11.5 month old still having long nws. help.

[sophiegem]

My 11.5 month old dd2 has always been a good sleepee, doing 5-8hrs in a row.
DD1 has always been a bad sleeper and still wakes at nearly 3 year old.
Our dd2 keeps having long nws lasting between 1-2 hrs and its getting annoying lol.
I upped her A time to 4hrs before first nap which did seem to stop the long nws but they are back again.

Shes currently doing give for take 30mins depending if shes up at 7.00am or before.

6.30am up.
10.30-11.15am nap.
2.15pm -3.15pm nap
7.00pm bedtime.

Today she only had 2x 45min naps and was in bed for 7.10pm, slept until 1am and has been awake for the past hour :-( i'm currently doing shh pat as im sick of sitting holding her for an hour the her crying when I put her in her cot when she finally falls asleep. Grr.

[jessmum46]

Is she normally an independent sleeper?

What about teething at the moment?  Have you tried medicating at the long NWs?

Routine-wise she could be OT, she doesn't really have a properly restorative nap in the day as neither of her naps is long.  Do you wake her from both?  Or does she wake naturally?  What is her mood like on waking?

Sorry so many questions but hopefully we can help with a bit more information

[sophiegem]

Hi, thanks for the reply :-)

She woke herself yesterday both after 45mins but we were out and she was asleep in the buggy both times. I hold her as she goes to sleep but i don't think this is a problem at the mo. I usually wake her for both naps, i let her have 45mins for her first nap and then 1hr 45mins max for her 2nd nap but with her having 4hrs before first nap and then 4hrs before bed i'm finding it hard to fit a good nap in.

She's actually gone down after 3hrs awake time for her first nap as she was grumpy and crying. Shes just got 3 top teeth all one after the other and it didn't really seem to affect her sleep. She's been having calpol before bed and then after her 1st long wake up.

She slept 7.10pm - 1am then was awake until 2.25am then slept until 6.50am. I don't mind the wake ups just not the long 1hr + ones lol.

I could try the routine below for today and see how she does tonight? I was doing 4hr A before first nap as i thought she maybe needed more A time as she was doing 3.5hr before first nap.

6.50am up.
10am - 10.45am nap.
1.45pm - 3.30pm nap.
7.00 or 7.30pm bed.

She wakes up fine from nap too, not too grumpy. x

[jessmum46]

That looks like a good idea, I'd give it a try.  I think you're right that she needs more A time, just not necessarily all before the first nap.  With a short am, long pm routine it is usual to put LO down for the am nap after a shortish A time.  The reason for that is it doesn't matter if it's an UT nap as you're going to be waking them anyway.  And if you wake LO up after only a short nap with a long A time beforehand, they are likely to be quite grumpy and tired and need their next nap fairly soon afterwards.

So I would do something like:

WU
A 3h
Nap 45 mins (capped)
A 2.5-3h
Nap up to 2h (or up to 1h45 if you prefer)
A 4h
BT

If you start getting pm nap resistance or short napping, you'd probably need to cap the am nap to 30 mins, possibly bringing the pm nap forward just a touch.  Welcome to the fun of the 2-1!

[sophiegem]

I remember the 2-1 with DD1 and i think she ended up having a 30min am nap and a 1.5hr pm before moving to 1.

Lastnight was really good, and we had no long night wake ups. She was asleep for 7.20pm, woke at 10pm crying so i gave calpol as i didn't give it at bedtime. She then slept until 5.45am but was only awake seconds then up at 6.45am.

Will try the same routine today. x

[jessmum46]

Good luck x

[sophiegem]

Yesterday she just didn't seem to want to nap. She usually falls asleep in the buggy if we go out and she's due a nap like yest morning she was due a nap at 10.15am but didn't fall asleep until 10.50ish and only slept 45mins. I then took her up to bed at 2.20pm hoping she'd sleep at 2.30pm but she didn't sleep until 2.45pm and only ended up having a 45min nap as i woke to keep a 7.00pm ish bedtime but she didn't fall asleep until 7.35pm.

Woke a few times in the night but no long nws, yey lol. x

[jessmum46]

It's hard to interpret naps when they're out and about, I'd just stick to the routine for a few days to let it settle in and then see how things go x