another nap question

I'm trying to get my girls onto a 3-nap eat-play-sleep schedule.  They are 7 months/5 months adjusted.  For a while they seemed okay with a 3-nap play-eat-sleep schedule but we didn't want them to need to eat to fall asleep.  Since we've been trying to get them switched over, basically the problem is that they won't sleep for longer than one sleep cycle.  Every nap is max 45 mins, and then their feeding schedule is all thrown off because it's too early to eat when they wake up.  Also if they only take 45 min naps, they end up needing a fourth nap because they can only be awake 2 hours at a time (if they're up more than 2 hours they get massively overtired).
 
Any advice?  I don't know what to do about them waking up early.  They used to nap 1.5 hours at least once during the day.  It's 10:30am and we've already had two naps, neither of which was more than 45 mins.  I don't know how I can possibly get them onto an eat-play-sleep schedule if they don't sleep long enough to make it time to eat again.

 

bump

 

I'm not sure I can help cause I'm lazy - I just do what the babies want. Honestly, if it's really messing things up right now, maybe wait a bit and try to transition the routine again in a couple of weeks?

Or you could offer food when they wake up, even if it's "too early", just to reinforce that eating happens when they wake. Don't force it, just offer.

 

sorry.. i can't offer any tips on that schedule.  
 
I could never get my LOs to follow the eat, play, sleep schedule.  They had to sit up for 30 minutes after eating because of acid reflux but then they were tired.
For us it worked best to concentrate on the sleep schedule and adjust everything around that.  My LOs were always good to decent eaters.  i found if they were well rested everything else was easier, including eating.

 

I remember when my boys took more frequent naps, they were always pretty short.  As the number of naps decreased, the naps got longer.  My boys went to two naps a day at 8 months old - do you think maybe your girls are ready for that?

 

Is there anything you can do to recover the nap? Paci, swing, swaddle? My boys naps bit the dust after 45min for awhile there (remember my carousel post ? Lol) and we just did whatever it took to try to recover. Totally kwym about how tough it is to get the routine down when the naps are that short and they cant play (too tired) and wont eat (not time to feed). Ironically, we're back in that boat (after a good month of rockstar naps) so i was just on reading the 4mo sleep regression thread

 

It took them a few days but they finally got the hang of eat play sleep, plus we got them on a 2-2.5-2.5 schedule which is working great for napping.  I guess they just weren't tired enough to sleep more than 45 mins.  With the current schedule as long as we stick to it they sleep for 1.5 hours for the first two naps and 30-45 mins for the third nap.  Success!  The only downside is that they are still getting really tired before they go down for their naps, so they're extra fussy for the last 30-60 mins of their wake period.

 

Great that you got the eat play sleep order changed! And 1.5h for naps 1&2, 45min for nap 3 is perfect. We had that exact thing going on last month or so but I have one guy back to not transitioning from one 45min cycle to the next. It's the pits and he's a mess by the time his brother is up to eat. What did you mean by 2-2.5-2.5? My guys are 17w adjusted. I want our good naps back!!

 

I mean first nap is 2 hours after wake up, second nap 2.5 hours after wake from first nap, third is 2.5 hours after wake from second, then bedtime as usual.  Of course then this morning they only slept 45 mins for the first time in a week, :-/  I think because they slept really poorly overnight though.

 

Gotcha. Wow those are really long wake times, impressive! Naps here have been really short this weekend and I'm feeling so frustrated and tired

 

We just managed to get onto this schedule recently -- I don't think a few weeks ago they would have been ready to be awake for 2.5 hours!  For a little while we did a 1.5-2-2-2 schedule with four naps with mixed results.  This is working well now but it is difficult to entertain them for 2.5 hours!