Refusing Afternoon Nap

[M and N's Mom]

Ok, I've seen lots of posts here about lo's around the same age refusing afternoon naps and that's what's happened to us yesterday and today.  My ds is about 10.5 months and never been a good napper.  He has a cold right now so he should need the sleep, but he won't go to sleep.

Here is today's schedule so far:

7:00 wake
10:10-11:25 Nap #1
2:45 - In bed, calm and relatively quiet by 3:00...now at 3:15 mantra crying/complaining.  This is what happened yesterday but he got progressively more worked up until we got him up.

I'm afraid to wake him early from the am nap, as he is such a terrible napper.  We have fought overtiredness and 30 min naps and 40 min naps so when he has one over an hour I don't like to disturb him as it is not that common.  We haven't had a 2h nap since about 6 mos. 

In order to keep the am nap in tact, should I gradually extend the A time between naps?  Right now we are at about 3h before nap #1, 3h 15+min between naps, and 3h before bed.

Oh...he's quiet now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed (that means he has been awake almost 4h).

Thanks.

[momofclaire]

I think 10 1/2 mo might be too early to go to one nap but I am not sure.  Mine just switched to one nap, she's a year. Are you getting lo to bed before overtired? That could contribute to refusal of 2nd nap?  When dd was on 2 nap our routine went like this.
7:30 wake
8:00 breakfast
9:30-10:30 or 10:45 nap 1
11:00 snack
1:00 lunch
1:30-3:00 nap 2
5:30 dinner
8:30 bed

[debo620]

If the afternoon nap refusal continues or it is falling too late in the day---you could try the short am nap but the A time afterwards drastically reduces. I was letting Noah stay awake too long after a short nap and then we got another short nap
so like for us:
1hr+nap----4hr A time
40min---3hr 20min A time
30min--2 1/2hr A time

[UNCMomma]

M & N's mom, we're right there with you!  My LO almost always goes down pretty well for the AM nap, but lots of time refuses the PM nap.  Here are the things that have worked for us...

For a while, we cut the AM nap to 40-45 min and then the PM nap was long.  This was heavenly, but only lasted a little more than a week.  Then she got sick and I think accumulated overtiredness so it went to pot.  Even with the short AM nap, she was fighting the PM nap til late in the day, which automatically made the PM nap shorter too b/c we woke her at 4:30 to preserve a 7 PM bedtime.  Wake ups got earlier, it was just a mess.

Currently I am trying to stick with 2 naps, with a longer A time in between (like 4 hours).  This works sometimes and sometimes not... yesterday we had a nap from 10:30 to 12 and that was it.  No PM nap, and I tried twice to put her down.  So she was in bed at 6 PM.  Earlier bedtime is a must for us when she skips a nap.

Today I was going to let her have just one nap since she didn't go to sleep til 10:30 again, I was going to let her sleep as long as she wanted and have an early bedtime.  But that's a bust b/c she only slept 45 min. 

Glad to see deb's recommendations for A time with shorter naps, I will try 3 hours 20 min today! 

Good luck to you!  Rough time in nap world, I guess!

Hey, weren't we together on the de-swaddling thread a LONG time ago too? 

Oh, and we'd love to have you over on the Jan/Feb 06 birth club board, lots of nap discussion going on over there b/c we're all having issues.  We always like having new members! 

[M and N's Mom]

I think we were together on the swaddle thing...that was the problem then...naps now - lol

Looks like our lo's are almost the same age spacing apart.  Did you have the same problems with #1?  My DD is and was a great sleeper...slept through the night at 14 weeks, hardly ever heard from her, and after about 6 months napped really well.  DS is, unfortunately, not following in his sister's footsteps from that aspect 

When your DD only naps well in the morning and then is up until bedtime does it cause night wakings for you?  We have night wakings if he is overtired so we often do a 6pm bedtime even if he has a pm nap but it is too short, or too early, etc.  With my DD (good sleeper that she is) she might have been harder to get to sleep if she was overtired, but once she was asleep, she stayed asleep...not DS. 

[UNCMomma]

In her early days, DD1 was not the best of sleepers, but once she reached about 6 mos she was (and is!) a dream sleeper.  The only problem I ever had with her was early wakings.  She is a wonderful night sleeper. 

DD2 seems to have finally caught on to night sleeping... it's usually about once to maybe twice a week I have to get up with her--but when I do get up with her, I have to give her a 2 oz bottle to settle her back down enough to get back to sleep.  Without it, she just can't get resettled.     Bad habit, but it works!  These night wakings do seem to come about when she's overtired... either from bad naps, one nap, or going to bed too late.   

Now it's just these freaky naps...