11mo showing signs of transition but trouble fitting change in with school run!

[Loujo]

Hello!
Well it's been a while since I have posted - marissa is my second baby (Angel baby - big brother was a spirited little tinker) so haven't really needed much help up until now!

Just read the 11mo naps gone all wonky FAQ which seems to fit right in with what my little one has been doing for the last 2 weeks.

She has been having trouble going off for her first nap.  She is waking earlier and earlier from her night time sleep.  If her morning sleep is rubbish then she goes off beautifully in the afternoon.  But if her morning sleep is ok then she fannies about in her cot for her afternoon nap.  Yesterday she refused her PM sleep so went from waking at 11.30am until she crashed just after 6pm.  But she did fall asleep beautifully at 6pm!!  If she has a good PM nap then she doesn't go off to sleep at bedtime very well.

I need a bit of help on how to adjust her daily routine - it says to make her morning nap later and later - but I am going to struggle with this as I have to pick my son up from pre-school and leave the house at 11.10am at the latest.

It's so weird this has kind of happened overnight and so put this nap struggle down to teething - she was having 2 good 90 min naps and going to bed at 7.30pm beautifully then one day it just stopped and it has now been going on for 2 weeks!!!

This is our routine on a good day:
6.30am wake
10.00am nap
11.10am  wake
2.30pm nap
3.45pm wake
7.30pm sleep


what happened today was the following
6.00am wake
10.00am to bed - fannying around for 20 mins in cot then woke crying at 11am because my alarm disturbed her
2.30pm put to bed then fannying around in cot for 20mins still asleep and will be til I wake her at 3.40pm
Hopefully she will go to bed nicely tonight at 7pm

Any help with what to do with regards to fitting in a change around the school run would be great - ideally I think she would be go off better if her nap were moved closer to 11am but there's no way I can fit this in around the school run - if she doesn't have a nap before the school run then she will fall asleep in her pushchair on the way!

Thank you!
Loujo

[becky1969]

As we approach the 2-1 nap switch we also advise keepig that AM nap short to preserve PM nap.   You may need to do that sooner rather than later due to school issues.

I think I'd aim for a nap at 10:30 and then wake at either 11 or 11:10.  That gives her a 30-40 min AM nap.  Then she should be better able to fall asleep for that PM nap and will hopefully sleep a good 1.5 hours then.

Waking at 11:10 from a 30-40 min nap I'd probably aim for PM nap to be around 2:15 or so.  With a shorter AM nap she may be tired sooner.  If that doesn't work then try a 2:30 nap.  (but try the 2:15 for 2-3 days before deciding that it's not working).

Your bedtime may be too early.  Your bedtime may be mis-timed as well.  Looks liie 4 hours A time is where she's happiest right now.  If you see her struggling to fall asleep at bedtime then I'd make sure she gets a nice 4 hours before bed.  HOwever, if that still gives you bedtime struggles then you may need to back down your A before bed a bit -- you're doing 3h45 right now, so I'd try 3h30 at that point.  It's hard to say at this point which direction you need to go at bedtime -- some LOs really need a shorter A right before bed b/c they are just really tired from events of the day.  With an angel baby my guess is she needs a tad *more* A (so 4 hours), but that's just a guess! You'll have to experiment to find out for sure!


so

*later AM nap
*limit AM nap to 30-45 minutes
*make PM nap a bit earlier
*play around with bedtime if she's giving you fits.

[Loujo]

WOnderful - thanks!
Have pushed first nap to 10.15am and it seems to have worked magic on the rest of the day!
Ta
xxx

[becky1969]

Yay!

[Groovia]

Hey Loujo-  how's it going with the nap schedule?  I have the same predicament as you - an 11 month old that needs to fit in naps around the preschool run.  He was on a 2 hour A time and then all of a sudden stopped.  Overnight, just as yours did.  So I'm trying to figure out his magic A time, which I think is 3 hours. 

Part of me wants to just let him take the lead for a few days so I can see when he wants to wake, nap, sleep, but I'm just so worried about undoing all my hard work of protecting his sleep so he's not OT.

Check in, if you can, and let me know how it's going for you!