Shorten pm nap too?

[marensmama]

Hayden is 14 months old.  About 1 month ago she started with some pretty early waking (4:30 some days, OUCH!) so we shortened the am nap to 45 minutes, and she'd sleep about 1.5 hrs in the afternoon (11.5 hours at night).  Over the past week she has been teething (4 uppers coming in) and she is now cruising.  Her afternoon nap has lengthened to over 2 hours, and she's been woken up at 2hr 10 min and 2 hr 30 min, and she seemed to need it... she had big purple bags under her eyes so I was putting her down earlier than normal (1:30 pm instead of 2).  She was getting about 3.5 hours A time before bed, which is normally OK.  She's had a few EWs though, these last few days, not terrible, just 45 minutes earlier than normal (but that's 5:45 am and I like to sleep a bit later).  So do I cut that afternoon nap back (I think so) and by how much?  She's always been really low on the A time, so she's not ready for 1 nap.

TIA! 

[deckchariot]

Nicole - I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier....when did Hayden get to be 14 mos?  goodness how the time goes!  I'm going to pop this over to Toddler sleep for you  - though I guess you could do it yourself

I would cut back that afternoon nap a bit - I suspect she's waking early because of the long late nap.  Try just 15 min earlier on waking and see if that helps.  Abby was always on the high sleep, low A time end, and at 14 mos, she just made it to 1 nap but was getting about 3 - 3.5 hrs of day sleep and a 12 hr night.  Before the most recent EWs - how much day sleep was Hayden getting?  I'd try to keep her total day sleep to that amount, so wake accordingly from that pm nap to balance it out with the 45 min am nap.  Does that help?

[marensmama]

DUH! I just can't get it through my head that Hayden is over 1 now... I laid in bed last night thinking that I should get up and move my post.  Before these EWs she was only getting max 2.5 hours of day sleep, with an 11.5 hour night.  So I guess I'll keep the pm nap to 1hr 45min max and see how that goes.  I was also wondering if I should be trying to move her to 1 nap by increasing that morning A time and letting her have that long nap... but she's so tired in the morning.  It seems like the earlier she gets that pm nap the longer she'll sleep.

[deckchariot]

love the new avatar!!!  I'd say Hayden's not quite ready for one nap then, given her tiredness in the am - try keeping her total day sleep to 2.5 and night to 11.5 (with 2 naps) and see if that helps rid you of the EWs - if it doesn't, then look at increasing that morning A time - or you could again cut the am  nap back to 30 min, then eliminate it, and then move the pm nap earlier (so many approaches to the switch....). 

and I was happy to move the post

[marensmama]

Thanks again for your help, Michelle!

[deckchariot]

glad to do it