10.5 month old short naps

[D.J.sMom]

Hi!
My name is Jen and I'm new to this board.  I have a 10 1/2 month old son, D.J., who is VERY touchy and has a spirited side to him.  I began Tracey's E.A.S.Y. plan about 6 weeks ago and at this point I'm at a loss.  (Two weeks prior I had read the "other" book and that one had me letting D.J. "cry it out"...BIG MISTAKE!!)  After months of D.J. being severely colic and several DAILY episodes of AP I feel I have completely confused my child.  This is what I have tried and any additional information:  (and believe me, I've been VERY consistent.)

The "crying it out" ended up working at night time and his night wakings that were as frequent as 15 times per night came to almost a halt.  He now will wake up maybe once, usually around 5:00 and he only fusses for a few seconds and is right back to sleep.

Before I even started P.U./P.D. I crawled into his crib with him 2X's; I didn't want that to become a habit so I stopped after the first day.  He did however, take two good naps that day!  :-)

P.U./P.D. - He's too big (25 pounds) and he caught on to how it worked real quick.  Play time!!

Tried just the P.D. while sitting in a chair next to the crib - this soon became a game and D.J. became more wound up than ever.

Tried sitting in the rocking chair about three feet from his crib and he would just scream at me. 

Ended up making a bed on the floor next to his crib.  This helped a bit, I think.  He was able to get to sleep after about 30 -40 minutes, but only for about 30 minutes.  After that it turned into the "peg Mom with my pacifier" game and he would never go back to sleep.  He has good aim and a great sense of humor!!  He'd get me right in the head and then laugh!  It occurred to me that being in his room was just disturbing him.

Going into his room after 30 minutes to put his pacifier back in his mouth before he fully wakes doesn't work; the pacifier never falls out to begin with.  My hand on his back isn't successful nor is humming; he sees me when he wakes and thinks it's play time.

Lately I've just been letting him go on his own.  We have our wind down time which is only about 10 - 15 minutes; he's so wiggly that he has a hard time sitting still after we've read his stories I just put him in his crib and let him do his thing.  He's very restless and it usually takes him 30-45 minutes to settle down.  After 30 minutes he wakes up and will let out an occasional phantom cry but usually ends up babbling, clapping and using his crib as a trampoline and the wall as a drum and never gets back to sleep.  After the nap time is over, I go about our day as if he has had a full 1.5 hour nap.

Today I decided to tape a black garbage bag over his window.  We have "black out" blinds but there is still light that shines through so I'm hoping this will help him continue on to another sleep cycle.  I'll try this for a few days and see what happens.

Does anyone else have any other recommendations?  I make sure the toys he plays with in the morning have their sound shut off.  I only turn them on in the afternoon, soft only and turn them off 30 minutes before we start his wind down time.  I don't have the television on at all during the day but sometimes will have children's music playing softly in the background.  Our wind down time is always the same:  I turn on his ocean waves "background noise", give him his pacifier, change his pants, sit and read three short stories (the same stories in the same order every time), hum a few lullaby's, reassure him while putting him in his crib and walk out.

I know he needs two naps a day due to his sleep signs after he's been awake for 1.5 - 2 hours.  If he doesn't get enough sleep he becomes VERY aggressive and hyper while playing and this creates a lot of crabbiness throughout our day. 

Do any of you have any other tricks up your sleeves or have any suggestions on something that I have missed?  I'm just so confused as to what I should be doing with my "older" baby.  I know I need to continue with this program; it's the best possible thing for him but I just don't think I'm doing it right.  Can someone please help?

Thanks for taking the time to read my "novel".  I appreciate anything you have to offer.

Jen

[Erin M]

OK, I've got a couple of thoughts -- first, your winddown seems really long - ours has always been close blinds, sing one song, put in crib, give lovey, and leave.  Doesn't take more than a few minutes.  (Our bedtime one is longer, but I think that some babies find a long nap winddown too stimulating at this age.)

What's your daily schedule look like?  Maybe you need to tweak awake times or move something around.  I know at that age, our schedule looked like this:
7:30 - Wake and bottle
8:30 - breakfast (fruit/cereal)
10:30/11 - nap 1 (usually about an hour)
Noon - lunch
3:00 - nap 2 (usually about 1.5 hours)
4:30 - bottle
5:30 - dinner
7:30 - bath, bottle, in bed around 8

Babies of his age need about 15 hours of sleep (there's a list somewhere, I think 15 is correct), some more, some less.

