Andrea,
Nice to hear about Taylor and her naps. I'm glad I'm not the only one who tells my daughter that she is cranky because she did not have enough sleep. Arwyn used to have GREAT naps before she turned 4 months. Then suddenly, they got progressively shorter, from 2h 15m to 1h 30m to our new favourite, 45 minutes.
Well, today's naps started off worse than yesterday. She napped for 34 minutes in the morning. Then we had a visitor... she went down no problem but woke after 44 minutes... (well, that's 30 minutes more than yesterday's nap #2 so...)
Anyways, this is where it starts going downhill. :cry: Usually, if she does not have enough sleep, she gets cranky after about 45 minutes of activity. Well, she woke up cranky as all heck. Wouldn't be held, wouldn't play, be consoled, put down, rocked, you get the picture? I basically told my friend to leave so I didn't have to feel guilty about putting Arwyn down :roll: (cuz I knew there would be lots of LOUD crying). She went down after 15 minutes of very LOUD crying and mommy patting her back. Woke up a happy baby!
Yes, Andrea... I couldn't resist... I said, "See, look what getting enough sleep does for you!"
I am trying not to get so uptight about our schedule. It's not so much going out for dinner, to the drop-in, etc. For some reason, I am better able to accept that her schedule will be "off" on those days. It is more when it starts off rocky -- that first nap really does me in. I "expect" a cranky day when she doesn't have a good first nap.
Anyways, I'm still trying different things... extending activity time, watching cues, watching the clock despite cues, etc. I know that "this too, shall pass."
Sorry, this is long... just gotta get those short nap frustrations off my chest.
BTW, Andrea... congratulations on going back to work. How is it going?