Hi all. Started sleep training my 6 month old using the Ferber method, for night and day sleep. We are on day 4 and have had really good results and are down to less than 10 minutes of crying/fussing to fall asleep. We have moved her to her own bedroom, removed the dummy and also transitioned to 3 naps too. I have noticed that she needs to be awake at least 3 hours to put herself to sleep easily though and I am having issues fitting in the third nap. However she also doesn’t nap long enough/stay awake long enough to have only 2 naps.
For example, today she woke up at 7am, napped 10-10.45am and 1.45-3pm. Her next nap would naturally fall at 6pm, but that is too late as she needs to be awake for at least 3 hours before her bedtime of 8.30 or she won’t fall asleep. For the first couple of days I bounced her to sleep for this last nap as an exception (that’s how she always fell asleep before, and she’d fall asleep like that even if she had only been up for one hours) but today it didn’t work, perhaps because she is used to falling asleep on her own in her own terms now.
I don’t know what to do, should I switch to 2 naps and perhaps move her bedtime earlier to 8am (otherwise I can’t fit all her feeds in)? But she will be awake for longer than 3 hours at the time still and I’m concerned about over extending her wake windows, but she has always been on the longer side of those for her age I must say.
Please help, I now have a very cranky baby that’s been up since 3pm and shouldn’t sleep until 8pm :/