8 month old napping issues

[bellasmommy326]

I have a little girl, 8 months one week old.  She is most definitely a spirited baby.  She has just begun to crawl like crazy and has also just sprouted her bottom teeth.  From 6 months up until about 2.5 weeks ago, she did 2.75 hours for her first awake time and 3ish for her 2nd awake time.  Naps were only 1.25 hours at best but it worked for us, she sleeps through the night (7 - 7) with one feeding around 3:30 a.m.  Suddenly she started taking only 30 minutes at her morning nap and maybe 45 at her 2nd.  After trying a few days of shorter awake time (I thought maybe since she had begun crawling, she needed less) I realized that was not working.  I increased it first to 3 hours for a few days, then to 3.25 and we are now at 3.5 hours first thing and I get about 1 - 1.25 hours out of that nap.  BUT, the afternoon nap is non exsistent!!  She will go down easily after 3.5 hours but only stay asleep for 30 - 40 minutes!!!  So, lately our schedule is this:  I just know that this napping situation is going to catch up with her.  Today she woke at 6:15 and her first nap began at 9:50.   So, her 2nd nap will be earlier than normal and most likely only 30 - 40 minutes.  She always goes down without much of a fuss but will wake crying???

7 - wake
10:30 - 11:30 or 11:45 nap
3 - 3:15 ish - 3:45 nap (40 minutes at best!)
7:00 bed (no nightwakings, just the 3:30 or 4 feeding and back to bed until 7)

[lilac83]

Since the 30 minutes in the morning meant UT for her, I'm going to guess that the 30-40 minute afternoon nap is also UT for her. I would try 3.75-4 hour A time for a few days and see what happens. I would also try to keep that morning nap to around an hour at the most so you can fit in her second nap.

[bellasmommy326]

Today went like this (no surprise)

woke at 6:15
Nap 9:45 - 11:15
Nap 3:05 - 3:35

Bedtime is usually 7:15. 

[lilac83]

If you have problems with NW you may want to make bedtime a bit earlier tonight, around 6:45 perhaps. How was she when she woke from her second nap, did she seem OT? Sometimes when you make changes you need to wait for 3-4 days for the effects to kick in.

[bellasmommy326]

She never really has nightwakings aside from the one at 3:30 when she eats.  She slept from 7:15 - 6:15.  And that is with only the 2ish hours worth of naps.

Today was wake at 6:15

nap 10:15 - 11:30
nap 3:10 - 4:05

I'll still do a 7:15 bedtime.  It is just so hard when she needs such a long awake time.  I'm so scared to cut her morning nap short since the afternoon is almost always a bust.  Today was okay though.

[lilac83]

I think todays naps worked out well. It looks like 3hr 40min is a good 2nd A time for her! If you don't have NW problems I wouldn't mess with the bedtime either. If it's not broke don't fix it!

[bellasmommy326]

So, nothing much has changed.  But, she is back to napping only 1/2 hour in the afternoon.  Most typical day for us is

6:30 wake
10:10 - 11:30 nap
3:10 - 3:40 nap

7:15 asleep (she falls asleep very easily) with one feeding around 3:30 or 4 a.m.

I am concerned with her only getting 2 hours at best for naps at this age.  Will this pattern most likely continue until she makes the 2-1 switch which will most likely be many months from now?  And does her napping tendencies mean that she will only nap 1.5 - 2 hours when she does move to one nap?   My sister's 20 month old sleep for 11.5 hours at night and takes a 3 hour nap.  I just don't know what else to do.  When all of this first started,  I did find that shortenning her morning nap does not make for a longer 2nd nap.

[lilac83]

She probably is on the low end of sleep needs. Generally at this age 2-3 hours of sleep during the day is fine. When she switches to 1 nap she may only sleep for 2-2.5 hours or she may sleep much longer because she'll be so much busier. It's hard to say. For now, I would stay around 4 hour A time for the second nap and leave that first nap alone since she's doing fine with it. Does she seem tired yet to you throughout the day or is she happy?

[bellasmommy326]

She's a pretty happy baby most of the time.  She has some clingy whiney moments but nothing major.  Occaisionally she does wake up at 2 a.m. but goes right back to sleep.  That does not happen very often though.  I'll just keep doing what we are doing.  I just have friends who tell me how weird it is, that their babies do a 9 and 1 or 10 and 2 schedule.  She is just not going to be tired for her afternoon nap after only 2.5 hours of being awake.  Today, she slept until 7 so her nap was 10:45 - 12:15, now she won't go back down until 4 and I'll let her sleep up until 4:45 ish.  She will most likely wake at 4:30 though.

[lilac83]

If things go as you plan then she'll be getting 2/2.25 hours of sleep today. If she's happy with that, that's fine. Her first nap is a nice long one at least. Just be cautious about any signs of OT. If they start creeping in, shorten her A times so she can fit in more sleep.