8mo old naps have shortened to 1:05mins - does she need more A?

[~Jen~]

She actually wakes at 55mins; rolls over falls back asleep and pops back up after another 10mins.  She wakes happy and is not crying.  She used to be doing 1.5hrs and naps have gotten shorter and shorter.  On paper it sounds like classic - increase her A time case but she just did a big jump in A time about 2 weeks ago and we dropped the CN.  She does about 3:10 A time - when I push it any longer, she cries, is hard to settle, and then still wakes between 1:05-1:15hrs.  She is also starting NWs but I think it is more tummy related.  But could that be why she is not able to handle the longer As even though she might need more at this age?

[~Jen~]

Ok I pushed her A time to 3:25 for her PM nap and she woke after 1:10mins.  Argghh.  What is going on???  Could she need more A time still or am I going the wrong way and should be cutting instead... ?

[ZacsMumme]

How much total day sleep is she getting? For some babies 1hr10 is resorative. If she is waking happy I would suspect she isn't OT...does she usually wake happy no matter what or grouchy if OT?

[~Jen~]

Her total day sleep is only 2hr15. Both naps are averaging between 1hr5-1hr15. At night she does a max of 11hrs. So total sleep is only just over 13hrs. Seems low for her age?

She definitely has her OT moments. If I push her A too far or if i don't give her a good wind down, she wakes at 30/35mins crying. I can usually get her to go back to sleep then. But never when she wakes over 1hr. Should I keep pushing her A? I found the short naps are making it hard to get her to a decent BT. She averages about a 6:45pm BT waking at 5:30/5:45am  .  I know considered a decent night but would be great to push BT a bit later if I could get one longer nap.

[ZacsMumme]

This is what my DS started to do around this age too. If she has always averaged around 13 hours it may be all she needs. It is hard to tell...

I guess if you are unsure if it is OT or not you could try cutting her first A back 10mins for 3 days and see if she gives you a better nap. The waking at 55mins then back to sleep for 10 makes me think she could be OT...but then if her A's have stayed the same and you were getting longer naps before, it indicates an increase may be in order.

11hours is a decent night, but if she is getting lots of NW this could make her more tired in the morning IYKWIM??

What do you think? - does your gut tell you one way or the other?

[~Jen~]

I just don't know anymore. She used to get a lot less sleep when she was in a really bad stage with reflux and digestive issues.  Her gut is so much better now so I think she is sleeping better than ever (for her anyway).  With DS, I was always tweaking his A times and after a few tweaks, I could always get him back to a 2hr nap. But he is high sleep needs relative to her, at least it seems. She operates ok with little sleep which always amazed me when she was so little and up for hours at night but put on a smile the next day and was a happy little girl.  I'm always paranoid about OT, so I always think it is OT, but she is showing me no signs of it except the short nap. Maybe that is just her sleep cycle?  I just looked back in my diary and about 2 weeks ago, we were on similar A times (about 3hr15) in the AM and she was giving me 1.5hr sleeps.  So maybe time for increase A? Which again seems high to me for her age, so maybe she is OT and just handles it better than DS did.  Arrghh.. this is so hard!!

Maybe I will try a few days of shorter A's just to rule it out before pushing it the other way... 

[annette.xx]

Hi there

Im wondering if its just her self regulating - I think she may be trying to get more consistancy in naptimes this is why you are seeing tired signs and she needs the sleep before the stretched A time cos her body is getting used to a certain natural timing - if that makes any sense?!!

I personally would set the first nap at a time that is roughly 3 hrs from her usual wake up and then a short nap is absolutely fine of 1 hr 10 then you would do the following nap with a stretched A time maybe 3hrs 15 to start but im thinking it may end up 3.5hrs - then you will be on the right route for all the 2;1 madness that is soon to hit!!

then all you do is keep that same am nap timing until she absolutely will not be forced down for it (usually around 11 months) it will just get shorter and shorter but the next A time will stay the same around 3 hr 15 ish...

Annette.xx

[ZacsMumme]

Can you post your EASY Jen?

[~Jen~]

Thanks! This is what today looked like: (Her naps were slightly longer today at 1hr15)

6 Wake/ 6:30 Get her up
E 6:45
A  (She seems ok with a longer AM A when I leave her with some dark quiet time after she first wakes up)
S 9:25 - 10:40
E 10:45
A
S 1:45 - 3
E 3
A
S 6:45

DF 11 and usually 1 brief NW around 3 or 4 which she settles fairly easily with a shh/pat or a cuddle.

[ZacsMumme]

I think that EASY looks good. 2.5hours of day sleep for an 8 month old is a touch below average but she has a long night and her A times look good. You may get longer naps if you push her As and BT out a touch but if you feel she is happy after 1hr15 naps these may be restorative for her.

What do you think?

[~Jen~]

I think she seems happy enough and her nights are decent so I don't really want to mess around too much.  The only thing in the back of my mind is whether I should try capping the AM nap to 45 to see if that will help me get a longer PM nap.  I was capping DS's nap at this age and it did help get him a really solid PM sleep.  But he was totally different and would consistently give me 2hr naps... I can't remember the last time C actually slept for longer than 1.5hrs.  So capping AM nap might be a bit dangerous if she sticks with shorter PM naps. I just wonder if we are at the very beginning of the 2-1 transition and whether it is time to start getting her used to one longer sleep a day.  What do you think?

[ZacsMumme]

I know we were n a similar boat around this time with Zs sleep and I started to play around with it. TBH in hindsight I probably would have left him having those naps for longer if I was to do it again given he was waking happy and sleeping well at night. The 2-1 is pretty messy, and if you can avoid starting it for a few weeks I would leave things.

In saying that, if you think you LO adjusts well to change you could try capping that first nap even at 1 hour to start with and seeing if you can get a longer PM. If after a week you think things are okay you could then try 45mins...You know her best so I would go with your gut