Ok, now at 8 mths, how long to nap?

[jellybabe]

When dd was 5mths I was tipped that 2 2hour naps is adequate. Now she's 8 mths (she grows so quick, and I keep staying behind lol)and she's had 2 naps of 2 hours yesterday afternoon, and we had a rough night with constant wakening and restlesness and woke at 5:20am which doesnt happen often. She will usually sleep from 8/8:30pm till about at least 8am. Should I start cutting down her naps in the afternoons to 11/2 hours instead of 2? She was teething, but all 4 are out now so I doubt its that. I know she's at a developmental stage and has been trying to crawl for about a month now. Any advice?

[anna*]

Restlessness and early wakings can be overtiredness as well as undertiredness... do you want to post your EASY in case anyone can spot a possible tweak? We always want naps to be at least 1.5hrs long (unless it's a catnap), but sometimes it helps to adjust A times instead of limiting sleep, iyswim.

Also, those motor milestones realllly can really mess up night sleep (crawling was a particularly bad one for us) - in the end, we had to just ride it out and things went back to 'normal' after a week or so.

anna
x

[jellybabe]

Hi

Well, our day goes something like this:

Wake: 8am
B/fast: 8:30
Activity: From 9 to about 11
Nap: 11 am
Wake: 1pm
Lunch: 1:30
Activity: 2pm
Nap: 4pm
Wake: 6pm
Dinner: 6:30
Acitivity/Bath: 7:30
Bottle, then sleep: 8/8:30pm (Depending on last nap)
She wakes at around 2/3am for a bottle. I am struggling to get her to eat solids properly. shes a bit lazy and picky. So I think its interfering with her sleep as she gets hungry from not eating enough during the day.

I've tried to put her down earlier but she tends to wake earlier. I find at a constant time of 8 or 8:30 she'll sleep generally till at least 8am, sometimes longer. Her gums were bleeding today, mostly where one of the front tooth is on the top. Guess this is from the tooth moving out?? Or she might have hurt herself somehow. She's been a bit cranky lately, dunno if its due to her being tired from sleeping bad. Its affecting her day naps as she's so tired all day. I give her some Medised at night which seems to settle her for the first half of the night at least till about 2/3am before she'll wake. Yes, I agree, she's really working hard on moving around so it could just be that. Does my EASY seem ok? Thanx for the help.

[anna*]

If she's teething and working on motor milestones, I honestly think that all you can do is ride it out. Once those things are settled down a bit, if sleep is still bad you could consider pushing those A times a bit more, which might mean you need to cut one of those naps a little bit shorter to fit them both in.

anna
x