Too much time napping?? Too little time napping??

[2Pam]

My son is almost 5 months.  I am currently working on transition him to a 4hr. schedule.  We are on 1h.45m A time moving to 1hr. 20min tomorrow, increasing every three days.  He has been a brutal 45 minute napper but in the past month he has improved.  He either sleeps a straight 1hr. 30min or after 45 min, I can quickly get him back to sleep.  My question is, he is now usually getting about 4.75-5hr. of daytime sleep.  But he is waking early 5:00am, 6:00am and when I put him to bed, at 7:30-7:45ish he can be awake, happy in his crib up to 8:30pm??  Here is my schedule:
7:00am wake and eat
A 7:00 -8:45am
S 8:45 am- 10:15
E 10:15am
A 10:15 - 12:00
S 12:00-1:45
A 1:30- 3:15
S 3:15- 4:45
E 4:45
Sometimes he will have a 30min. catnap in the stroller or a little 5-10min in the carseat if doing errands.
Bedtime: 7:45 8:00ish

Last night he had almost 5hrs. with a little 5min snooze in the carseat.  Bedtime 7:45, laid awake happy till almost 9:00 and then woke at 5:00am.  I did get him back to sleep, woke at 6:00am and then back to sleep till 7:00.  He has had early wakings for the last two weeks.  Do I try to get rid of the catnap?  Too much nap time?  Not enough??

Help
!
Pam

[malialeanne]

Hi Pam,

We had a similar situation around 4 months with 4 naps per day and almost 5 hours of daytime sleep--it was too much for dd, and affected bedtime and nighttime sleep.

Moving toward a 4 hour schedule should get you to 3 naps. You'll need to extend A times to 2 hours to get there, which you can do over the course of a week or two. You've had so much success extending A times and your ds is almost 5 months, so I think you'll get there pretty quickly.

7 a.m. wake
9 - 10:30 nap 1
12:30 - 2 nap 2
catnap between 4 and 5
bedtime 7:30

This would give you between 3.5 and 4 hours day sleep.

HTH,
Malia

[tholbert]

Hi there.

I have a question pertaining to how much nap time is too long?
13 week old on a 3 hour easy that starts at 7am.  Give or take 15 minutes.
However,sometimes 2 of her naps she will take a 1hr 45 min nap to a 2 hour nap - she has 3 naps and a cat nap of 30-45 minutes, if naps are short it is a full 45 min nap otherwsie 30.

I only put her to sleep when I see her signs that she is truly tired.  Typically wakes up though most ofthe time 45 minutes into it and then goes back down.

Is it no more than 6 hours or less?  Help!  I am struggling with a few things at night and have posted in the sleep prop area as well.

Thank you!!!!!

[malialeanne]

Hi there. On Tracy's recommended 3-hour schedule, a baby would get about 5.25 hours of day sleep, which is good for many at that age. How long are A times? At 13 weeks I think we did around 1 hr 30 min A time, which is about average. With average A times, a 2 hour nap would mean 3.5 hours between feeds, which should be OK for 13 weeks old. As long as his night sleep isn't affected it's probably fine. Many moms will wake after 2 hours though, to make sure baby doesn't go too long between feeds and to make sure naps don't cut into night sleep.

[2Pam]

Malia,
I hope you still check this thread.   My lo is doing well on the 4hr. schedule.  Eating much, much better! Naps are improving, doesn't wake up at 45 minute mark as often. First nap is usually 1hr. 20-30min, second nap 1hr. 30min, I have been able to get him back to sleep very quickly with his nuk (I know, bad me. to make that nap 2hrs. and then he does his catnap.  The problem he is still waking at 3:00am, I don't go in but I hear him chatting away for himself and then he falls back asleep.  Is this a big deal?  He also this last few days has started to wake a little later, 6:00, 6:30 7:00ish which is great, but now bedtime seems to be a problem??  which it never was before.  Do I try to adjust the lenght of his naps? his catnap may be to early it is usually over by 5:00pm and then bed isn't until 7:30.  Hope this all make sense!

Pam

[malialeanne]

Hi there. So glad to hear things are getting better. Sounds like you're doing great!

Many babies go through a phase of waking at 3 or 4, talking to themselves, and falling back to sleep. Just let him be, soon enough he'll decide that waking to talk to himself is boring and he'll outgrow it.

If bedtime is a problem I would try shortening the catnap to 30 mins if it's currently at 45. If it's already 30 minutes then you might consider shortening the afternoon nap to 1 hr 30 minutes. It doesn't sound as if the catnap is too early. If our catnap goes past 5 or so it affects bedtime.

HTH!

[2Pam]

Thanks so malia.  You moderators are seriously so great!

[malialeanne]

You're very welcome!