help with short naps please!--UPDATED

[Amandamom]

Hi! My LO is almost 8 months old and for about 5 days now has had almost no naps during the day.  I think she is teething, but I still haven't seen any actual teeth come through so I'm not sure (she doesn't have any teeth yet).  She has been more irritable than usual the past few days and her naps have been 25-45 min. long, although she has been happy right after waking up from her nap.  We are getting ready to travel for 9 days, we leave on Dec. 26, so I don't know if I should just ride it out until then since she'll get thrown off anyway or if I should try to make an adjustment now if I need one?  She has 3 hours of A time and before this she was pretty good napper, although she wasn't super consistent.  I tried once to keep her up for 3 hrs 10 min. in case she was ready for more A time, but it took her 25 min. to settle and then she only slept for 30 so I haven't tried that again.
A typical (good) day would look like this:
wake up between 5:30 and 6:30
E: 6:00
A: cereal and fruit at 7:30
S: 8:30
E: 10:00
A: veg or fruit at 11:30
S: 1:00
E: 2:30
A: veg or fruit at 4:00
S: catnap in the stroller around 4:45 or 5:00 for 20-30 min.
bath at 6:30 in bed around 7:00

So should I just wait and see if it is teething and not do anything until I get back from traveling or do you see something I should do now?  Thanks!!!

[Amandamom]

I should also add that in the past two weeks she has started moving from laying down to sitting up on her own, pulling herself up and crawling so she has had A LOT of milestones.

[deckchariot]

Amanda - developmental milestones will certainly mess up her sleep!  So that could be the main thing going on.  Also, I see that her morning A time is only 2.5 - do you think you could extend her a bit?  My dd started having bad naps around 7.5 mos, and I didn't think she was ready for longer  A times, but nothing else was working, and once I extended her morning A time to 2.75/3 hrs, it fixed her naps.  Although, if you're heading out of town in a couple days, you may just want to ride things out.

HTH
michelle

[Amandamom]

Thanks!  Her morning A time is 3 hrs or close to it.  She usually wakes up before 6:00 or if she sleeps a little later I push her morning nap back a little later.

[Amandamom]

Hi.  We are back from traveling and still dealing with 30 min. naps.  She continued to have 30 min. naps throughout our trip.  Thankfully she continued to sleep well at night while we were away and has been sleeping well at night since we got home.  However, she is still averaging 30-40 min. naps and I don't know what to do.  I know 30 min. typically means overtired, but I'm not sure what else to do.  She has 3 hrs of A time between when she wakes up and her first nap and I watch her carefully for tired signs.  Is it possible she needs more A time in the morning?? 
The last couple of days have looked roughly like this:
wake up around 5:30
E: 6:00
A: cereal and fruit at 7:30
S: 8:30
A: 9:00
E: 10:00
A:
S: 10:30 (due to tired signs)
A: 11:30 or 12, veg at 12:30
E: 2:00
A:
S: 3:00
A: 3:30 or 4:00, fruit at 4:00ish
E: 5:00
bath at 6:15

Today was a low point though and looked like this:
woke up at 5:45
E: 6:00
A: cereal at 7:30
S: 8:40
A: 9:15
E: 10:00
A: veg at 11:30
tried to put her down at 12:00 for 45 min.
tried again to put her down at 1:15 for 30 min.
E: 2:00
A:
S: 3:15 (been asleep for 10 min. so far)

Everything was going so well on our previous schedule but things have been a disaster for the past several weeks.  She still doesn't have any teeth so I'm not sure about teething...she's 8 months so surely she'll be getting a tooth soon?!?
I just can't figure out what is causing the napping problems, especially since it has had little effect on her nighttime sleep.
I would REALLY appreciate any insights or suggestions!!!

[deckchariot]

sorry to hear things are going so poorly....hang in there.  First, if you've just returned from being gone, that will definitely mess things up, but since there were problems before you started, let's not wait to see what we can do....

Normally, with a 30 min nap, I'd say she' overtired, but maybe you're right and she's actually undertired.  Do you know that she wakes at 5:30 - is that when you go in, or do you just hear her on the monitor?  Also, at this age, I notice that my dd's "tired" cues are usually just "I'm bored" cues...so I tend to go more by the clock.  Your routine actually looks pretty good.  It's possible that she's OT from the travelling, so maybe pull back 15 min on her am nap and see what happens - try putting her down at 8:15 if she's up at 5:30.  If you're still getting a 30 min nap, I'd go the opposite direction and try to add 15 min (putting her down at 8:45 if she's up at 5:30).  Sometimes it really is a bit of flexible A time to try to find the right "fit" for your lo.

If she doesn't nap well, I'd still try to keep her up for awhile longer before putting her down for her next nap.  So maybe if she goes down at 8:15 and wakes at 8:45, try to extend her maybe til 9, then just get her up, have some low key A time, feed as usual (solids and milk), and try to put her down around 11:30.  I'm not sure if that will work though, depends on how tired she's acting (keep in mind she may be bored when she seems tired).

I'm sorry this is so hard.  Each lo is different, so we just have to try to find the right bit for you lo.  Hang in there!!!!

[Amandamom]

Thank you!  5:30 is when I first hear her on th monitor, so I do always have the concern that she's been up for awhile and I don't hear her.  She doesn't cry when she wakes up, just plays/babbles so I don't go in before 6:00 in a futile effort not to encourage the early wakings. 
I'll try 2 hr 45 min. for the first A time tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Her second nap today was only a half an hour as well so she's only slept for an hour total all day and I've put more than 2 hours into getting her to nap.  Ugh! 

[Amandamom]

Today was better!  She woke up at 5:15 this morning  so I put her down at 8:00 for her morning nap and she slept for 1 hour.  Then after 2 hr 15 min of A time she started showing tired signs...I remembered what you said about being bored so I moved her to a new spot and gave her a new toy which made her fuss so I put her on my lap to play and she kept rubbing her eyes so at 2 hr 30 min I put her down for her nap and she slept for 1 hr 15 min!!  She also had a 25 min catnap today.
I'll try for the 2 hr 45 min A time in the morning again tomorrow and see how it goes.  I hope today was the start of getting back on track, not just a fluke!

[deckchariot]

YAY!!!  So glad for a better day!!  sometimes one decent day is enough to keep you going for the next day!  Here's to hoping she's getting back on track!  Keep me posted - it looks like you're doing great - you're very clued in to your little girl!!!

[Amandamom]

Yesterday was pretty good.  She woke up at 6:15 so I put her down at 9:00.  She only slept for 30 min., BUT my 10 yr old is still on break and I'm pretty sure he woke her up because he was banging stuff around.  I had a dentist appt at noon and I was sure she would fall asleep in the car, but she made it until we got home and slept for 1.5 hours.
So I *think* we might be getting back on track.  I'm interested to see how today goes.

[deckchariot]

It sounds like she's beginning to settle back in to a routine...yeah!!!  Hang in there, you're doing great!

[Amandamom]

Thanks!  I just popped back in to say that things are continuing to go well.  She is not completely consistent, but she never has been.  Overall though her naps are much, much better.  It's amazing what a difference 15 min. can make!  I'm going to keep her at 2 hr 45 min until it seems like she is ready to go back to 3 hrs.  Is it normal for LOs to have "regression" in their A times like that?

[deckchariot]

It's very normal for lo's to sometimes go to a shorter A time - anything can mess that up - teething, illness, new developmental skills, new people in the home etc.  and for me, it always takes me a bit to figure out what's going on, but then we get back on track and things are better.  So it sounds like you're doing a wonderful job!!!  Glad I could help!!!!