Adjusting EASY on days when it gets knocked out?

[*Carrie*]

Quick question - my 9mo is in a good routine and I'm happy with things on a normal day. My question is when something knocks us off schedule how to best tweak things... should I go with keeping his actvity times to their normal lengths and just move naps/bedtime later or should I be trying to keep things consistent (especially bedtime)?
I've been wondering about it because we have two days during the week when an activity coincides with his am naptime and then obviously the rest of the day is knocked out - on those days he sometimes has an extra long naptime around the middle of the day and I try to put him to bed earlier that night, other times he has a short midday nap and needs a catnap later which then pushes bedtime later... how does this sound??

I'm asking now tho because for the first time in months he has slept in!!! He normally wakes before 7am and amuses himself fairly well in his cot until we get him up at 7.30am but today he woke briefly at 6am, went back to sleep after I tucked him back in and was still soundly asleep at 7.50am when dh finally coaxed him awake!!! I'm left wondering when I should put him down for his am nap. I normally put him down at 10am which would be at least 3 hours activity time sometimes more depending on when he wakes. I've taken the bull by the horns and put him down at 10.30am and we'll see how he does... but that's not even 3 hours activity time.... wish I could just say I could go by his tired cues but he hasn't had any obvious ones for quite a while now... the world's too interesting to admit you're tired!!!!!!
Hope you can help,
Carrie

[vadensmommy]

I love it - sounds just like my dd "the world's too interesting to admit you're tired!!!!!!"

DD is the EXACT same way - love it. 
Well all I can tell you is what we do, and basically if she has a screwy day I try to just go with the flow.  Like today - we are out of town, and had a family member's wedding shower to attend and a ballgame this afternoon to attend.  BOTH were during our typical nap times. 
So this morning I tried to put dd down a little earlier than the 3hr mark hoping to get at least an early 45min nap out of her so she could go to the shower and be her sweet self, but no.  She wouldn't go to sleep until the 3 hr mark which means I went to the shower and left her at our family's house to sleep while DH took his turn to stay with her.  She made it to the last 10minutes of the shower after almost everybody had left.  And she was dressed so cute too.

So then she had a REALLY long A time between the two naps because we had to go eat lunch and then make it to the beginning of the ball game.  Grandma had even bought her a special cheerleading outfit, so we had to make an appearance.  So grandma tried to get her to nap at the ballgame (fat chance - especially given your closing statement in the pp).  We stayed for about an hour (an hour after typical naptime) before coming home to take a nap.  Luckily OT didn't affect getting her to sleep too bad, but now she has slept till 5pm, and our typical bedtime is 6:30.  But with a 3hr A time, she probably won't be tired till 8.  So I probably won't put her down till she shows tired signs/ or until 8 if we don't get tired signs.  But, this is an odd weekend because we are out of town.  I do ususally try to stick to a pretty consistent bedtime, but there are many days where a late pm nap will push a later bedtime, and I just try not to stress out too much about it!

So all this to say I really do just go with the flow, and I usually try to keep with the A times instead of the times of day because that is my only contstant some days - and I KNOW after 3 hours of A time she will be tired and should be ready to take a nap, if not sooner depending on previous naps/night sleep etc.  Usually dd is really flexible with it and doesn't give me too much grief.  None of this rambling may help you at all, just wanted to let you know how we handle those things!!  Good luck.

[*Carrie*]

Glad you're in the same boat with the "I'm not tired" routine. It amazes me how well Rory can survive with no nap or a tiny wee catnap in the car especially if there are other people around to entertain him. Today he missed his am nap due to his swimming but having slept 20 mins in the car he then lasted almost until his next naptime because we had an electrician come round who was then standing on chairs and testing light fittings etc... then Daddy came home to talk to the electrician (who of course had headed off by then) so he played with him a bit - before I knew it we were way past the time I had set in my head for trying a nap!

We muddle on....

C x

[vadensmommy]

Yes, our day yesterday was much of the same - heading back home from out of town.

Tried to put dd down early for a nap because she had 4 or 5 nw the night before (seems to be just from being in a different bed than her own) but she'd have nothing to do with it.  Instead she fell asleep on the way to church, and woke up 30 minutes later when somebody started singing really off key.  So we went to eat lunch, and then drove to a friend's house and she fell asleep in the car for about 15 minutes on the way there, but woke when we got there and played with my friend's kids.  Didn't go back to sleep till 4:45 and only slept 30minutes again.  Went to sleep in the car again for the night at 7 only to be woken back up when we got home at 8:30 and had to change jammies and put her back down.  Good thing she slept well last night and woke up at 6:30 this morning, which is actually right on time for her!! 

I used to stress so bad on weekends like this (and still do to a certain extent), but I've tried to just really go with the flow, knowing that eventually she will catch back up.  She typically takes a 45min nap in the mornings at the sitter - took a 2 hour nap this morning.  Guess she's catching up!!  Good luck