So much improvement, but not quite there...

[lilflav]

Hello all!  A little background, lo slept all the time until about 4 months when she started napping for shorter  & shorter amounts of time.  We ended up having all 30 min. naps & many nw from 5 months until about 2 weeks ago.  She is now sttn but has an ew at about 6am and is wide awake & can't settle.  Sometimes I can get her back down in 20 min, others it can take 2 hrs.  We are also having a good morning nap, and a bad afternoon nap.  She is finally getting over being chronically ot, and is waking up happy in the morning & after her am nap.  Before she would cry when waking even is she had a 2 hr nap. I have finally been able to stretch out her A times to where they should be & her sleep is much more consistent. But I think she does still need a longer pm nap as she is not happy when waking, and I am guessing is making her ot and that is why she is waking early.  Here is what the schedule has been for the past few days:

W-7-8
Nap-11:45 (I have been aiming for 11:30, but she just learned to crawl, so she is practicing for a little bit before going to sleep, I am                .               thinking about putting her down earlier & see what happens)
W-1:15
N-4:15/4:45
W-5/5:15 (I think this needs to stay short and think it could be even shorter as she is very sleepy by bedtime)
Bed-730-8

I have a few questions- I have been trying a btc schedule, at this age (10 months, 9 adjusted) & for her situation, is this the best way?  Could the long am A time be causing her to be ot and thus a short pm nap?   In what way should I tweak the schedule, she was still getting a 30 min nap after 3-3.5 hrs afternoon a time, I know 3 hrs is on the short side for her age, so I am not sure whether I should try a shorter time or not.  Are there any other suggestions anyone has? Thanks!

[marensmama]

My LO is 14 months... We've always been on the short side of A times.  Our day looked like this at about 10 months...
7 wake
10:00 nap 1.5 hrs
11:30 wake
2:30 nap 1.5 hours
4:00 wake
7 bed

I would shorten the morning A time a bit and then move the 2nd nap and bedtime up a bit too.  If she is crabby upon awakening and EWing, then she likely needs a bit less A time (sometimes with a new skill they use more energy and need less A time for awhile).  Let me know what you think!

[lilflav]

Hello. thanks for the help!  It seems like I have another problem which will hopefully work itself out soon.  She has just started crawling, sitting from laying, and pulling to standing.  It took me 50 min to get her down for her nap this morning.  And she was up several times last night.  We practiced laying & sitting back down before she was able to get herself into these positions, so that is not the problem.  The problem is it is just too much fun to sit & stand & play rather then sleep! Even when I held her until she was asleep for a few min she would roll over & sit up as soon as I put her down.  I guess I am lucky that this happened all at once though, rather then seperately.  I was reading through some posts and figured that I should keep her A times a little longer for now, and do some pat/sh.  It seems it is best if I hold her down & pat her off to sleep. Hopefully we won't go too far backwards & I can gw her off the p/sh again.  I tried pu/pd & she laughed and thought it was a game, so I guess that's out.

After this is over I am definately going to shorten the first A time and see what happens.  She is not crabby usually when waking early, just wide awake.  But she has always been like that at that time, even when she was getting 2-3x 30 min naps/day.  I think she is just so used to being ot that it doesn't phase her as much as it would other los.  Thanks, I'll let you know when there are new developments.