9 mo old nap inconsistencies! Advice??

[jforget]

Up until about a week ago, my 9 month old ds was a great sleeper -- pretty inconsistent with daily nap TIMES, but consistent with taking 3 naps a day and being put to bed around 6:30pm, asleep by about 7pm and up around 6-6:30am

This is how his "routine" looked:

WU: ~6-6:30
Bottle: 30 mins later 6oz
breakfast: ~7am
1st nap down around 730 (asleep around 8am).  He's totally rubbing his eyes and yawning by this time so I don't think I could extend his A time (which is always around 1.5 hrs)?
WU ~ 10
Bottle ~ 1030-1100 6oz
Lunch ~ 1130
2nd nap: ~ 1200 (60mins to 90 mins usually)
Bottle ~ 1430
3rd nap: ~ 1500-1530 (60mins usually as well -- generally always wakes up by 1700)
Dinner ~ 1700
Bath ~ 1800
Bottle ~ 1815 6oz
Bed ~ 1830

The past few days, the morning nap goes great - takes a 2hr nap.  It's the 2nd and 3rd that aren't going great.  For the 2nd, he sometimes takes up to an HOUR to fall asleep (all naps are in his crib, with a routine before putting down of either bottle or book and a cuddle).  He doesn't cry normally, just hangs out.  Normally he'd sleep for about 90mins, but the past few days it's only been 45-60 mins.  He seems really tired when he wakes up, almost like he really didn't want to!  I've left him a bit to see if he'd fall back asleep but he doesn't.  So, I keep him up for about 90 mins (seems short I know, but he always seems tired after this long awake (ie. yawning, rubbing eyes, getting cranky).  Put him down for another nap, and he hangs out in there for FOREVER!  Yesterday it was 1.5hours of him just hanging out in there, so I gave up, put him in his stroller and took him for a long walk - where he slept for a whole 20 mins!!!  He seems to go to sleep for nightime pretty well, though again, can sometimes take up to 1.5 hrs to fall asleep.  Sleeps through the night though no problems.

SO -- there's the situation -- I guess I'm wondering if I should be trying to keep him up longer or something so that he gets at least 2 good quality naps.  I know it probably seems like he's getting enough sleep, but by missing that last nap, he's sometimes up from 1330 to 1830 which is just WAY too long.  He's always needed his sleep and I don't think that's changed.  I don't think he's teething, but he is crawling, pulling himself up, etc, etc.....

Any advice for how to fix his naps??  THANKS!

[Mom to M&M]

Hi there! Couple of things I'd work on. At 9 months, you'd like to see longer A times and elimination of the 3rd nap/catnap. You'd also like to keep the morning nap shorter so he's tired enough for good naps rest of the day.

I'd work on gradually extending A times so that you eventually get to about 3 hours awake time  between naps. Note that at his age, sleepy signs can be tricky and he could also be tired after 1.5 hours because he's simply used to sleeping after that time. Problem is that by giving him such a long nap so early in the day he's basically seeing that as an extension of night sleep and clumping all his sleep together in the night and early morning. Just try to extend gradually - I normally suggest 15 minutes every 3 days but if that is too much for him try 5-10 minutes every 2 days. Keep the extension low key - take him for a walk, read, cuddle, etc.

I'd also shorten that first nap to 1.5 hours so he's tired enough to sleep rest of the day. So ideally, at 9 months, your routine would look something like this:

- Wake 6:30
- Nap 9:15-10:45
- Nap1:45-3:45
- Bedtime 7pm

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions. Great job so far!

[jforget]

Thanks for the advice.  He actually seems to have fixed his issues himself more or less!  (and I guess I was paying more attention  )  Anyways, he's now up for about 2 hrs after he first wakes up.  Takes a 2hr nap still in the AM, but is then up for about 2.5 hrs afterwards.  Goes down for nap 2 for another 2 hrs and then is awake until bedtime at 6pm.  So, only 2 naps now! YEAH!  It seems to be working well as he is settling much faster for naps and for nighttime sleep.

Crossing fingers it stays like this.....

Thanks again.