9 mo refusing morning nap!

[Colie]

My dd2 is 9 mo and for the past week she has refused to take her am nap all but one day.  I have NO idea what is going on here.  I took her to the pedi and she is fine- no ear infection or sore throat, etc.  I also took her to the chiro and he adjusted her but couldn't find anything else wrong either.  I will say that she is a terrible teether and seems to be teething but come on!  So here's how it has been going:
7- Wakes and out of crib
8- Breakfast- BLW, usually toast and fruit...
9- Bottle and attempt nap 1.  What's been happening is that she'll get all sleepy while I feed her (we do bottles before naps and bt) and once I lay her down, she'll jump up like she got a jolt of energy.  Then the crying starts.  I've left her for a few minutes and she just escalates and gets hysterical.   So, I go into her and lay her down and try to put a hand on her but she stands back up and wants to be held.  I'll get her out of her crib and try rocking her but she just rolls and rolls and gets upset.  So, I end up just getting her up and trying again 20-30 min later.  That goes even worse.  She starts crying right when we walk in the room and arches, pushes against me and basically tries to escape.
10:30/11 I've usually tired to get her to sleep several times and I'm frustrated so I put both girls in the car and drive in the hopes that she'll at least nap for even 30 min so that she can still take a pm nap.  After driving for 15-20 min, she usually falls asleep and wakes 30-40 min later.
12 Lunch- BLW
2ish- pm nap, she falls right to sleep and sleeps around 1.5 hours
5:30 Dinner
6/7 bt depending on napping

It's terrible!  One day she only took one nap for 50 min!  She's not even 9 mo (will be 9 mo on the 20th).  I am trying so very hard to get her to take two naps and I have no idea what to do.  She has also been waking crying during the night and dh or I will go hold her and she'll go back to sleep.  She also eats once a night.  Any ideas/thoughts/etc???  Also, she is a great eater and drinking well.  She is fed breast milk in a bottle but I have eliminated caffeine from my diet for a long time now.   Thanks!

Colie

[LovelyLilyandJack]

It sounds like she's not quite ready for that morning nap to me  2 hours A time is quite low for a 9 month old so it might be that she's ready for a bit more.  I'm guessing that the second time you try putting her down might be about her knowing what's coming and protesting before you start on it. I would slowly try and increased that first A time to nearer 3 hours,  but you'll need to do it gradually or she'll get OT. Maybe tomorrow,  try putting her down 15 minutes later than usual and see how she goes?  She might need more than that but I'd try that for 3 days first and see.... What do you think?

What sort of time are the night wakings happening by the way?

[Emami]

^^Totally agree with this.  I think the nap refusal is her telling you she's not ready, and even though she acts sleepy when you feed her it's probably just that she's relaxed and used to sleeping at around that time. Tbh I never had the patience for 15min adjustments here and there so I would probably do more like half an hour increase in one go because you're looking to add at least an hour to that morning A and it'll take forever to do small jumps every few days.  My LO handles it quite well so I was able to do that, but if yours is more sensitive then I agree with PP and you should go slower.

[Colie]

Thanks so much ladies!  Dh and I were talking this am about this and extending wts is what we were thinking too.  She is not really sensitive and is pretty flexible so I think that tomorrow I'll do 30 min longer A time in the am and see what happens.  Should I wake her from the morning nap after 1.5 hours if she sleeps that long?  I really do not want her bt to be later than 7 and with the additional A time and her nap length, there just isn't enough time.  It seems like I may need to wake her after 1.25/1.5 hours in the am and let her sleep longer for the pm (this is assuming she doesn't wake on her own) in order to get enough wake time and bt by 7.  Thought?  Thanks again!

Colie

[LovelyLilyandJack]

If you can let her sleep 1.5 - 2 hours and then just do a cat nap in the afternoon (30-45 minutes) I'd do that,  personally.  I've been capping one nap very short for a while now (jack is low sleep needs though), and as long as he's had one decent nap he's fine with it. But do whatever you think will suit your LO best. 1.5 hours should be restorative so she should be fine on that if that's a fairly normal nap length for her. 

[Emami]

Yep, we started the 2-1 transition at 9 months so were also capping and had one long one short nap.  I probably wouldn't wake her in the morning and see how long she does.  You can play around with times a bit and see if you think long am short pm, or short am long pm nap will work for you.