i STILL can't get my baby to go down for her naps!!!!

[mandalynn]

my lo is 10 months old now and has always been a great sleeper... until she started crawling. as soon as that happened she just plays and plays in her crib, no matter how tired the moment before i put her in there. i started increasing her A time since she hadn't been able to stay up as long as others her age in the past. it worked for about a week. now, i don't know what the heck to do!!! i know she is dead tired, and trust me, i have played around with the times she goes to take a nap and it doesn't seem to make a difference. i have no clue if she's OT or UT or if that's even the problem at all!!!!!!!!!! she will be so drowsy and ready to fall asleep but the moment i put her in her crib she flips over and gets up and plays. it took her an hour to fall asleep this morning, and she only slept for an hour. typically, the second nap has been much harder. sometimes, she sleeps for 20 minutes, sometimes not at all. it's getting extremely frustrating as i have been dealing with this for going on TWO months! this is the routine that on a VERY RARE occasion, she follows (it's what we're going for anyway):
8 up and breakfast
  ( oatmeal, fruit, sippy )

9:45-ish nap, she takes ab a 5 oz bottle

12 up and lunch
  ( yogurt, fruit, cheerios, sippy )

2:45-ish nap

4/4:30 up and 8 oz bottle

6:30 dinner
  ( fruit, veggie or some of whatever we eat, cereal, sippy )

7 bath

7:20-ish pj's, book, 8 oz bottle, bed

i don't know what i can do differently! i don't know how to calm her down! i can't make her stay down in her crib! i can't make her sleep! it would be one thing if she were'nt in such a foul mood without the naps! help me out PLEASE!!  any suggestions would be soooooo welcomed and appreciated!!
thanks!

[marensmama]

If I'm reading your routine correctly, your LO is getting 1.75 hours of A time before her first nap?  If that's the case, I'd stretch it out a bit, since most LOs her age can handle 3-4 hours of A time.  If she's not tired enough to sleep, she'll likely find ways to amuse herself.  At 10 months, the routine usually looks something like this:
7:00 wake
10:00 nap
11:30 wake
2:30 nap
4:00 wake
7:00 bedtime

If you're going 8-8, just adjust the above times by an hour.

Some babies this age start the 2-1 naps transition, that could be what's going on here, but I'd try giving her more A time and see how she does with that first.  HTH!

[mandalynn]

well i have been trying to keep her awake longer with absolutely no luck. im not sure if it's not long enough though. she seems to go to sleep much quicker for my mother-in-law and my husband when they have her, but she doen't stay asleep any longer with them.

for example, today she woke up at 8 and had breakfast. we went to kindermusic and got back at 10:30 so i put her down about 10:45 ( she was absolutely exhausted ). she actaully did fall asleep within about 10 minutes but she woke up after only 30 minutes of sleep!!

so we played, ate lunch, and played a little more until about 1:40. i started her nap routine and even sat there with her for a long while until she calmed down... she was tired at first but then she got really excited. anyway, i was with her until 2:10 and then i finally put her down and she played for about 30 minutes. i thought, surely she will make up for her crappy nap this morning and sleep a little longer. but no. she slept for maybe 45 min and woke up. i tried going in there and tucking her back in which obviously didn't work.

i swear she was totally tired both of those times. after that first nap, she was honestly tired the whole time she was up! so that's why i finally put her down at 1:40... but then it bit me in the butt! it seems like no matter what i do it doesn't help or work.

should i have waited longer for both of those naps??!

thanks for your response! 

[marensmama]

The A time following a short nap needs to be adjusted accordingly so that the LO doesn't get OT.  So even if it's a 45 minute nap because you put her down too soon and she was UT to begin with, she'll end up OT if that next A time is the 'regular' length.

I think she might be used to the short A times, and you may need to increase them gradually if she seemed OT - at this age, short naps of any length can mean UT, so you need to be the judge.  Was she crabby when she woke up?  Was she acting tired for the rest of that A time?  If yes to both, then she was likely OT and therefore the longer A times need to be introduced more gradually.  Try adding 15 minutes to the morning A time every 3 days or so.  If she was happy and raring to go, then the next day give her more A time in that first block.  It's normal for them to have a shorter A time in either the morning or the afternoon, so don't think that both of those A times have to match.  What if you throw the clock out the window for a couple of days and go mostly by her cues?  I think if you try to put her down for an hour and she doesn't want to go and is happy, then she needs more A time.  With my DD1, I had a rule that if she didn't fall asleep within 20 minutes and she was happy, I'd take her out of her crib for 15 minutes, do something low-key (like read a book) and then try the wind-down again.

The other thing you need to consider is your wind-down routine.  Is it consistent?  Has it been successful?  What does it involve?  What is her temperament?  Now that she's older and more interactive, do you need to change the routine in any way?  My DD2 is a spirited/touchy girl.  She will not tolerate a wind-down.  When she's tired, she wants to be put in her grobag and left alone.  Period.  No lullabies, no cuddles, no talking except a quick 'I love you!'.  My DD1 on the other hand is an angel/texbook and she required 3 songs and a cuddle to get her in the mood for sleep.  And as I recall, as she got to be about 10 months we had to revamp the routine somewhat and it had to be consistent - our daycare provider had to sing exactly the same 3 songs in the same order to get her down for a nap.

Let me know how you make out! 

[mandalynn]

okay, so i don't want to speak too soon, but things have actually gotten better the last few days!! i have been going soley by her cues and she has been getting in some good naps! today, she took an 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap this afternoon! also, i started giving her a bottle before her second nap. i have been putting her to bed more around 7 also and that has seemed to help!

i think she just needed to get over playing in her crib for the most part. in the beginning, when this all started surfacing, i was still going by her cues and putting her down when she was telling me she was tired.... it just didn't work!! then somewhere along the way, i started trying to put her down earlier, then later, desperately hoping something would help!

thank you for your advice and input! i needed to hear some different ideas! i agree about the nap routine... i think i was trying to make things more difficult then they were with that. i thought whatever i was doing wasn't working so i wasn't being consistant every time. layla is for sure a textbook baby ( with a bit of touchiness ) and her nap routine needs to be short, sweet, and consistant.

thank you! thank you! you are toooooo kind

[marensmama]

I'm so glad it's working out!