our mommies group to go to this afternoon.  The car ride home should easily stretch him to at least 2.5 hours.
Thanks for the tip to post about natural remedies.
I'll let you know how it goes with the naps.....