10 month old EW

[ladyboz]

I'm back! lol For the past few months things have been great! My little on has been on a schedule that looks like this:

A 6:30-7:00 Breakfast at 7:30-8
E7:30-8 breakfast
S 9:30 (shows very sleepy cues) Has a 3oz bottle of expressed milk
A 11:00-11:30 (sometimes I have to wake her so she doesnt sleep over 2 hours)
E 12:30 lunch
S 2:30-2:45 3oz bottle expressed milk (doesnt show as many sleepy cues as in the morning)
A3:30-4:00 I make sure she doesnt sleep past 4
E 5:30 Dinner
6:45 bath routine/read/nurse
7:30 asleep (sometimes she doesnt fall asleep till 7:45

She wakes around 1am and 5am for nursing still

That's the routine that was working for us. However lately she hasn't been wanting her afternoon nap and she's been doing a 5:30am wake up! Her morning nap is still really good. But by the afternoon she doesn't want to nap. She goes to bed very easily because she is tired, but surprisingly she isn't cranky. Which I find odd cause she's been awake since 11:30am! Any advice on how to adjust naps or advice on how to get her to sleep more in the morning so she isnt so exhausted for her morning nap? Ideally I'd like to stretch her mornings out longer and maybe get her ready to do the 2-1 transition for naps. But, I'm not sure how to do that as she's so tired from waking up at 5:30.

Just some other info. She's a very happy baby. In the morning isreally the only time she acts tired. In the afternoon/early evening her eyes are red rimmed but she still has a happy attitude.

Help! the 5:30am wake up is a killer. sigh

[ladyboz]

Forgot to mention that she'll be 10 months this Friday the 21st.

[Layla]

I've split your post from your original post, gave it a new name and moved it to the GS forum.. hope you don't mind

Now, about your lo's EW and the battle of the afternoon nap - this is a common age they will fight the afternoon nap and/or EW will pop up if their morning nap is too long and/or too close to the wake up time.

I attached a link for you to look at... basically this is the start of the 2-1 nap transition for you guys and there will be some experimenting along the way to find a good routine until your LO is ready to be on 1 nap.

From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)
10/ 11mo sleep gone wonky? Read this first! (2-1 switch)

We are doing the short am/long pm nap; where I don't let my 10 mo sleep more than 45mins in the morning and I offer her the afternoon nap (which she doesn't fight because she only sleeps a short time in the morning) 3.5hrs later and I let her sleep up to 2hrs. You could follow this routine OR if you are not happy with waking her up, I would try pushing the morning nap - probably 3.5hrs A after wake up time and limit the nap to 1.5hrs and try pm catnap around 3.5-4hrs later. You might have to AP the catnap though because a lot of babies fight the pm nap on 1.5hr AM nap. If after shortening the am nap to 1.5hrs A and extending the 2nd A (before pm nap), the pm nap is still no go; you could try the short am/long pm nap option... as I said, its a case of trial and error to see which routine works best for you.

Let me know how you go

[ladyboz]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply! I'll give those suggestions a try and let ya know how it goes. You've been so helpful!

[ladyboz]

Ok, so the past few days have been a bit wonky. lol I tried capping her morning nap slowly at 1.5 hours the most and she started taking her afternoon nap really well (went right to sleep and slept for an hour). And the early wakings sort of went away. I had to work hard and ap to get her to sleep, but she would end up falling asleep and one morning even slept til 7:20am!

This morning though, she woke at 2am and was talking/playing. I nursed her and she went right back to sleep (trying to figure out if it's really hunger as she wasnt crying). She then woke at 5:30am and was UP! Should I put her down at her regular time as to not encourage EW? If so it would be at 9:30-9:45am (4 hours A time). Also, I think I might just go ahead and do the short morning nap and try to get her to take a longer afternoon nap. It's going to be interesting as she's always been a better morning napper. But, we'll see. Im willing to try different things and hopfully they'll start to work things out. lol

Oh, she's usually in bed by 7:30-7:45 (asleep). Could it be that she needs a later bedtime?

[Layla]

Yes, I would still put her for her morning nap at around the same time. If you are going to try short am/longer pm schedule, you'll probably have to keep the morning nap shorter than 1.5hrs. The EW may also get fixed if you keep the morning nap short...

Bedtime may get shifted to a later time during the transition period.

Let me know how you go

[ladyboz]

Ok, the early wakings have gotten a bit better. She's still waking for the day at 6:30am, but I'll take that over a 5am wake up any day! lol

For the past few nights she's been waking at 11pm and 2:30isham. At 11pm I just lay her back down and cover her with her blankie. She looks at me and cries for a minute, but then just turns over and falls right back to sleep. At 2:30am it takes much longer for her to fall back asleep. For the past few nights she has, but last night we were up for 1 hour. I finally caved at 3am and nursed her and she slept till 6:30am. When she woke up she didn't want her 6:30-7:am nursing and just ate breakfast at 7:30am. I'm wondering if she still REALLY needs that 2:30 nursing or if she just wants to cuddle. She's a petite little one and is 10 months and weighs 16.5 lbs. I don't want to create a habit, but we're both tired. lol

As for her naps, I've been capping her morning nap at 45 minutes. She is SO tired and I have to work hard at waking her and she's very groggy. Is this normal? Her afternoon naps are ok. I start her windown at 1:30 and nurse or take a bottle at 1:50. She fights it a bit, but is asleep by 2:00-2:15om. She sleeps for 1.5 hours and wakes refreshed and does great the rest of the day and bedtime is a breeze. I guess, I'm wondering if her being so tried after her morning nap is ok and if it has anything to do with her night wakings. Any advice would be great! Thanks so much!

