11 months - cannot sort out naps

[admitchell]

Hi, my dd is 11 months old and our patience is definitely being tested. She was put on EASY when she was 4 months old. It took me a month to teach her to fall asleep without any help. Most nights she would go 11 - 12 hrs without waking up. Then she started teething what disturbed her sleeping and after that we experienced heavy NWs (I posted there as well). After that she started having issues with naps. There are more and more days when she drops the afternoon nap. Her routine used to be:
7:30 - wake up and bottle (150 - 200 ml)
8:30 - solids (porridge with milk (70ml) and fruit: 100-120g)
10:30 - nap (1.5hrs)
12:00 - bottle (we limit it to 100ml only)
13:00 - solids (veg+meat+fruit: 200 - 260g)
15:00 - nap (this one is always shorter, max 1hr)
16:00 - bottle (we limit it to 100ml)
17:30 - solids (porridge with milk (90ml) and fruit: 120-140g)
18:15 - bath
19:00 - bottle (up to 100ml) and bedtime


I read a few threads and learnt that shortening the morning nap can help. This is what we started and it seems to work as she does take the afternoon one now. Where I get lost is the length of the afternoon nap. If I leave her to sleep as much as she wants she will go for even 1.5hr/2hrs. Then we have hell with bedtime as even after 3hrs she is not interested in sleeping. She crawls and plays in her cot/bed until she gets bored and starts crying. Last night it took her 2hrs to fall asleep after total 2.5hrs of naps during a day. With multiple NWs my dd gets only 10-11hrs sleep in total and I know it is not enough. On the other hand I'm worried that if I let her to compensate for lost night during a day she will never stop NWs (I know that OT can also cause NWs). Feels like vicious circle. Should I then do only controlled naps: e.g. 2 x 1hr or let her sleep in the afternoon as much as she wants?

Agata

[deckchariot]

Agata -

It sounds like you're in the beginning of the 2 to 1 nap transition - here's a couple links that will be helpful to take a look at:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=121369.0

I'd have a look through those threads first and then see if you can come up with a plan for your dd that will work for her.  Every lo is different - some work best with a short am nap and a long pm nap, others work best with a long am nap and a short pm nap.  In either case, I'm guessing you can probably start pushing her A time closer to 4 hrs - but do it slowly so she doesn't get OT.

HTH
michelle

[mommy2mason]

Hi Agata-My LO is 10 months and we're dealing with this too, although he isn't NW but he is EW sometimes. The biggest issue we had was him not being tired enough for his PM nap until too late in the day. We have shortened his AM nap to 1 hour but he still isn't getting tired enough for his PM nap until too late. For instance, today he napped for 1 hour this morning (I woke him) and he wasn't tired enough for his PM nap until almost 3 so I ended up waking him at 3:45pm to protect his bedtime...but he was not happy with me having to wake him. I don't like to have to do that either since that means he only napped for 1hr. 45min. today. I think I'm going to start only letting him have a 45min. nap in the morning and see if that helps. It's been really tricky and unpredictable for a few weeks now for us. I just wish I could find something that worked and be able to stick with it for awhile!