Fighting morning nap

[tealy]

My 8 month old DD has suddenly started fighting her morning nap. She used to go down for her first nap like clockwork -- almost exactly 2 hours after she wakes up. But in the last few days she's been waking up later in the morning (7.30 instead of her usual 6.30) and then not wanting to nap. She was up at 7.30 today and I just got her to sleep and it's 11.45am. Yesterday she was up at the same time and went down for a nap (after much crying and PU/PD) at 11. There's no way she's ready for 1 nap a day is there? Should I see if she is wanting to move her nap closer to lunchtime? If so, how does that affect her afternoon nap? She usually naps at 9 and again at 3, but if she doesn't nap until 11 or 12 and sleeps for 1.5 hours, a 3pm nap will be too soon. I've found that if she naps past 5pm she won't go down easily that night either, so I don't want to let her nap any later than that.

Any ideas, or anyone else been through this?

[KathrynK]

hello
can you give us your usual routine? It looks from your post that she is usually up at 6.30 and asleep by 9- is this right? If so, it may be that she needs to have more A time; many babies at this age are having 3 hours before first nap. I know if I try to put dd down too early she cries and fights it and ends up overtired as all the fuss keeps her awake past what should be her nap time, iykwim. Let us see your usual day and we'll see what we can do to help
kathryn x

[tealy]

Here is our usual routine:

6.30 wake up, bf
7.30 breakfast
8.30/9 1st nap (1-1.5 hours)
10.30 wake up, bf
11-12.30 A time
12.30 lunch
1-2 more A time, winding down
2/2.30 bf
2.30/3 2nd nap (1-1.5 hours)
4/4.30  wake up
5.30  dinner
6.30 bf
7.00 bath, pjs, story
7.30 bed

[KathrynK]

hi there
from your routine it looks like she can handle 4 hours A time from 1st to 2nd nap, and from 2nd nap to bedtime so I would say it possibly is that after 2.5 hours from waking she is not tired enough for her first nap. Try extending it and see what happens. How you extend it depends on your lo- some need a gradual 5-10 mins per day, my dd suddenly one day was going an extra 30 minutes with no trouble!
Apart from that your routine looks fab xx

[tealy]

Thanks Kathryn! I will try slowly extending the time she goes down for her first nap and see how that goes. Today she was up at 6am, I fed her, then she slept for another 20 minutes then back up at 6.45. It seems to be different each day! She'll have a couple weeks of one wake up time and then a week where it's all over the place then another couple weeks with the same wake up time. I guess that's how they keep us on our toes! 

Your daughter is adorable, btw. My DD has the same hat! From Mothercare in the UK, right? Is that where that jumper is from? I love the purple and blue stripes. 

[KathrynK]

Your daughter is adorable, btw. My DD has the same hat! From Mothercare in the UK, right? Is that where that jumper is from? I love the purple and blue stripes.

thank you, I think so too!! 
It is indeed from Mothercare as is the hat- how cute is that hat??!?! The jumper has a matching hat too!