Is the cat nap wreaking everything?

[CharlotteandCharlie]

I am wondering if Campbell's cat nap is making her a contant 9.00 p.m. baby.

Her A time is mostly 2.5 hours tops it seems.  I thought by now she'd handle 3 hours but only seems able unless she's being walked around with and held the entire time.

Her schedule is roughly.

8.00 wake
9.30 nap
10.10 wake if a 40 min monster
11.00 if not
1.00 nap
3.30/4 usual wake
6.00 cat nap usually in car for 20 mins max
7.45 try for bed
9.00 actual sleep after much crying

grrrr!

Thanks for any advice.

[Layla]

I actually think that what she is doing is fine.... if her catnap ends around 6.20pm then it would be reasonable that she goes to bed a few hrs later.... shes sleeping 11hrs at night... which is really good!!!

Did you want an earlier bedtime? what about waking her up in the morning around 7am so that she goes down for the night slighly sooner?

Is she sleeping well at night? Her afternoon nap is pretty long.... could you try extending her morning A time to 10am... the nap might be longer than 40mins.. then you could look at dropping the catnap if she has 2 long naps in a day

[CharlotteandCharlie]

Thank you.  I do want an earlier bedtime.  Charlie had a 7.30 bedtime, (woke her up at 7.30 too) by now and it was lovely.   There isn't much room for a quality evening when she's up until 9/9.30. 

I had thought that once she had a cat nap they needed to sleep an hour or so after it.  As for night she gets up once, usually around 3.30 or 4.  Sometimes she wakes at 6/6.30 but I treat that as a night waking ... before 7 just isn't morning for me!!!  I black out her windows.

Truthfully my toddler seems to need quality alone time with mommy so when I get her up at 7.30 we get a good 30 mins to snuggle and play before Campbell wakes.  I do see the long term value in waking her at a set time every morning... it worked like a peach with Charlie.

So...

What about:

8.00 wake (for now)
9.45 nap (don't they need a shorter A time in the a.m. after night sleep, or do they grow out of that?)
1.00 nap (selfish cause this is when dd1 goes down)
3/3.30 awake
7.00 bed
oh, I'm stuck.  Its my wanting to have her sleep long during her sister's nap too.

[Layla]

Lol, its ok to want your cake & eat it too . Yes the morning A time is usually shorter than other A times but I was going along the lines of if you want to cut the catnap out you might want to spread the naps out as well.... also if she's only taking a 45min catnap in the morning, that could be an indication that she needs more A time....

In any case, I think the sameple routine you posted looks great! See how you go over the next few days. If she seems to be taking well to that schedule then that would be good for everyone... otherwise you might have to wake her up & rearrange things a bit

Good luch & let me know how you go