She'll be 8 months next week.
I think the problem is since we have a one-bedroom apartment, my desk which is in the living room is right outside the bedroom door, so I hear every wimper and murmur she makes (and we have to make sure not to make too much noise). I just let her stay in there this time making her grumpy angry noises until she went to sleep... it took about 20-30 minutes. It completely stressed me out because I feel like it's crying... but she wasn't screaming or really getting loud. As far as her awake times, this morning she was awake for about 2 1/2 hours before we started wind-down. We went into the bedroom where it's dark and did some quiet play at around 9:20 or so after she started getting fussy. She was in bed at about 9:30, she was really mellow sitting on my lap, resting her head against my chest and her eyes were closing. She let out some cries when I laid her down and arched her back then she started standing up right away and seemed full of energy so I left her. It took her about 30 minutes before I heard her stop fussing and go quiet.
Normally she's asleep by around 9:30. I did try putting her down earlier once or twice, but she stopped yawning at 8:30... Sometimes she'll have a couple of yawns as early as 8 or even right after she woke up, so I'm not sure I can count on yawns as an indicator of when she's ready for bed. Do I adjust her second nap every single day depending on when she woke up? I try to read cues, but I'm afraid often I don't know she's really sleepy until she starts fussing about everything. Is this a sign of over-stimulation (the fact that she doesn't show other cues until she's getting really fussy)? So I end up putting her down at right around 2 for her second nap. Her naps for the most part have been 1:15 - 1:30 long, but the past few days have been really erratic. As short as 30 minutes (due in part to us waking her up once or twice by accident).
I am feeling hopeful that the cure to our sleeping problems lies in me going in too much and too soon. It's just I've seen her crying and really upset so that she runs out of breath when she's crying and turns all red, and she's not really loud. So I'm afraid when she's crying that she's doing that and I don't know it. She hasn't really had to cry loud for a long time (because I'm always right there) so how do I know that I'll hear the difference and know when she'll need me? That's my fear, and that's probably the whole problem behind her sleeping... That's my theory, so I'm going to start leaving her to fuss and make all those grumpy-sounding cries and trust she'll be able to tell me when she needs me...
