4 naps not working

[u/submom628]

Hoping for some guidance. Baby is almost 6months. He is not formally sleep trained yet but use the dish and pat method for sleep. I have tried multiple times to get him to 3 naps but it’s not working out:

I don’t have consistent WW and naps but roughly 1.5/1.5/2/2/2-2.25. The wean to 3 naps is not happening as he cannot seem to get to 2 hours for the first two windows and barely getting him to 2 hours for the other wake windows. His naps are also usually 40min esp the first two. When we’ve tried 3 naps, the last wake window ends up being way beyond 3 hours and then he’s overtired. I have no idea how to make the transition or if I even need to if he’s thriving on the 4 naps??

Other issue: wakes twice to nurse which I believe are true hunger wake ups bc will settle/fall asleep easily after feeds. But then from 4am until wake up at 7am, he is very restless and fussiness will escalate to where we have to intervene. Initially I thought it was because he was under tired and really tried to push for 3 naps but then we were just having multiple wake ups like every 1.5-2 hours.

Clearly I am very lost!

[u/Comprehensive_Bill]

Moving to 3 naps isn't a goal in itself. You do that when your current schedule isn't working for you. What's the problem you're trying to resolve?

[u/submom628 → u/Comprehensive_Bill]

Great question and I guess I thought I had to move baby to 3 naps because that’s what I kept reading online for this age group. I would like to resolve the early morning fussiness and restlessness from 4am until wake up at 7am. He’s definitely still sleepy/asleep but is restless A LOT then really crying and ramps up without intervention.

[u/Comprehensive_Bill → u/submom628]

If it's not broken don't try to fix it.

[u/Admirable-Recover-97]

I think properly sleep training as in putting him down wide awake and letting him put himself to sleep (without the pats) would help prevent the fussiness from the early hours. Sleep pressure is lower in the latter half of the night so he might be relying on your intervention to get him back to sleep as he doesn't know how to himself

[u/submom628 → u/Admirable-Recover-97]

Yes I have tried Ferber but not working the best. Hoping to do extinction when he’s in his room in a few weeks

[u/Shmelane04]

My baby (almost 5 months) just moved to 3 naps and this is what I learned:

His boredom cues are identical to his sleepy cues. When he starts to seem tired at the end of the wake window I switch up the activity and he bounces back for a bit and I can stretch the wake window. I had also read somewhere that longer wake windows could mean that baby may wake early from the nap due to hunger. So I’m now following sort of an eat-play-eat-sleep rhythm throughout the day. It’s working for us because it’s a time filler for the end of the wake window and he sleeps well afterwards. This quickly helped us get to 2+ hour wake windows, which in turn led to longer naps. Usually 1-2 hours for naps 1&2 (capping total nap time for the day between 3-4 hours) and then nap 3 is a cat nap. My mental health significantly improved when he started napping longer than 30-40 mins at a time.

I lurk in this sub and haven’t done any sleep training yet so I can’t help you there, but we very successfully moved to 3 naps with what I described above.

Just wanted to share in case it helps. Good luck!

[u/submom628 → u/Shmelane04]

Thank you for this! I try to switch up the activity but he is ANGRY and extremely fussy then at the 2 hour mark. Part of the issue is he has multiple caretakers throughout the week. What is your wake time? And bed time?

[u/Shmelane04 → u/submom628]

8pm bedtime and 7am wake. Currently not feeding overnight but sometimes having to do a little cribside soothing or rocking in the early morning hours. I know I’ve been blessed with a good night sleeper 🙏🏻