11 month old refusing naps- please help

[Gully]

Hi all,

We had been doing well on 4 hour EASY for the past few months but it has begun to unravel over the past ten days. She was self settling well for naps and going down well at bedtime.

Our days generally followed this pattern.

7am: Wake up bottle 7 oz
8 am solids
9:45 In to cot. Asleep at 10
11 am Wake

12pm solids
2pm Bottle 8 oz
2:45 into cot. asleep at 3
4pm awake

6pm solids
7:30 Bottle 8 oz
8:00 Bed

I know that things can go a bit wonky at this age, and I have read the advice sheets. We pushed out her awake time 15 mins and started capping the second nap, to make sure bedtime was never after 8:30. 
This has not helped. She is now refusing all naps, even out in the car it takes a lot of fussing before she drops off.  Yesterday, we were travelling and she refused to nap and ended up awake from 10:45 am until 8 pm bedtime. She then woke 4 times overnight but easily resettled.

She seems tired but then can't go off. She has just gone off now, after 35 mins of crying hysterically(and me going in and lying her back down). She's shattered.  She has never been a baby to go to sleep earlier than the routine time.
Do we push awake time more? How can we prevent her day becoming too long? Or should we push for just the one nap?

I would really really appreciate some advice on what we should do.

[choc]

You are probably in 2:1 territory now! The first A time is a bit short. You could try extending the first A to get her tired enough to take the nap. If it makes the day too long then you could try capping  2nd nap. So something like
Wu 7
S 10.30 to 12
S 4 to 4.30
Bt 8

You may want to increase the A gradually, I'm not sure.

[Lindsay27]

Yes I agree the A times are a bit on the short side, my DD is 8.5 months and can fairly easily handle a 3.5hr A time.  You are absolutely in 2-1 territory.  At this stage a lot of people end up doing 1 long nap and 1 short CN and it is really your preference how you want to arrange it.  We did the short AM/long PM with my DS.  If you want to do the long nap in the morning then it might end up being mid-day and you'll need to push those A times probably closer to 4hrs.

This is a great link that can help
From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

[Gully]

Thanks so much to you both for the advice. I pushed her awake time to 3 hrs 20 this morning and she went off great.

In order to keep bedtime to 8, I think we will have to cap the AM nap. Otherwise it will be at least 4:15 before she goes to sleep again and bedtime moves towards 9 pm.

Before this nap refusal began, she woke about twice a night for her soother to be replaced, but the last few nights she has slept through without any waking. It was the only good thing about a really crappy week. is there any way to keep this going do you think? Or is it just because she was so exhausted at bedtime?

I guess we just try it for a week and see where it takes us. thanks for the advice, it really helps to have the support!!

[Lindsay27]

Yes the NW could be because she was OT during to the poor naps, or could have actually been UT due to not enough A time.  I think if you keep with this kind of routine the nights will correct, though that said the 2-1 can be a long and bumpy process.

[Gully]

Thanks Lindsay 27.
It's been a good bit better since we pushed awake times but bedtime is still after 8:30 I'm afraid. Thats with one 45 min nap and one 1 hour nap, and getting up at 7.
I guess we'll just play it by ear for awhile and see how it goes!

[Lindsay27]

Can you write what your EASY is now hun?  I can take a look and see if something can work out for an earlier BT.  I think the day is pretty long and ideally you would have 1 x 1.5-2hr nap and 1 x CN of maybe 30mins.