Short naps -10.5 mo old

[fujbeck]

I have just been tolerating this, but now going to try to ask for help. My 10.5 mo old LO has been taking only 2, 30-35 min naps per day for a few weeks now. She is sometimes not cranky on this and sometimes is cranky at night, usually hard to get down for the night b/c probably OT. Sometimes will take a long nap in the afternoon but ONLY if I am there to help hold her down. Have tried pu/pd and doesn't work for getting her back to sleep when waking up early from naps, she just gets hysterical. With my older one and his schedule, I can't really do anything to aid her with the morning nap if she gets up early. Her pattern doesn't seem to follow what I read is typical for her age. How can I improve her routine? Is it possible she is wanting to go to one nap? The only days she seems to take a long nap in the morning is when she happens to wake up really early in the morning so I keep her up till her normal nap time. But she has tried to miss her afternoon nap a couple times and one time she handled it OK and one time she was a complete mess.

Here's an approximation of her current routine:

6:45 wake
7 BF
8:30 breakfast
10-10:35 nap
11 BF
12:30 lunch
2:10-2:45 nap
3 BF
5:30 dinner
6:15 bath
6:40 nurse
7:30 asleep
usually wakes once to BF at night

[claires mum]

Hmmm...those 30 minute naps are indicative of being OT...but she's not waking up much at night is she! So that's good!!

From your schedule your LO's activity time progresses during the day as follows: 3 1/4 hours, 3 3/4 hours and finally 4 3/4 hours.  That's quite a lot of awake time for a 10.5 month baby.  I would be trying to average that activity time across the day to perhaps only 3 - 3.5 hours and bring bedtime forward so that there's not so much A time before bed.  What do you think?

I'd also be considering dropping the night BF.  At 10.5 months your LO shouldn't really need it and is maybe waking out of habit rather than hunger???  That's just a suggestion though 

[fujbeck]

I have tried putting her down earlier but she does not seem tired. She will just sit up in her crib and look around. Actually the past couple days I have had a problem with her waking early (close to 6 am) and then I have had a problem getting her down for her afternoon nap (it has taken 45 min to over an hour). I don't know what to do to tweak her routine!

[claires mum]

When you tried the earlier sleep times..was that for all naps or just the nighttime nap?  I'm wondering if you might need to shift all the naps a little earlier and allow only 3-3.5 hours activity time. So it might look something like this:

6:45 wake
7 BF
8:30 breakfast
9.30 nap (1.5 hours)
11 BF
12:30 lunch
2:00 nap (1.5 hours)
3.30 BF
5:30 dinner
6:15 bath
6:40 nurse
7:00 asleep

My rationale is that the first nap of the day seems to be key to how the rest of the day/night proceeds.  If you can get 1.5 hours sleep at that nap..it might just do the trick.  Since that first nap is only 30 minutes...which indicates OT....try an earlier nap time for that nap and see what happens? 

[fujbeck]

OK, I tried to put her down for the first nap with the timing you suggested, and she would not go down. She just kept sitting up in her crib not complaining or anything. After about 20 minutes of trying I had to give up to go pick up my son from his therapy. She finally went down later after being up for 3.5 hours, but then she only took a 20 minute nap. Any thoughts??

[claires mum]

I hope a moderator jumps in and offers an alternative view for you.  It still sounds like she's OT to me...those really short naps don't really advocate needing less sleep in the day...but I could be wrong. 

Have you tried to drop the night feed?

[Aly Mac]

HI there,

sorry you are going through a rough time, but this is quite common at her age, have you seen this at all?

10/11mnth old sleep gone wonky?

this will explain a few things, and give you some tips on what to do.  It is the 'transition to 1 nap' but this doesnt' mean she will be on one nap, it just means you need to fiddle with the A times and nap length to keep 2 happy naps.

