A few Qs

[yaya]

Right! DS has 'slept thru the night' for a month or so now but he still (as he always has done) confuses me when it come so to sleeping! I used to think that bad nights were due to not being able to sleep independently (for many reasons) but since he's slept thru the night, I wonder if theres something else: In short, our naps are not great and he seems to need my to get back to slep, WHY!? he can do it at night!! Also, I cant seem to get awake time right, too much, too little, who knows! Other Qs...how long is you average wind down for 11 month old? Thomas is VERY  spirited and hes all over the place when its time to sleep!! Next Q... how long does it take your avarege 11 mo to fall asleep independently? DS takes FOREVER!! He plays aorund in there for soo long so my question is this, if it takes them between 30mins to 1 hr to fall asleep do i need to try to get him into bed A LOT earlier? Our routine is as follows and i dont think tis great as Thomas is (IMHO) overtired most of the time but have tried w2s and other methods and short of me picking him up I cannot extend naps....if anyone has any suggestions they would be very much appreciated!!

A good day looks like this...
wake 7.30 Breakfast
A bottle
S 9.30 (he will go for 1.5hrs but have recently been waking him after 45mins to try to extend pm nap)
Lunch 12.30
S 2.00 (anywhere between 30 mins and 1.5 hrs -not so often these days!)
A (bottle at 4pm)
Dinner 6.30
7.15 Bath bottle (mostly refuses this) then bed!

Thanx for ur patience guys!

[Missy Lou]

my lo is only 6.5 months so i can't give you much help. 

i do notice with my lo who is spirited also that her winddown is weird.  she doesn't like to be cuddled and relax.  she wants to play and then i just put her in her crib about 15 minutes before her nap or bedtime and she tosses around and talks to her mobile and then closes her eyes.  i've tried rocking with her or singing in her darken room but she gets squirmy. 

have you tried putting him in his crib 30 or so minutes early and see how it goes?  i put lo in her crib and just sit quietly next to her and don't make eye contact and let her play until she settles down to sleep.  i can't look at her though because she just starts wiggling and smiling and it's hard for me to not smile back or start kissing on her.

why do you want to extend the p.m. nap?  like i said, i don't have experience with an 11 month old so it may be something i haven't learned yet but i was thinking that if he likes to sleep longer in the morning then that may just be the way his body is. 

melissa

[yaya]

thanx...i will try putting him to bed earlier and just leaving him be...I have similar probs with the eye contact! Think its easier if im not in the room!

[TJ & Stephy's Mommy]

My LO also has a hard time going down for naps but is pretty good at going to sleep at night on his own.  For his naps, I put him down early and walk out of the room (DS is also spirited).  I've tried staying in the room with him but once he hears me leave, he wakes up.  Usually when I put DS down he will sometimes cry as he doesn't want to nap or be left alone, but after of fussing, playing or whimpering he will fall asleep. 

[Missy Lou]

my lo can wake sometimes too if i don't leave at the "right" time.  do you guys do a traditional winddown tj's mommy?  like this morning, i turned off the lights, turned on white noise, put her in her sleep sack and kissed her and then let her toss and fuss for about 10 minutes and then she went to sleep.  she doesn't really cry but just kind of grunts.

[yaya]

well, 3 days in a row he has fallen asleep in his cot but it takes AGES! I'm not sure if its worse or better with me in the room...first day he just played happily for 30mins the fell asleep but last 2 days he has screamed bloody murder as soon as i step outside! So tonight  I stayed and just shhhed while he tossed and turned and after 40mins he fell asleep!

[TJ & Stephy's Mommy]

mlee, we do have a winddown routine...close the blinds, sing a lullabye, rock and cuddle for a couple of minutes and put LO in his crib.  And I walk out of the room.  LO will toss, fuss, whimper, etc and fall asleep sometime really fast and sometimes in 30 min.  If LO doesn't fall asleep, sometimes we end up doing WI/WO, PU/PD is too stimulating for him and sshh/pat works sometimes and sometimes not.  He doesn't use a sleepsack and we have never used a noise machine. 

yaya, don't worry the time it takes for LO to fall asleep with sshh/pat should get shorter.  it may feel forever now but LO should start getting use to it falling asleep.  i remember it felt like it was forever and my arm was going to fall off but it does pay off to be consistant.