New to site - sleep problems

[joulesB]

I have a daughter 10 months called ellen and have had some problems with sleep over time.  she used ot have a dummy but i got rid of that at 4m fairly easily.  my next issue was stroller naps, i never used to put her down for naps in her cot i would take her for walks, after being told this was a bad idea i started her in her cot and she seemed fine.  nowadays she is in a dark room with one small night light.

my problem now is that she gets tired by around 430/5pm.  her daily routine is usually,

6am get up
630/7 brekky
9 bottle
930 nap about 1hour
12 lunch
1300 bottle
1330 nap about 1 hour
1700 dinner
1800 bath
1830 bottle then bed

it doesnt always go like that she will sometimes have her nap at 11 ish instead of 9 but then wont have a second one and will get tired by 5.

the problem is this is too ealy for bed but if i let her nap then she wont go to bed till around9.  i realy dont want that to happen as those few hours without her are my down time.  i currently let her sleep till she wakes.  i did try for a few days waking her early from her first nap to try to lengthen her second but dont think it had any effect.

is there anything i can try as at the moment i distract her as long as i can which isnt nice for all concerened but like is aid if i put her down for a nap at 5 she wont sleep through as its too early. this making her wait can often end up in her falling asleep on the bottle.

she can self settle and does so for naps but i worry that falling asleep on the bottle may cause problems, but tonight she was awake and seems to have gone to sleep at 1815 i might add

help any advice?

[deckchariot]

Welcome to BW!!

I'm wondering if she's approaching the 2 to 1 nap switch.  Have a read through this link and see if it makes sense:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

There are basically 2 approaches to the switch:
1) keep 1st nap at the same A time every day, but gradually shorten the length of it; at the same time, move pm nap earlier (by the same amount you shorten nap 1).  When nap 1 is <30 min, attempt to cut it out and just have 1 nap.
2) push morning A time later, allow your bub to sleep as long as they want in the am, then do a late pm catnap (can be a shorter A time than in the am, as you don't want them to take a full nap); eventually cut out pm catnap.

If she needs a longer A time before bed, then option #1 is generally better.  If she doesn't and HATES being woken from the am nap, option #2 may be better.  In both cases, you can offer an early bedtime if one/both of the naps is bad.

Whichever approach you choose - it's best to go gradually - so either cut 15 min off the am nap every 3-5 days or lengthen the am A time by 15 min every 3-5 days.  It also is helpful to know about how much day sleep is "optimal" for your dd and how much A time she needs (minimum) between her last nap and bedtime - that can help you plan out the day.

hth
michelle