UT or OT - 8 month old

[mooresey]

Ok, so I'm hoping someone can help me out here.  My LO typically would go down easily for his first nap around 2 hours after waking BUT for the past few days I have been putting him down upon seeing his tired cues and he won't fall asleep for at least 20 minutes!  He'll just play and have a great time in his crib until he falls asleep (at least 20 minutes later), and then he'll wake up 30-40 minutes later happily.  I'm confused because all of this seems as though he is UT, but why the sleepy cues then??  I'll be feeling very confident that he is tired, so put him down but WHAMO! He's all smiles and awake.  I'm pretty sure he's not OT, but then I have a hard time distinguishing between UT and OT.  I should note that he is teething right now and has a tooth pretty much breaking through the gums as we speak...could this be throwing him off naps THIS much?  Any help is appreciated!!!

[jordiwes]

Hi there,
As they get older, it gets harder to judge based on their cues, and we go a little more on clock time. So I would try 2.25 hours or 2.5 hours with some mellow time at the end and see how that goes.
HTH

[mooresey]

Thanks for the response.  The cues I am reading are pretty obvious to me...rubbing eyes, yawning etc.  Could these just be signs of boredom then?  I'll try the longer A time tomorrow morning and see where that gets us.  I guess I have been extra paranoid lately about going into OT mode because that is a nightmare!  So maybe I'm jumping the gun on the nap, I'll let you know how it goes. 

[sanaya]

hi! vivaan is 8 months old and sometimes he does rub his eyes before its nap time, so i keep it really low key. he is doing 3 hours A time (sometimes more, depending on how long his nap was) and yes we do have this wanting to play bit, but once i start wind down he gets the drift..
try extnding his A time in 10 min increments and see how hes doing.

hugs....teething is a real spoiler.

sanaya

[babybarr]

I've got a post about 8mth old naps - I know exactly what you mean - you think tired cues put them to bed only for them to wake up 40mins later happy as larry - definitely extending A time helped ...that is until DS top teeth started coming through!!
Good Luck

[Mashi]

I am noticing similar, and with my DS I am finding that his tired cues can mean "I'm tired" but not necessarily "I'm sleepy and ready for bed."  I sit with him quietly and do my best to stretch him out until the "normal" time.   I'm also noticing that at this age, 15 minutes either way can often not make much of a difference for him, whereas when he was much younger, FIVE minutes could lead to OT!

[mooresey]

Great news!  I kept him up to around 2.5 hrs of A time this morning and he slept for 1hr and 15 mins!!  Hopefully this was not just a fluke.  We followed it up with 3.5 hrs of A time (was out running errands so ran a tad late) and he's been sleeping now for 0.5 hr...let's hope he can make it a full hour!  So thanks for everyone's help!