Please help me sort out 9mo naps - one nap transition?

[bneydgrl]

About a month ago (and for about a solid month prior) Ella was doing about 2-2.5 hrs during the day and about11.5-12 at night.  Sorted out that the best times for these naps were 10 and 2 and she would nap about an hour at each.   

About 3 weeks ago things changed up and the 30 min naps came back.  Now she seems to be on this waffling schedule back and fort (b/c I follow the three hour rule from end of first nap)

One day will be
Wake around 6:15/6:30
Nap at 10 - 30 min
Nap at 1:30 - 1hr or a little over
Bedtime at 6:30 (wakes next day between 6:30 & 7)

Next day
Wakes btwn 6:30/7
Nap at 10 for 45min-1 hr
Nap at 2 for 1hr
Bedtime at 7 (wakes next day between 6:15/6:30)

W2S for naps doesn't really work for her.  I was wondering today (when she took a 30 min nap) if I should stretch the next nap until 2 (she'll sleep for one hour) then bedtime at 7 (so there's a bit of a sleep deficit for the day) and do W2S in the morning to get her back to about 6:45/7.

THoughts?

Is this moving towards the 1 nap transition?

[bneydgrl]

Oh just for clarification I WOULD NEVER think of switching her this early    I just didn't know if this waffling back and forth with the am nap length was normal (as a prelude to dropping it) or what might be going on.

Are you suggesting to just have the set nap times (whin reason of course if she's showing sleepy signs earlier) of 10 and 2 (since that seems to work for her).  And if the first nap is only 30 min then still keep the naptime at 2?  (3.5 A time?)

Thanks!
Rebecca

[bneydgrl]

Why wake at 45 min?

[alyssa1]

I would have to agree with stacey.  That's what happened to us.  The am nap was short and then the pm nap was longer (made this way).  The am nap is now 30-40 min. and the pm nap a little over an hour.  That is exactly what happened for us from about 11month - now(16months).  We are now in the transition of 2-1 on some days and others still the short am and sometimes short pm to ensure bedtime. We don't let him sleep past 3:30/3:45 to ensure 7:30 bedtime.  If she's gradually shortening her own am nap, I would just let it happen - keep it - but watch for when she is tired (she might gradually move it) and then eventually you can get rid of it.  But keeping the am nap short will ensure a longer pm nap.  The pm nap might get pushed a little later than you want but you can always wake her if it's getting too late.  That's what we have been doing - I guess maybe that is the transition starter.

[bneydgrl]

Thank you thank you!  I was worrying that I was doing something wrong to make her morning nap shorter.  Can you post your approx. 2 nap (30 min am nap) schedule?

[alyssa1]

This is what my son has been doing for the last 4 months or so

6am wake
10 - 10:30ish - nap1 (no longer than 40min. ever)
2-3pm - nap2 (try to extend past the 1 hour mark but somedays impossible)
7/7:30pm - bed (no wakings)

Lately we've been all over the place because he's not tired in the pm until 3:30/4 and that would interfer with bedtime so we have had to skip nap2 altogether somedays.  But for a long time he would get a good hour/hour 20 min. in the pm., espically if his am nap was at 9:30am-10am.

Like I said, I would keep the short am nap and extend the pm one.  At least that worked for us for a long time, now it's a new can of bean because he's getting ready to drop one and then we will work on extending just the one - I must say this is not easy.
Good luck!

[bneydgrl]

Do you think this means she will transition early?

[alyssa1]

I don't think you will know for a little whlie.  We thought our son was ready at 13months because of the shortening of nap1 but he's now 16months and still on 2 naps some days.  It's hard to say.  Just keep an eye on her tired signs and try to ensure that 2-2.5 hours of day sleep even if it's afternoon heavy.

[*Natasha*]

Rebecca,

Just wanted to tell you that you are noy alone with this as all the babies around this age are going through this at the moment. Come over to the Aug/Sept05 chat we are currently discussing this at the moment. You are not alone. 

[bneydgrl]

where's that link to the group?

[*Natasha*]

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=43351.0

[bneydgrl]

Fantastic...thank you!

[KellyC]

Hi

For the first time in months Zander is sleeping reliably during the day and almost 12 hours every night.  He's 9 months old next week and this is what we do:

Wake 6.45 (aiming for 7 but nobody's perfect!)
Nap 1 9.30 - 10.00 (I wake him up)
Nap 2 12.45 - 2.45 (I wake him up again!)
Bed 6.45 / 7.00

His A times seem short but I think this is how it has to be because he's only having a power nap in the mornings.  He's so refreshed from the 2 hour pm nap that he makes it to bedtime with no problem.  I find that putting him down for the second nap quite soon after his lunch helps this to be a really long nap as he's so stuffed - you know that feeling?!  If he doesn't sleep so well one night I'll put him down for his am nap at 9.15 and let him have 45 minutes but never any more and he always has 2 hours for his pm nap, I didn't think I'd ever be writing that!  I was determined to get him to take 2 long naps a day and it took me a while to accept that we weren't going to get there - as Stacy said at the time I was fighting against what he naturally wanted to do.

We've also had some recent success with w2s - it never worked for us before and I've tried a few times.  I realised that I wasn't disturbing Zander's sleep pattern because he didn't stir enough so I started going in after 30 minutes and actually turning his whole body over until he came into semi-consciousness.  I also made his room pitch black so he couldn't see that I had turned him over, I imagine he just thought he was turning in his sleep himself.  After about a week I stopped and after 6 months of regular 40 minute wakings they've stopped!

HTH
Kelly x

[KellyC]

Yup, he's well and truly ready for a full night of sleep by then