Teething and dropping from 2 naps to 1 at 9 months

[Tuty]

DD daughter just turned 9 months and seems to be dropping from 2 naps to one.
She's teething and hard to fall asleep because of it. The teething tablets don't seem to work for her, and I give her the night orajel, which is ok, though she wakes up aching at 5AM and then goes back to sleep with a little more.

Last week she had one good nap and another 30 minutes nap (interchangable). This week she either agrees for the morning nap or the afternoon (if she sleeps only in the morning, than she is very tired by bedtime, which is moved earlier, and falls asleep on the bottle).

She dropped from 3 to 2 naps at 6 months. Should we give up and rearrange her schedule to accomodate just a single nap? Or should we relate it to teething and try to be more persistent (I think she's beginning to understand that if she fusses too much than eventually she'd be out of bed..). Yesterday she had a single nap of almost 2 hours which was great, but then today a loud noise from outside woke her up after only an hour and 20 minutes.

Thanks,
Tuty

[*Natasha*]

Could you post your routine? Sounds like her awake time may need tweaking.

[andibig]

I agree that ehr naps might need a bit of work and the teething isn't helping either. i think (IMO) shes far too young to go to 1 nap yet.

[Tuty]

I agree she still needs her second nap, but she's a spirited baby and when she decides she doesn't want to go to sleep, she just won't give up. We try walking into her room only when she's crying and she's jumping and happy to see us and when we try to put her she's immediately up again.

This (and the teething) has affected her night sleep. Last night she woke up at 4AM and went back to sleep immediately with the pacifier (so she wasn't in pain), but poor mommy couldn't fall asleep until 6.. (she goes to sleep at night without the paci, but when she wakes up in the middle of the night, it's the easiest way to put her back to sleep, hope she doesn't start waking up for it..).

Her routine was roughly (even though she's been on this routine for a long time we can never expect when she'd fall asleep or how long she'd sleep for):
wakeup: 6/6:30AM
E: 7:00 Bottle
E: ~8:00 breakfast
S: 9/9:30 usually and hour plus (could be more/less).
E: 11:00 bottle
E: 12:30 Lunch
S: usually in bed by 13:30 (the nanny puts her down when she's tired but sometimes she'll go to sleep after almost an hour. I think she got used to the walk in/walk out and lately she also gives up and takes her out of bed. So DD is becoming more and more persistent.)
E: bottle when she wakes up
E: 16/17 dinner
E: ~18:00 bottle
S:  18:30/19:00 (depending on her naps)

Right now she's either napping an hour in the morning or she could nap close to 2 hours at around 13:00 (but things can wake her up and then she sleeping only a little over an hour). We moved bedtime to 6PM. Sometimes she falls asleep on the bottle, other time she fusses and falls asleep around 6:30PM. She wakes up once per night now, and wakes up about 6:30/7:00 in the morning. Today she slept an hour and 10 minutes in the morning and napped for 10 minutes in the car in the afternoon. We'll see how tonight goes..

Any advice on modifying her very non-strict routine is appreciated. I think we need to be more persistent and leave her in bed and walk in only when she's really crying and not only cranking and calling us. But we also assume she's in pain from teething..

Thanks,
Tuty

[*Natasha*]

i would advise you try putting her down at 2/2.30pm for the afternoon nap. Sounds like she isn't tired enough at 1.30pm for her nap. At 9months our routine was:

7.15am – Wake
9.45am – Sleep 1.5hrs
2.30pm – Sleep 1hr
7.15pm – Brush teeth, Story, Bed

HTH

[Tuty]

Today she woke up at 6:30, napped from 9:50 to 11:10. I put her down for her second nap at 2:30PM and she wasn't fussing or anything (so I went to sleep myself). At 3:30 she was still in bed playing with her stuffed animal, and DH told me she didn't sleep at all. I made her go to sleep at 3:30PM with pat/shush (I shouldn't have gone to sleep, I should have put her down much earlier, but she wasn't fussing so I assumed she'd go to sleep on her own). I don't know how long she'd sleep for. But even if she wakes up at 4PM after only 30 minutes, I have to move her bedtime to 7PM.

I don't know what to do, should I give up on this nap and put her at night earlier, or should I make her nap no matter what time it is and if it's too late move bedtime 30 minutes later?

[M2L]

At this age, naps can be all over the place.  There are days when Lindsay naps in the am and not in the pm, then vice-versa, and other days she will skip one or the other.  Watch DD's sleep cues as well as the clock.  I do think that a pm nap at 1:30 pm is a little early for a 9 month old, though, after an 11 am or so wake-up.

I don't know if this helps or not, but I have noticed that Lindsay sleeps about 13 hours a day.  If she sleeps 12 hours at night, then I can pretty much count on her only sleeping an hour or so during the day.  If she sleeps 11 hours at night, then she does about 2 hours during the day, etc.  This pattern is fairly consistent.

[Tuty]

No luck today either.. She slept this morning 9:20-10:50. We were out and I put her down at 2:45PM. I tried feeding her before and she almost fell asleep on the bottle. As soon as I put her in bed, she's up and playing with her stuffed animal. She was in bed until 3:30PM. I picked in from time to time and she was walking around and exploring her crib.. I tried getting her to sleep at 3:30, but nothing worked, it seemed like a game to her: I'm patting she tries to get up, I put her down etc..

She just fell asleep for the night (6:20PM). She almost fell asleep on the bottle, but than woke up, fussed a little and fell asleep (exhausted).

Should I have put her down earlier for the second (maybe she was already over tired, but I figured she slept so much in the morning she needs more A time)?

Should I play it by her and let her nap as she wants? She I rearrange her schedule to a single nap? She's way overtired if she naps only in the morning and wake up once at night. Should we put her down earlier at night (we try to get her in bed by 6PM).

[*Natasha*]

Could you try shortening her AM nap to 1hr perhaps she is getting to much sleep in the morning and isn't tired enough for her PM nap?