Hope some of this helps...I'm sure some of the other ladies will have some suggestions for you.  And if you'd like, head over to the "Birth Clubs" section of the EASY forum and join the March/April '05 thread - there's a bunch of us there who have LOs around the same age as you and we love to chat about how they're doing (mostly we just love to chat, but we'd be happy to have you join in!)

[D.J.sMom]

Hi Erin
Thanks for your response, I appreciate your input.  Here's D.J.'s schedule:  ("idealy")

7:00 wake, bottle, breakfast
activity time
8:50 wind down
9:05 in crib
9:30 - 9:40 he falls asleep
10:00-10:15-ish he's awake
(I try to keep him in his crib for the full 1.5, hours even if he's awake.)
11:00 bottle, lunch
12:50 wind down
1:05 in crib
1:30 - 1:40 he falls asleep
2:00-2:15-ish he's awake
(I try to keep him in his crib for the full 1.5 hours, even if he's awake.)
3:00 juice and snack with his big sister.  (This is when she walks in the door from school.)
activity time / run arrands
5:30 - 6:00 bottle, dinner
6:30 - 7:00 bath time
7:00 - 7:30 wind down and in crib
(some nights he may be in his crib by 7:00 - 7:15)

His wind down at night is shorter than his wind down during the day, not including his bath time.  It seems if I give him a shorter wind down time during the day it may take him up to an hour to actually fall asleep.  I'm at such a loss as to what to do for him.  I've tried to "stir him" after he has fallen asleep for his nap time however, he either wakes up right then and there or he still wakes up after 30 - 40 minutes of falling asleep.  Do you think I should try switching him to a longer nap in the late morning/early afternoon? 

Thanks so much!
Jen

[Erin M]

Jen--
Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you, but I really think that DJ needs to be awake longer.  There's abotu 15-20 of us on the March/April '05 thread with LOs around your age and they all need about 3 hours of awake time before napping in order to last longer than 45 minutes or so.  I know with Katie she sometimes "looks" tired before 3 hours and will nap for about 20 minutes or so, but that is long enough to completely ruin her next nap all together.  Stretching out awake time works best if you do it in 15 minute increments.  You can bring him up to his room and play on the floor with quieter toys - earlier in your awake time, you might want to try going outside, doing something that will get him a little more interested (which I know is hard when you're trying to walk the fine line between interested and overstimulated!) so he's able to stay awake longer.  Some of us have also notived that boredome and sleepiness look a whole lot alike sometimes.  Anyway, I would shoot for about 3 hours of awake time and maybe that will help with your naps.  Good luck!

[runningmom]

I hear what you are saying I ran into that as well and now my 11 month old refuses to nap.  I posted this situation yesterday regarding her not napping at all.  This behavior has now been going on for five days.  I have tried to keep her up longer in the morning, but that leads to no nap in the afternoon!  I talked to my ped. when my daughter was about your daughters age and she suggested to start weaning her from her morning nap.  She mentioned, children at this age only need 12 -14 hours of sleep and since my daughter was getting 12 at night, she may not be tired during the day.  She said they are like adults, some days we need more sleep than others.  So I took her advice, even though I thought she was a little young to drop her morning nap and tried it.  (I also remembered my friends kids dropping their morning nap about 11 months.)  So as I said above, I tried it and she could not make it to 6:00!  I thought I could not put her down for bed at 6:00 b/c she would be up at 5 in the morning.  I did not want that.  So then after a few days of trying only one nap, she threw me for a loop and went back to two naps a day with longer wake time in the morning, but shorter wake time b/w the morning and afternoon naps.  Slept great,hour and a half each time.  But now we are not napping all together.  I am so baffled at this point and frustrated, I am don't know what to do.  I am hoping it is a phase and that she will someday just crash and go back to napping.  If you hear of any suggestions, could you pass them along?  I have to agree with the other reply, try keeping her up a little longer in the morning.  She is older now and may just need this extra time to wear herself out!  Good luck and I hope this info helped.  Remember you are not alone...I am in the same boat!