Is she waking happy from the am nap?  if so, I would leave it that short, but you need to bring the pm nap earlier.  the shorter the nap, the shorter the next A time as they don't have the stamina to stay up.  So if she is happy going down at that time in the morning, and taking 35mins, and waking early, then I would put down for a nap no more than 3hrs later. Clares mum was on the right track, but if she has a long am nap, then it will be harder to put her down in the afternoon.

Of course, shorter A time means earlier nap and then a longer A time before bed. on these occasions, you will need to put her to bed earlier too. 3.5-4hrs max last A time after a well rested day, no more than 3 on a bad nap day.  We did this for a while and it worked great. 

hope this helps, and feel free to ask more questions.

[claires mum]

That's great advice Aly Mac...thanks so much for that... I'll be implementing that advice myself very shortly .

Sorry Fujbeck..I feel just terrible that I didn't get that right

[Aly Mac]

Hey Claires mum - you weren't wrong at all!!!  And there is no right and wrong answer really.  All of my advice is about experience from myself and others, and of course what works for one, doesnt' necessarily for another.  we are all muddling through and hoping that what we learn along the way, can help others.

[claires mum]

Thanks Aly Mac...I'm feeling a bit better!

[fujbeck]

Claire's mum, don't feel bad... I was happy that someone was trying to help me!

Aly Mac, I did see that thing before about 10/11 mo sleep gone wonky before, but I felt like it left some unanswered questions. If anything, #2 on that applies to me, that she is almost "refusing" her morning nap, so I had been pushing it later. However, on there is says to let your LO sleep as long as they want to (assuming they will sleep for a long time)... BUT my LO will only sleep for a short period of time. This morning I tried again to put her down close to the 3 hour mark (before I saw your post), and she would not go to sleep till 3.5 hours had passed, THEN she only took about a 28 min nap. What do I do about that? When she wakes she is not crying, just complaining (unless I don't come get her soon) but as soon as I walk in the door she is smiling and sitting up in her crib, so I'm not sure whether to interpret that as her being happy or not. I'm just not sure how I get to the point of getting at least one good nap out of her.

Thanks again.

[Aly Mac]

such a short nap is usually ot.  maybe if you try an earlier nap, like 9am.  i know it seems like you are going backwards, but that's what we did (based on bw advice), and it really works.  even now, though we are onto one nap, kind of   ) I put her down around 9 and it works great, and that's based on a similar wake time to yourlo.

give it a try anyway.  this was our routine, in case you want to try it.

6/6/30 (or earlier really) wake up
9-9.45 nap
12.45 for a 1pm - 2.30 nap
6/6.30 bed.

worth a try to fiddle with the first nap, but only after trying the same one for a couple of days. how did/is the pm nap going and what time?

[fujbeck]

Hmmm... maybe I will try that. She has been waking at 6:30 am the past couple days and I have been trying to put her down around 9:20 am... but I will maybe try earlier.

For the 2nd nap, I have been having a lot of trouble. Has been taking me 30 min to 1 hour to get her down usually for only another 30 min nap... and it seems like she always falls asleep at about 2 pm. I think I may need to shorten the A time as you suggested. Another problem I have is that she usually poops while trying to get her down. But today, my DH put her down at 2 pm and she was going to take a long nap but he had to go somewhere and the garage opener woke her up after 50 min. 

Then it took me an hour to get her down to bed. It's hard for me to get her down earlier with needing to take care of my DS' needs in the evening.

[fujbeck]

Ugh.... those ideas did not work. She would not go down earlier for the first nap... I finally got her down after 3 hours 45 min of A time, and then she slept for 30 min.

For the afternoon nap, I tried to put her down 15 min before 3 hours A time, and that was a DISASTER. She screamed hysterically and it took 1 hour to get her down. Now she is sleeping. What a mess. 

[Aly Mac]

bummer....what I have found, with any changes, especially when nap/sleep related is that you have to give it at least 3days of consistency for it to work.  Some work first go of course, but I would encourage you to keep trying the same thing for 3days and see how it goes.  I know this is hard, and exhausting for both of you, and I"ve been exactly where you are.  It's just a matter of finding the right A time combination. 

keep trying and let me know how you go.