Ahhhh! 10.5 month old short AM nap--- switch to 1 nap?

[Sima]

  Oh my dear, I am having a hard time with my daughter who is 10.5 months old.
I have always put my lo down by her tired signs.  But suddenly like a month ago, she does not show signs anymore and did not know when to put her down. 
Anyways, I started using A times instead. However I kept getting 1/2 AM naps no matter what.  If I put her down 3 A then she might sleep 35 minutes and be happy.
So I tried extending A times by 10 min and she was OT, slept 30 and cried.  Also regarding wake up time it is hard to know when she really is awake so that is tricky too.  The afternoon naps are usually 1 hour because I know that if she takes 35 min naps and happy then I put her down at 3.25 A and if OT I put her down at 3 A.
But....can't seem to get an hour in the morning.  Is this a sign of switching 2-1 nap?  Plus due to 1/2 naps, she goes to bed early and wake up is early too.
Anybody please help 

[Layla]

Hey there,

I moved your topic to NAPS as your lo is not quiet yet a toddler... hope you don't mind . I think if she's waking up happy from the short morning nap then she's probably done with sleeping then. Isabella would sleep 12hrs at night & only needed a short morning nap... always! Most at this age do 45min Am nap & a longer pm nap.

I stopped reading cues by this age as well as mine was really unpredictable & went with by the clock. What I ended up doing was putting her down at 9am reglardless of what time she woke up in the morning. If I knew she woke up as early as 5.30am then I would keep the pm A time to about 3hrs & put her down then but if I knew she woke around 6am then I would allow her to stay up about 3.25-3.5hrs before the pm nap

If the morning nap is as short as 30mins then the pm A time should only be 3hrs (that is in the cot by the 3hr A time). How long is the pm nap usually? How is she sleeping at night? If she's sleeping a full 12hrs at night... then 30mins am nap & 1hr pm nap might be all that she needs. In that case I would probably look at extending bedtime about 15mins or so so that her night time sleep reduces to 11hr & she is then sleeping 1.5-2hrs in the afternoon

hth & post back if you have any more q's or if I didn't make sense
Layla

[Sima]

Thanks so much for your response!!!  LO is sleeping 12 hours a night and the pm nap is 1.15 usually.  How come though she wakes up happy 35 minutes later and then other times she wakes up 30 OT (especially if extend time to 3 10 min.)
Is this sign that she is switching to 1 nap??  Just wondering.
Thanks Layla!

[Layla]

She might not be ready yet for more A time. I don't know that its a sign to switching to 1 nap as when she's on 1 nap she would have to be up for 5hrs before nap & bedtime & if she's struggling at 3+hrs then she might find it too big of a jump to 5. I would probably stay with 2 naps & if she's struggling with the afternoon nap then I would probably take that as a sign that her routine needs tweaking again.

Some babies are more than happy to be on 1 nap that young... you know her best & if you think she would be ok on 1 nap then there is no harm in trying. You could try offering her an ealy lunch or a big snack & put her down about 4.5hrs A time & see how she will do.

There will be days when she will be ok on 1 nap (especially on the days she "sleeps in") but otherwise she might still need 2. Alot of babies go back & forth before they are comfortable on 1 nap... with us we have been on 1 nap for about a month & for a good 3-4 months we were going back & forth.

hth
Layla

[Sima]

  Thanks Layla!  You are right, she is not ready for 1 nap.  She can only be awake for max 3 hours in morning.  Today I made sure to know when she woke up and put her down before 3 A and she slept 1 hour!
However, in the afternoon slept only 1/2.  Maybe 1.5 is all she needs for naps as you said. Thanks again.

[GeneW]

Yes, I agree with the previous posts.  Each day is different and depends on the baby.  Some days my baby takes two good naps of an hour of so.  Other days she takes two quick naps of about 1/2 hour.  You need to constantly experiment.  My suggestion is to see how your baby does with a longer A time after her second nap.  Try going 4/5hours A time before putting your lo down and see how she does.   

Gene

[Aly Mac]

Hi Siria - just wanted to pop on and say hi and give you some hugs 

Hope your day is going ok.

[Sima]

Hi Aly-- hugs to you and lo! Thanks so much for checking on us.   How is you lo one doing?? Is her schedule much better?
Actually, things have been better.  I try to wake up before she does and know exactly when she is up.  She does 3 A in am and 3.5 A in the afternoon.  The main problem I was having was that I did not know her exact wake up time because her cries did not mean she woke up.  Anyways, much better...till now.  Also, I am going to get video camera so that I don't have to keep getting up from bed to check on her.  Again, thank you for your support   

[GeneW]

Just checking to see how your lo is doing?  My lo is starting to nap pretty well.  On Sunday she took an hour nap in the morning and almost 2 hours in the afternoon.  The secret I found is not overstimulating her prior to her nap time.  My wife did this the other day and she had pretty poor naps.   TTYL,

Gene