so many changes, so little sleep

[wonderma]

Help! I used to have the best napper ever. From about 5 months til now (10-11months old) my DS was on a perfect 4 hour EASY. I loved the 2 two hour naps. Now all hell is breaking loose. And it's been going on for a month. I tried to make his activity time longer, but he still won't nap for the right amount of time. I feel like I can't read him, he seems tired but won't nap. I have no idea what to do. How long should he sleep?? When do I move to just one nap? He can't seem to nap for longer then 45min -75min at a time. If he has a good morning nap he doesn't want to sleep at all in the afternoon. It often takes me 30-40min to get him to settle, I have to keep putting him back down and giving him back his blankie which he throws over the edge. Here are all of his recent changes: He started crawling last month, can now move from lying down to sitting up and pulls self up to stand. Just got 2 top eye teeth. I weaned over the last month and he is no longer breast fed. He also seems to be on the cusp between puree food and fingerfoods. I offer a little of both. He takes his homo milk well from a sippy cup and generally eats well. This is our routine:

7am wake up
730 breakfast milk, cereal, fruit
915 small snack (Cheerios, milk)
930 nap (often not asleep til 10 am,awake at 1030, sometimes goes til 11am)
1130 lunch finger foods and milk
145pm snack milk and banana, or cheese, or cookie
2pm nap up by 315, I want him to nap til 4pm
4pm snack
5-6pm sometimes stroller walk if naps have been bad, will cat nap
6pm supper with milk
630 pm bath
7pm bed sleeps well at night

[debo620]

I'm thinking his sleep needs may just be changing----2 x2hr naps plus a 12hr night is GREAT but ALOT. Just to give you an idea---my son is 11.5months and sleeps 12.5hrs TOTAL night/naps
maybe aim for:
wake 7
nap 10-10:45
nap2pm-3:30pm
bed 7pm
this is still plenty of sleep, I think if you push for more day sleep-you may lose it off of the night sleep.

[KathrynK]

hi there
agree with deb- these changes to naps are so common at this age and he is trying to tell you he needs less daytime sleep now he is older. My dd was about 10.5 months when we had to cut her morning nap to 45 mins and give her more A time. Many babies at this age are doing 3 hours of A time from waking to first nap, and 3.5 to 4 hours after that. As your lo won't have a pm nap if he has a good am nap, I would suggest cutting the am nap back to 45 minutes as Deb said, and that should keep the pm nap ok. We have been doing this for a couple of months now and I am still having to wake dd from her am nap after 45 mins! The 2-1 transition can be really tricky, from what I've read but it is important not to rush it. For now your dd still needs 2 naps, but probably just a short and a long one. It is very common for babies of this age to start to wake very early in the morning as they are having too much daytime sleep and trust me that is something you want to avoid if you can so trim that am nap now! (Deb and I are experts as we have been having early wakings for too long now.... )
hth
kathryn

[wonderma]

Grrrr. He had 30 min to 45 minutes this morning and nothing again this afternoon. He seems tired when we sit down at 2pm, but as soon as he hits the crib, it's like a jungle gym in there. This is not an usual pattern for us. Should I try keeping him up til 3pm instead? I'd be happy with 45min am nap and 1-1.5 hr in the afternoon, but so far I'm just getting a half baked morning nap. Very frustrating. Especially cuz I know he's tired but he can't seem to lay still. He bangs with his hands on the wall the crib is againist. Do I need to do pupd? So many of my friends  have moved to one nap but their kid is falling asleep during lunch!! I think he is still too young for one nap. But why won't he sleep?

[debo620]

so what times were your wake-up today, the time of the first nap, and the time of the second nap attempt. I think the amount of time up after the 40min am nap really depends on the amount of time before it, kwim?

[wonderma]

7am wake up
10am nap-11:06 (seemed well rested and happy, I didn't have to wake him)
2pm laid down 210 poop (great!) 215 lay down again
230-245 quiet 310 I went in again cuz I could hear him fooling around in there and there was another BIG poop (double great) after change I put him down again and left. I came in a few times and put him back down but no more sleep. I tried rocking him from 345-415 and nothing. Rocking is not my usual resort, I thought I'd see if he would sleep then I would know he was tired...but he didn't. I really need to find some sort of consistent approach here. I realize the poops sort of screwed things up today. But minus the poops this is where we've been for about a month. In the past we have had a longer morning nap though. I appreciate advice, willing to do do anything. I'm just not sure what "normal" is and I have a hard time reading signals. I never used to check on him during naps, cuz he used to be quiet. Now he is noisy and moving all about, standing, sitting, banging on the wall, throwing his blankie, pulling off the bumpers. Boy oh Boy.   

[debo620]

so the first nap looks like it was about 1hr ? this could leave him too well rested, especially if he slept 11.5hr+ the night before, to take an afternoon nap. There is a HUGE difference btwn 40min and 1hr. I think still aim for 3hrs of morning activity but wake after 40min, next nap 3-3.5hr later. Also sounds as though there could be some new developmental things going on. I have also found my son needs to spend at least 2hrs of his awake time around the house crawling etc in order to take a good pm nap at a reasonable time

[wonderma]

OK. I'll try. I didn't realize that 45 min is so different from 1 hour. Hmmm. That will be hard to do but I'll try it. It would be nice to have a longer afternoon nap. Supper has been a disater for everyone lately. Thanks for your help, I'll keep you psted.

[wonderma]

WE DID IT!!! For the last 2 days my DS has had a 45 min morning nap and a blessed, long, restful 2 hour afternoon nap (with no struggles going down). thank you thank you! I realize it's only been 2 days, but I think this might work for us for a bit. Until everything changes again. Supper has been so much better when he naps from 2-4pm. The morning nap time has been flexible as I was doing different things each day and needed to get out of the house for the midday waking. But so far, so good!   

[debo620]