Here's what our schedule has been looking like for the past week:

A 6:30am
E 7:30am
S 10:00am (nurse or bottle)
A 10:45am
E12:30pm
S 2:00pm (nurse or bottle)
A 3:30pm
E 5:30pm
Bath, read, and nurse 6:45
Asleep by 7:30-7:45pm

Night wakings at 11:00pmish and 2:00am ish.

[Layla]

Was she sleeping through before and is now waking for a feed? If she takes the feed and then goes promptly back to sleep, she may still need it? Its hard to say when night feeds should stop... some say 9 months, some up to 1 year. Could you do milk first and then solids an hour later? This is recommended up to 12 months.

[ladyboz]

Good morning! My baby girl has been doing really well the past month or two. I finally switched her to 1 nap as she was fighting her afternoon nap and doing nightwakings and playing. She was doing really well for a week or two, but the past two weeks have been very hard. She wakes once at around 2:30ish am and plays for a good hour or two and doesnt fall asleep till 4 or 4:30am. By play, I mean she walks around her crib babbling and talking. Every once in a while she'll whimper and I'll go, lay her down, and cover her up. She lays down for a bit and seems as if she'll fall back asleep, but then gets right back up and repeats after 10 minutes. One night she did this for 3 hours!

I thought we might have been back on track the other night as she slept from 7:40am-5:30am. I nursed and she slept till 7:15am. But that was once in just 2 weeks. I'm at a loss as to what to do. I thought maybe it might be teething, but 2 weeks? I'm the only one that gets up with her during the night and I'm exhausted. Any advice?

Here's how our schedule looks:

7:00-7:30am wake up/breakfast
11:30 lunch
12:30 nap (I nurse or she takes a 2.5 oz bottle while I am at work)
3:15-3:30 I wake her up. I wake her up because she'll be sleeping more than 3 hours during the day.
5:30 dinner
7:00pm bath and bed routine (including nursing)
7:40-8:15pm asleep (sometimes she goes right to sleep and sometimes it takes her a while)

She just turned one on the 21st of April. Any advice on how to get her to sleep more through the night or get rid of the crib parties? I'd greatly appreciate it!

[ladyboz]

Oh, I also should mention that she's been sleeping till 7:30am almost 8pm (which she usually NEVER does). But, Im wondering if its because shes making up for loss sleep cause of her playing in the middle of the night. Her afternoon naps are great, but she takes almost a 2.5 to 3 hour nap. I have to wake her myself or she fights her bedtime routine as she isnt tired enough. Sigh... lol

[ladyboz]

Ok, she did it again last night. She woke at 11:45pm and was playing in her crib. I just left her hoping she would fall asleep ob her own. After 30 minutes she became very fussy and began crying. I would go to her, lay her down, and say night night. She would stop for a few minutes and then the whole thing started over again. I finally just picked her up at 1am and nursed her. She calmed down and I laid her down. But 5 minutes later she stood up again. I laid her down and she FINALLY fell back asleep. She's up now at 6am. I just don't know what to do. Is this a stage that 1 year Olds go through?

[Layla]

Sorry hun I didn't get back earlier... how old is she now? She may not be ready for 1 nap yet... dd3 can handle some 1 nap days but not every day and her routine looks like this:

6am - wake
9.30-10 - morning nap
1-3 - afternoon nap
7pm - bedtime

Or I would do the 1st nap earlier (say 4hrs A time) and offer her a catnap to tie her over to bedtime.

Or try offering 1 nap around 12pm and not let her sleep more than 2.5hrs and then do bedtime around 4.5hrs A time. I do think her sleeping in has something to do with night wakings...

On days dd3 has 1 nap, her nap is no later than 11am (she is 6am riser) and she usually sleeps 2 hrs and I do bedtime between 5.30-6pm.

You know, with dd1, I also switched her to 1 nap around 12 months of age, because she was refusing the afternoon nap but then we got into all sorts of mess... early wakings, night wakings, etc... and so we settled on shorter am and longer pm nap. If you're not too keen on changing her routine, just try and earlier nap time and earlier bedtime and see if that helps!

[ladyboz]

Thanks for the reply! She just turned 1 year this week. If I do the long 1 nap at say 11am. Where would I fit in lunch and dinner? It might be a silly question,  but im new at this. Lol also, do you give your 1 year old a bottle before bed or when she wakes during the night?

[Layla]

Sorry for the delayed reply... on days we do 1 nap day around 11-11.30am, we do either a big snack around 10.30am or we do 1/2 lunch and then I give her the other 1/2 when she wakes up. Mine still has a milk feed before bedtime (not a bottle because I could never get her to take milk from a bottle, she's still breastfed). I don't feed her at night anymore. She stopped all night feeds around 9 months.

There are no silly questions hun... ask away and just remember this can be a tricky transition and it doesn't have to be all or nothing (1 or 2 naps). With us (dd1 and 2), how many naps they had depended on wake up time, how they slept at night, if they were sick or teething, etc.. With dd3, the transition is a little bit easier (it might have something to do with her personality as she has been great with other transitions too). Having said that, her wake up time still ranges from 5.30am-7am and some days she will do 2 short naps but otherwise, she seems to be ok on the shorter am/longer pm routine. I can push her to do 1 nap and I usually do on weekends when we have to go out but I can tell she gets tired the following day; where I offer her 2 naps.

Enough rambling!!! How is she going at night? Let me know how you go and if you have any other questions.