Playing during nap time?

[Mrs. Gravy]

I've been using the PU/PD method with my son for 2 days.  More like just PD because he's 8 months old.  It's been going OK, he cries a lot before falling asleep but he does eventually go to sleep!

For naps though, both yesterday and today the same thing happened.  He cried for about half an hour before falling asleep in his crib.  He slept for a very short time, about 15-20 min, then woke up.  I tried shushing him and telling him it was still sleep time, but he was wide awake.  Not crying, but smiling and laughing, trying to play with the toys in his crib etc.

Should I keep him in his crib until "nap hour" is over?  Or when he's that awake, should I just give up and take him out?

[Mom to M&M]

If he's playing and happy in his crib you might want to just leave him and see if he'll fall back asleep or at least get some rest and quiet time in. But maybe he needs longer A times - do you want to post your routine for us?

[Mrs. Gravy]

We've only been doing this for 2 days, but here's our routine.

8AM - wake
8-8:30 - nurse, solids
8:30-10:30 - activity time, plays with toys, jumperoo, practice crawling etc. 
10:30-12 - nap time  * some days nap time will be at 11:30 because we have a play group in the morning *
12-12:30 - nurse, solids
12:30-2 - activity
2-4 - nap time
4-4:30 - nurse, solids
4:30-6:30 - activity
6:30 - bath, start bedtime routine, nurse, story
7:30 -  bed time

I was thinking he might need longer A times, but he gets SO grumpy and tired after only being up for an hour or two.  He's been waking every 1-2 hrs during the night for the past several weeks, and he was napping for 15 min at a time, maybe twice a day.

I think he's just chronically overtired.  He gets tired so quickly after waking up in the morning because I don't think he has a very restful sleep at night.  That's my thinking.  I'm hoping that after a couple days he'll get straightened out.  What do you think?

[Mom to M&M]

So I'm confused - are his naps only 15 minutes or 1.5-2 hours? If only 15 minutes, he's definitely overtired and hence the night wakenings.

[Mrs. Gravy]

I wrote "nap time" from 10:30-12 because that was the time I had set aside and scheduled for him to take a nap.

During that 1.5 hr, he cried for 30-40 min, then slept for 15 min, then woke up and wanted to play.

I wasn't sure if I should try keeping him in his crib until the scheduled nap time was over, or considering he was wide awake and happy, should I just take him out of his crib and try again at the next nap time?

It's hard to know what to do with naps because he's never been a good napper, and with the Baby Whisperer method, everything seems so structured.  That is good in a way, but it's hard to know what to do if you miss a nap.  Do I just push the rest of the day back an hour or two to compensate?  Do we just skip that nap altogether?  Do I substitute a nap for some A time later in the day?

I don't want him to be napping too close to bedtime, and I'd like to keep his bedtime consistent.  So for example, say he cries through his 2-4pm nap.  Does he just not get a nap that day?  Wouldn't that make him overtired and harder to put to bed at night?  If I let him nap later, say from 4-6 when he gets tired again, he'd basically be just waking from his nap and it would be time to start getting ready for bed.

[Mom to M&M]

Baby Whisperer methods do not have to be so structured and i think it's good to allow for bedtime and nap times to be flexible within say a half hour range on either side to allow for adjustments in naps, appointments, etc.

I'd wake hiim by 7:30am at the latest if he's not up already and then put him down for his first nap no later than 10:30. If you have play groups some mornings you may want to wake him earlier so he can get even a catnap in before group so he doesn't get too overtired.

Ideally, at 8 months, his routine would look something like this (not including feed times):

- Wake: 7am
- Nap: 10-11:15/11:30
- Nap: 2:30/2:45-4 or 4:30 latest
- Bedtime 7:30 pm

If he misses a nap, rather than keep him awake until bedtime, I'd put him down later and allow even a catnap to get him through till bedtime without getting too overtired.