Trying to crawl during naptime - what to do?

[eshea]

My 9 month old has started trying to crawl and roll during naptime.  We give her lots of practice time during A time, but after wind down and the 4S routine she still wants more practice.  We have been letting her go until she gets pretty frustrated, but this can be up to an hour after we put her down!  I have a few questions about how to handle this...

How long should we let her roll around in her crib before we go in and remind her it's nap time?

When we do go in, should we pick her up and start the 4S routine again, or just use our voice?

If she finally falls asleep at 10:30 am and she usually BF at 11:00 am, should I wake her to keep her on track, or should I just let her be?

Maybe is this a sign she is ready for more A time?  It started about 3 days ago just with the afternoon nap and has now progressed to the morning nap.  Thankfully, nighttime hasn't been affected (yet).

Should I just tell myself "this too shall pass" and deal with it?

Thanks for any help!

[marensmama]

Milestones can certainly upset the routine!  She's old enough now that I wouldn't wake her for a feed especially if she's only gotten a half hour nap.  Your days will be messed up until she figures it out, but just do the best you can to roll with it.  If you'd like to post your routine, it is possible that she's ready for more A time, and getting her closer to the 'right' amount will make the possibility of sleep greater.  If the A time is right and she's still more interested in practicing, you could try PU/PD for older babies (which is PD only, I believe, although I've never used it).

And yes, it will pass.   Hopefully you can make adjustments so she doesn't get OT while she goes through it. 

[eshea]

Thanks - here's our routine.  I do wonder about more A time, but I can't seem to figure out how it all pieces together.

between 6:30 and 7am wake up
7am BF
8:00 solids for breakfast
A time until nap, which usually is at 9:00
S 9:00-10:15 or 10:30
11:00 BF
12:00 solids for lunch
A time until nap, usually at 1:30
S 1:30-3 or so
3:00 BF
A time until dinner (sometimes a little snack - some cheerios if she seems hungry)
5:45 dinner (maybe this should be a little earlier?)
6:00 bath, massage, BF
7:00 bedtime

We just switched the dinner routine to include the BF after the bath, and we just dropped the dream feed.  I had looked at other routines and it seemed most people had a bath/bottle/bed schedule, and it made more sense.  Last night she took to it just great.

If she has more A time, how do we change the naps around?

This morning she was put down for a nap at 9:45 and fell asleep at 10:30 after husband went in once to remind her it was nap time. 

So do the breastfeeding times start to just piece where they may now that she is older? 

I'm thankful at least she is happy while doing this!

[anna*]

Ugh, we went through a couple of weeks of sleep madness as he was trying to crawl. Poor guy would wake up on hands and knees all night long!! Luckily, it passes (I promise  )

At 9 months our routine looked something like this...

E 7am wake up and BF
A including breakfast 8am
S 10am nap 1.5hrs
E 11.30am wake up and BF
A including lunch 12.30
S 3pm nap 1.5hrs
E 4.30pm wake up and BF
A including tea 5.30
bath 6.30
BF again 6.45
S 7pm

[Thea Mum]

Hi,

My lo is 8mths and does the same thing.  It's like she becomes possessed when i put her in the cot and just rolls or tries to lift up to crawl (not quite crawling yet!) no matter how tired she is.  She also has the added bonus of banging her legs up and down in between rolls and like your lo is quite happy doing it but if left to it will just get OT and is then impossible to settle.

I have been trying to gently hold her legs down when getting her settled just to calm her.  I normally put her in first and walk away to see what happens.  SOmetimes she will just thump her legs down or roll a bit and then talks herself to sleep within 15mins, however, other times she just gets more riled up and active.  When this happens i go in, lean over the cot gently rest my arm over her legs to stop her moving, close my eyes so as not to make eye contact and sing to her.  You can feel her whole body relax after a few minutes and after about 15/20 minutes she will normally drop off.  Today, however, even this didn't work but she was suffering with a new tooth so not surprising.

Might be worth a try if all else fails.

Good luck! x

[eshea]

Thanks for all the advice!  I think our EASY is starting to look like yours, annafofana.  My girl has definitely done better with a later afternoon nap (3pm the past two days).  I'll just watch her for awhile and see what happens! 

[eshea]

I just wanted to thank you all for your help again.  Today was kind of wacky - she woke earlier than usual, so the morning nap ended up being at the old normal time (9am) which sent everything back to usual.  The key was, though, that we watched her sleepy cues - which she hides really well these days!  Without the help I have gotten from this website I would have had no clue what to look for and the whole family would be crabby.  We've also worked really hard to just wear her out during A time.  For both naps today she was so tired, by the time we got her in the crib she fell right asleep.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.