Hrs of sleep? Think she has a little too much

[em_here]

Abbi has started waking at 6am ish (very annoying lol).  She has naps from 10:15 to 12pm and then 2:30 - 3:30 pm.  Now, she does seem very tired and settles immediately for these naps, and if I shorten them she is an ot mess by bedtime.  Seems nearly 3 hrs of naps is a bit too much and would contribute to the early wakings, what do you think? Would you tweak it a little? She is nearly 14 months, and I know there is no way I could go to one nap  She went down early today (9:30 as she woke at 6am again), and has been asleep for an hr, I might wake her (she'll prob scream the house down though) and then put her down at 2pm for one hr, ick I dont know 

[Vicku]

Hi Emma!
Maybe she's starting to transition from 2 to 1 nap? We're in the middle of it and it's been going on for months now 
Even though I'm no expert on this, I'd probably advice you to try shortening the am nap. This worked for ages for us. Apparently they make up for lost nighttime sleep in the am nap, so if she has a longer am nap then she needs that could contribute to the early wakings. I would try shortening am nap to 1 hr, but you might then also have to shorten the A time as she'll be more tired, so bring the pm nap back so she's not awake for too long.
There's also another route to go, gradually pushing the am nap later and then taking a short catnap in the pm. We've tried both, and both seem to work different with different babies. I think it'd be hard to push am nap later if her wake ups are getting earlier though, so maybe try cutting am nap short for a few days to see if it makes any difference?

[em_here]

Thanks Vicku, I woke her up at 10:35 decided to go out for a while with both children, have just put Jack down for a nap at 12:45, he has gone sleep so have just put Abbi down for her nap now as she seems very tired, I will stick bedtime at 6:30pm, I just hope she is going to go off to sleep now         she is cooing a bit!!!!!! If she wakes DS up I willl prob cry!  I know she couldnt cope with one nap right now, but at least we can work in a new direction with shorter am nap and longer pm nap. Forgot they make up for lost night sleep with a long am nap, lets see if this stamps it out eh  Thanks again, she has gone quiet so am hoping for a good hr or so nap         

[Vicku]

No worries hun    Hope it works! Yeah, hopefully her pm naps will get longer instead. Let me know how you get on 

[em_here]

Ugh want to scream, thought it was quiet and now she is cooing, why this annoys me so much I really really do not know!!!!!!!!!!! Arrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh! lol

[Vicku]

LOL  I've been the same here... Lois has been in her cot for 2.5 hrs but only slept for half an hour of that  think she's asleep finally again though.

[em_here]

  its all gone quiet now, except for one coo a min ago, think she is teasing me! 2.5 hrs, god you must have been fed up, it really stresses me out when it doesnt work to what I think it should.

Knowing my luck DS will wake up soon and she will then wake up and it will be completely blah. Is a pain as they share a room, which makes it harder 

[Vicku]

Hopefully it'll get better once Abbi's on 1 nap too... must be hard!

[em_here]

She has just woke up after 30 mins sleep rarrrrrrrrrrrr! Hoping so hard she goes back off! If she doesnt I am not offering another nap as it just seems silly as its nearly 2pm     

[Vicku]

She should be ok til 6:30 I think. Maybe you need to cut am nap to 45 mins? Is she teething or anything? Could that wake her up earlier?

[em_here]

No teething atm, she seems really ot so I woke ds up, and left her in the cot, it has gone quiet so am hoping and praying she has dropped back off    It runs lovely with the long am nap etc... changing things makes me feel I am out of control lol, but I so want the new early waking to go go go!!! Plus its nice to get out a bit late morn and then get some Me time, as usually I have none from the morn until the night

[Vicku]

It's always difficult when things change, but change they seem to do no matter what... You could always stick to your usual thing another few days and see if things improve by themselves, or start by cutting am nap just a little at a time. I know early mornings are not my favourite... 6:30 here is an unusually GOOD wake up time 

[NiknLily]

Hi Emma
You know if she is starting to need less sleep and she works best on a long am nap, then you don't have to cut that nap.  You can leave that nap as long as she will take and simply cut the pm nap back to a catnap, just enough to see her through till bedtime.

Cutting the am nap short for a long pm nap does work very well for a lot of LO's but for some Tracy's method of leaving the am nap long and slowly pushing it later by 15mins every 3+ days until it is at about 11am when it then become the only nap really works best.  To prevent OT creeping in you offer a catnap, in the late pm and when this no longer works you do a very early night.

I know your concern is that the am nap is making her wake early in the am, however if you reduce her day sleep in the pm or am she should eventually start making it back up at night.  Plus if you start to push the am nap forward bringing it further from the night there is less chance she will use it as an extension of the night.  Generally it doesn't matter where they are getting too much sleep during the day, either way they will reduce the night sleep to balance it out and end up waking early.

Have you read "sleep gone wonky 10-11months" thread in nap FAQ board? If not give this a read, it's applies to all LO's gearing up to transition at any age, not just 10-11m olds.

So what I'm saying here is you need to figure out what pattern of naps works best for Abby and follow that route, not just following the advice mainly offered.  I did this and DD transition was horrible, if you get it right there is no reason it can't be a fairly smooth ride.

Vicku - your advice is fantastic and I don't want you to think I'm tredding on your toes  it's just having gone through this transition badly I don't like to think of others going wrong the way I did iykwim 

[skatty]

Hi you could always keep the long AM nap until you run out of time for a PM nap as her A times lengthen. My DD wouldn't take a decent PM nap after a short AM nap so we ended up with 2 short naps and an OT kid   What we did was start pushing the AM nap later and let her sleep as long as she wanted and then offered a catnap (20 mins) late afternoon, it worked fantastically for us and we had a very smooth transition   Oh and on a plus once she was on one nap with an afternoon catnap she started sleeping later, she went from a 6ish wake to a 7.30/8am wake and it's still the same now   I don't know what the average sleep in 24 hours is but Leorah is getting about 15 at 17 months which I think is more than when she was a baby but she is VERY busy! You could maybe try waking her after 45 mins in the PM and see how it goes and if after a week she isnt waking later cut it to 30 mins. I hope you sort it out soon, best to catch these things in the bud  

[skatty]

Haha, New Mum we must have posted the same time, great minds think alike