9 month nap problems!

[hilaryf]

Hi,

I'm new to this site, found it on a search and after looking at a few posts thought the advice given looked fab! We've been loosly following EASY since my LO was born, and have had problems with short naps and early waking. This previously hasnt affected her too much as she always took 3 naps, but in the last few weeks has dropped to 2 and after the 2nd nap is a grumpy girl! So I'm looking to try and do something about it and would appreciate any advice!

Her schedule is
615 wake and BF
8 breakfast
9 nap - 45 mins
1030 small snack
12/1230 lunch
130 / 2 ( depends on tired cues!)  nap 45 mins
3 BF
5 dinner
7 bed

Although due to the short naps, for the last week I have brought dinner forward to 430 and bed to 6 to try and catch up on the sleep deficit. She goes down fine at this time and still wakes the same, however we want to go back to 7 long term.

The grumpy afternoons are starting to affect her dinner, and so I have moved her main meal to lunchtime, as she is too fussy for it at dinner, which isnt ideal as she used to eat what we eat at dinner!

I may try wake to sleep, but want to elimate any other obvious probelms with her schedule that I may be missing!


Thanks! xx

[~Emma~]

 Hello and Wecome to BW 

 I'd try pushing that 1st A by say 15 mins at first. I think she's starting of UT and ending up OT. 

 Has she ever napped longer than 45 mins?

[hilaryf]

Thanks for your advice, I wouldnt have thought of that! Shes never really been a long napper - hence why I thought about trying W2S...

[~Emma~]

 I would try extending that A time first. Try it for a good few days. If you still continue to get the short naps then I owuld go ahead with w2s. 

[hilaryf]

Thanks, I'll try that today. She woke at 545 this morning :-( after going to bed at 7 last night ( had a 3rd catnap yesterday at 430) So I'll go for 3 hours awake time - but watch her cues, fingers crossed!

[~Emma~]

 Fingers crossed! 

 I'd be pretty wary though of offering a CN too late in the day as I have found it can mess with bubs of this age. its ok as an emergency measure now and again. 

 Keep me posted.

[hilaryf]

Thanks, I know what you mean about the catnaps- as she didnt go down till 7 it kind of messed her up yesterday...... wont be doing that again!

We had mixed success - first nap wasnt till 930 - I spent about 30 mins just playing with her in her bedroom watching for her signals, whereas normally I'm rushing around trying to get us both ready for the day and am guilty of looking at the time rather than her too much and putting her down at the slightest sign of tiredness!

It worked for the am - she slept for 1hr 15m, which is long for her. But...... the pm went wrong. She went down at 1.40 - after just less than 3 hr A time - she did look tired ( but also was fussy ) she only slept for 30 mins! She hasnt done that for ages - we usually get 40 minutes minimum! I'm confused and dont want to risk making things worse by changing it too much. :-(


She stayed up till 610 and went to bed fine. But...... she woke up at 4.50 this morning and wouldnt go back to sleep. So we got up (yawn) after leaving her chatting until 5.40, fed her, still no sleep and she is now back down asleep and has been since 720. I know this is extending her night sleep - but I wasnt really sure what to do! If you read this before 10ish I would appreciate your thoughts on whether to try and keep the same nap time this morning or not......

We used to have a problem with early morning wakings at 5.13 - but W2S solved that - I'll see how tomorrow am goes and if its a one off, hopefully it is, otherwise I guess we'll have to W2S again.

Thanks again for your help - its nice to have someone elses opinion!

[hilaryf]

30 minute nap - she's awake! I guess thats overtired then. What to do now!?

[~Emma~]

Sorry I wasn't around hon. Yep she seems overtired woth those 30 min deals for sure.



OK, so you got a good nap yesterday, some people will say that 1 hour 15 can mean OT or UT but at this age I always take it a pretty good nap and run with the same A time afterwards.

 HOw long was the A that got you the good nap?

 So she needs less than 3 hours A, I'd shave 10 mins off that and put her down. It seems like her cues are perhaps subtle and you are just missing them. My DD is like that too, next thing I know she's red eyed, super fussy and cranky then shprt naps on me! I do look at the clock with her a fair bit I have to say. She's 9 months old too.

 I think the EW was probably down to OT too, but I guess you guessed that too! It seems she's in a bit of an OT cycle right now so I'd try everything in the book to get her out of it tomorrow (APOP) and then start again the day after.


 How'd the rest of your day go?
 

[hilaryf]

Hi,

Yesterday was ok in the end after a disasterous start! It looked like this:
awake 450
nap 720 - 30mins (definate night extension...  )
nap 945 - 45 mins ( I put her down earlier than I shouldve on this one, as we had to go out and couldnt change the time and shes not a good napper when we're out, so I expected 45 mins)
nap 240 - 1hr30m ( so A time was 4h10m )
bed 640 - and she was ready!

So she managed a long A time in the middle to get a good nap - but A time until bed was only 2hrs 30. I think this could be because of the lack of sleep the previous night. What do you think?

The previous day that got the long nap, was 3h45 A time. 

This morning she was up at 545 - so a little earlier than normal but about 11 hours - she never normally goes more than 11h30 max anyway. I'm going to watch her like a hawk from 3 hours A time and see if I can crack this! Fingers crossed I'll get 2 good naps. What is APOP?

Thanks so much for your help - 2 naps of over 1 hour in the last week is unheard of in our house!
 

[hilaryf]

Just thought of a question. In your experience is the A time usually the same roughly between naps and bed time?

[~Emma~]

Just thought of a question. In your experience is the A time usually the same roughly between naps and bed time?

 In my experience with both of mine the A's have extended as they day has gone on, so the longest A has always been to bed.

 What are you doing when she is EW?

[hilaryf]

re EW :It depends on the time shes awake, but if its before 6 I feed her and try and get her back to sleep, but she hasnt used feeding as a means to sleep ever really, so it has limited success. If its close to 6 or after, we'll leave her to chat to herself in the hope she may fall back to sleep - she doesnt ever! But is quite happy to entertain herself.

Bit of a mare today - she had 2 30 minute naps - she is being christened sunday and we had to go and buy all the food so she slept in the car and woke when it stopped - but had another 45 mins at home after.

I think I'm going to experiment with the A time in the morning as her signs seem to be less obvious then and get more obvious as she goes through the day. We have a quiet week next week so hopefully will make progress.