Switching to one nap but STILL often only 40 minutes long!!! HELP!!!

[Sungrl]

Zoey is 13 months old now.  She has been a 40 minute napper since she was only a few months old.  I tried EVERYTHIGN to extend her naps for many many months and finally gave up when nothing worked.  She was normally happy and while she did wake once in the night to nurse until she was one, she slept around 13 hours in total overnight and was a pretty happy baby during the day. I held out hope all this time that once she transistioned to one nap, she would take a decent nap...

Zoey was still taking two naps a day (only 40 minutes long) up until a few weeks ago, but when she started going to a dayhome, she started refusing her PM nap.  So, the DCP has been putting her down a bit later, and she only has the one nap.  The problem is that often THIS nap will only be 40 minutes long!  I don't pick her up until 4:45pm so I can't put her down for a nap when we get home, so she ends up being totally overtired and very cranky for the short time I get to spend with her each day.     She also has started waking at 5-5:30am!!!  I don't respond to her (otherwise she will NOT go back to sleep) and she fusses and yells in her crib for a bit but does go back to sleep eventually.  However, this wakes ME up and I have to get up for work at 6:30am so I usually can't fall back to sleep after this happens and I'm now exhausted.  Zoey seems to be getting more and more overtired too.

Some days Zoey will take a 1.5 hour nap at the dayhome, and even once had a 2.5 hour nap there!  This weekend though, she only took one short nap on both Saturday and Sunday with ME, and as a result was a total mess all day yesterday and was up again at 5am this morning.  I'm wondering what I can do here...I'm not with her during the day (during the week) and I can't really ask the DCP to do anything to extend her naps as she has other kids to care for, and extending naps has NEVER worked with Zoey in the past.

Zoey falls asleep independently and if she wakes in the night, I never respond to her and she goes back to sleep.  I've tried leaving her for a while after she wakes from a short nap, but she never goes back down.  What can I do to get her napping better and how can I fix this overtired pattern she is in now???  Should I be putting her to bed super early for a while or something???

Here was her day yesterday...
5:30am up and crying, went back to sleep
7:15am awake
10:30am looking at me saying "night night" - I should have put her for two naps yesterday since she usually goes down NO problem for me
11:45am nap - 30 minutes!  Could not get her back to sleep
6:00pm - VERY cranky, would not eat supper, etc
7:15pm in bed and asleep in seconds
5:20am awake and crying
7:00am up for the day

TIA!!!
S

[debo620]

Hi there,
being tha Zoey is showing some signs of OT, she probably is not ready for one nap.

I would hoever suggest that you limit the am nap in order to achieve an afternoon nap. I personally found that a 40min am nap was a bit too much as it lead to a 40min pm nap. but once I cut it to 30min, every afternoon nap was 1.5hrs.

so lets say
wake 7
nap 10:00---you wake her after 30min
next nap at 12:30---hopefully she'll play and be asleep by 1pm---and then sleep til 2:30
bed at 6:30-asleep by 7pm

HTH

[Sungrl]

Thanks for the reply.  I agree that Zoey probably is not ready for one nap, but the dayhome lady says she cannot get her to go down in the afternoon, so she'd rather put her for one nap with the other kids.  Not sure what to do about this...  

[debo620]

well, maybe kindly ask her to keep the am nap very short, just like a little refresher so that she will still sleep in the afternoon. surely she would be happy if she was to sleep for 1.5hrs in the pm vs. 40min. worth a try in my opinion.
maybe try it at home just to prove to her it would work.

[Aly Mac]

Sungrl,  I might also pop this over to the toddler sleep board to see if you get any more advice, given Zoey is older than a year and officially a toddler!

[mattandcindy]

No real advice....
Just mostly HUGSSS!!!!!
Abigail has always been a horrible napper. (I could have written your post about taking terrible naps).
Only in the last few months has she really gotten to the point where she will sometimes
sleep for more than 1 hour at her nap. Most days it is 45 minutes to 1 hour and every now and then
I get really lucky and she will do a 2 hour nap.
Keep trying...But my experience has been some kids just don't sleep.

But...to encourage you...Sam is a GREAT napper. Will easily take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon if I deprive
him of his morning nap...So maybe there is hope for the next one!

[rinajack]

My DD was doing 40 mins naps when she transitioned to one nap. She is also an early waker.  We were having issues with her sleep at the time, and she was OT from refusing naps all the time.

We worked on the early wakeup - many times she did not go back to sleep, but eventually it worked.  We went in, told her it isn't time to get up yet, still sleepy time, go back to sleep.  We would say it at nap times when she woke early too, and leave her there for a while (chatting on the monitor).  Eventually it worked for both.

In the mean time, we did offer two naps whenever we thought she would take them, in order to combat the overtiredness.