When the 1st nap gets later and later...

[JacobM]

hi - my 10 month old baby is managing to stay up much longer - but it seems to be completely changing his nap times...so, this morning, he woke up at 7.15 (very late for him, but we had a very disturbed night with him crawling round his cot - but that's another story), so he went down for his nap at 10 - which seems really late - considering his second nap will start eating into the afternoon - from 2/2.30 until 3.30/4? will his first nap just get later and later? how do I handle this? what's the general routine for his age?

We are also having issues with early wakings, so have been doing what the BW suggests - stretching out his morning nap and also shortening it - but what about when he does eventually wake up later (he was waking between 5 and 5.30) say, at 6.30/7 - do i still need to do stretch out the first nap? there's no way he would go to sleep earlier - when he's not tired, he just won't go in the cot. So, again, I'll end up with a really late 2nd nap?

Would LOVE some advice
xxx

[*Jo*]

Hi there, can you put up how your day went in an EASY format? this will help us see how the timing is going.

as for 10am, thats a very reasonable time for this age, our boy goes down around 10.30 until 11.30 and his next nap can be around 3.15-4.45, its just that the A times are getting longer and also their sleep gets a little shorter, if he was crawling around his cot in the night playing then im thinking you either need to extend his A time or shorten one of the naps a bit. once you have your EASY up we can take a look then

[Mashi]

hi - my 10 month old baby is managing to stay up much longer - but it seems to be completely changing his nap times...so, this morning, he woke up at 7.15 (very late for him, but we had a very disturbed night with him crawling round his cot - but that's another story), so he went down for his nap at 10 - which seems really late - considering his second nap will start eating into the afternoon - from 2/2.30 until 3.30/4? will his first nap just get later and later? how do I handle this? what's the general routine for his age?

Generally what happens as babies get older and move towards one nap is that you cut the morning nap shorter, in small increments and then the A time after that nap a bit shorter as well (as LO has had less sleep and so can stay awake for less time) and then there is adequate time in the day for a long afternoon nap.

Some parents find it works better for their LOs to push the morning nap later, encourage it to be a long sleep (1.5 - 2 hours) and then after a long A time, give their LO a shorter nap and a shorter awake time before bed.  Probably depends on your lifestyle and what your LO prefers, but really, most parents find more success in the first method, but it isn't the only option!

[JacobM]

hi - i would definitely be going for the short am nap, and longer lunchtime/pm nap - my LO would be happy to have an afternoon nap, but whenever he does - if we're in the car for eg, it nearly always makes his bedtime later, and he then also wakes up earlier in the morning...

SO! here's a general day...(just so you know, he's been waking up at all sorts of different times recently - anytime between 5 and 6.15am - so we've been trying to push his am nap a little later and cutting it a bit short, on advice from people from here - so he sleeps longer...so far, it sometimes makes his pm nap longer, and kind of helps him to wake a little later, but not much) oh - and he's teething at the mo (i think) - the first one!


E Wake 6.15-bottle/8 - breakfast
A 6.15 - 9.30 (generally)
S 9.30 - 10.15 (i've been waking him after 45 mins)

E 10.30 - snack/12 - lunch
A 10.15 - 1.15
S 1.15 - varies - sometimes till 2.15, sometimes until 3

E 3.30 - bottle/5.30 - tea
A 2.30 roughly -7pm
S 7pm-5/6am

We were getting  night wakings and PU/PD worked - until last night, when he woke up and started crawling round his cot, crying hysterically...took an hour to get him back down again.
Any glaring mistakes in his routine?
thanks xxx

[Mashi]

You might be able to get a longer nap if you play with the A time in the afternoon.  Pushing it longer by 15 minutes might help but if he is teething he may need shorter A times.

If he wakes at 215 instead of 300 then he would probably need a much earlier bedtime - 600 I would aim for!