1year old sleeping less..NOT 2-1 switch

[Elke]

DD has been on 1 nap since she was 9.5 months old ( :oWOW I know!!) but she slept about 30-45 minutes more each day this way and she made the transition very well so I just went with it . She has been doing 11 hours at night and a consistent 2-2.25 hour nap since then, UNTIL LAST WEEK THAT IS!!! 

Her two top teeth have been coming in and she has had diarreah all week from it as well as a little diaper rash so I'm thinking this could contribute to her poor sleeping . Her sleep had a sudden change as I remember right around the beginning of the teething which lead to NWings (self settles 90% of the time), earlier wakings and shorter naps.

Do you all think that this is the cause or if less sleep will be a permanent change??

Her schedule used to look like this:

Wake: 08:00
Sleep: 12:00-14/14:15
Sleep: 21:00


I have her playgroups right when she would normally take a nap, that is just over 4 hours after she wakes so I have to put her to sleep a little later on those days. It is not an option to stay at home for naps rather than taking advantage of our only occasion to socialize..

Here is what she's doing now:

Wake: 07:15
Sleep: 12:00-13:45 (15-30 minutes less for her nap)
Sleep: 08:30 (sleeps 10 hours 45minutes at night)

For a grand total of 30-45 minutes less sleep in the total 24hour period.

I am keeping in mind the time change which will occur and would really like her to be waking no earlier that 07:00 when this occurs. So along with our current sleep issues I also need to gradually get her to wake up an hour later.

Does that make ANY sense??

Thanks All!!

[becky1969]

It's hard to say.  Yes, your nap is shorter but it's not a LOT shorter.  I think I'd work on lengthening nights, and to do that I'd give her an earlier bedtime.  Chances are teeth are making her more tired than usual.  Your nights are short enough that the EWs look like OT.  That's an awful long time between end of nap and bedtime esp. since she's only 12 months AND teething AND sleeping less for nap.

I'd try a 7:00 bedtime.  If that doesn't help you could even go a bit earlier like 6:30.

[~*Nicole*~]

I was thinking the same thing becky. Looong time between nap and bedtime....

Elke: Does she have a temp at all? The diarrhea would worry me a bit...was just wondering. But yes, when DD was teething, we back tracked in A times and she slept more during the day than usual but had NWs from pain and needed pain meds. to sleep longer. She didn't seem to notice the pain while she was awake and playing...just during sleeping periods.

[Elke]

Thanks for the suggestions you guys!

She doesn't have a temp and only now are her poops becoming as normal but we will be going to the ped this week to see. I am a first time but a week of runny poops seemed worring to me. So you think it is abnormal?

Unfortunately DD refuses to sleep any earlier that 6.75 hours after her last nap, believe me I've tried. Last night for example, I tried to put her down 15 minutes before planned and she just chatted away until the time passed.

Is there anything I can do regarding lengthening the nap??

[Mashi]

HI Elke!  I was reding old PMs the other day and came across ones from you when our LOs were only 4, 5 months old, and so I was thinking of you and wondering how you have been getting on!  I'm glad to see that things have been going well 

I agree with others about the teething and sleep - as an example, my LO was very happy and well rested on 2.5ish hours of naps and 11 hours of night sleep from 9 - 12 months. Then, at about 12 months he started cutting about 6 teeth and very quickly his sleep increased - he went to 3 - 3.5 hours of naps and a full 12 hours at night, some nights 12.5 hours! (I have to say, it was quite nice!! LOL) Once his teeth all came though, it was a pretty instant drop back down in his sleep to 2.5 day and 11.5 night.   Instead of just 15 minutes earlier to bed, can you try an hour earlier - my DH used to never believe me because we have the same issue with chatting and playing if we put him to bed a wee bit early, but moving bedtime a full hour early works wonders for us.  Just a thought. 

With the teeth and diarrhea this is an on-going thing for me.  I have read many times that mothers say their LO gets diarrhea when teething but that doctors say there is no reason nor truth in this. My sister is a dentist and had several kids of her own and she is constantly telling me that "teeth are far away from bums!" and there is no connection at all in diarrhea and teething.  BUT I absolutely promise that DS gets at least much softer poop, and often diarrhea, when he is teething. 100%.  But, the thing is that when he is teething he wants to eat much more fruit and fewer breads and carbs.  The fruit really does soften his poop, and so in order to avoid arguments with my sister I have just decided that this is what causes it!   Hope your ped says that she's okay and nothing wrong!

[Elke]

Hey Marsha!! I'm go glad to hear that things are going so well with your LO ;-)

Thanks for your advice! Last night DD went to bed late due to her super late nap, slept 11.5 hours (with lots of NWings) so she woke at 09:00 this morning. I am quite reluctant to put her to bed early now that we are on the schedule that I was aiming for. If I know her, she'll sleep her usual 11 hours and wake up an hour earlier than I'd prefer... Don't know really what I'm gonna do...

[becky1969]

The only thing I'll say is you probably weren't trying early enough before.  For instance 15-30 minutes isn't going to do it in your case.  My guess is she needs to be in bed a full 60-120 minutes earlier than what you're doing now.  When you try 30 minutes earlier than normal she's STILL OT at that point and fighting sleep. 

See what happens now that you have a wake time you like better, but if you see problems crop up go with the super early bedtime like I suggested and see what happens.

(p.s. that's a common complaint when people try early bedtimes "it didn't work!" but in 99% of those cases they didn't try early enough!    )

[Elke]

Okay ladies, I put her down an hour earlier than I usually would have and she went to sleep without any problems, I just have to wait to see what time she wakes up in the morning.

I just want to ask if you all think it is realistic for a baby who has always slept very little (at most 15 hours as a newborn, 14 hours at 5 months and 13 since she was 9 months) to sleep more at this point. I thought 11 hours was great as she didn't begin to do so until she was about 9 months old!

Have a great night ladies!

[Elke]

Good day!

Aurelia slept 11hours15 minutes last night which was great but has just woken from a 1hour 30 minutes nap  

What do you make of that? Also, If I keep putting her to bed early (since she woke 45 minutes earlier today than yesterday), we're going to be waking up at 05:00 soon!

[becky1969]

Do you think 1.5 hours is short? That's actually a fine nap!

It takes several days for changes to balance out. So just b/c she took a shorter than normal nap today doesn't mean she will again. The early bedtime OBVIOUSLY worked ast you got over 11 hours of sleep last night.   She got 12h45 sleep and at this age we aim for 13-14 hours, so she's catching up!

Give it a few more days and see how it works.  I wouldn't put her to bed earlier than 6:30 as you're right, you'll start having super early wakings.  Probably what I'd do is keep nap 12:30 or later to ensure that you can put her to bed at 7 or so regardless of length of nap.

[Elke]

Hello Becky, thanks for responding. I guess I had just gotten used to her very predictable 2 hour nap 

I'm thinking that a nap around 13:00 is great and that I should aim for bedtime around 08:00pm at the earliest (she woke at 07:35 this morning and slept just over 10.5 hours with no wake ups). You see even if she does sleep a full 11 hours that means that she'll wake up at 07:00 tomorrow, if not earlier. If I put her to bed at 07pm she'll wake at 06:00 at the latest!! All this becomes a viscious cycle of earlier waking, earlier nap and earlier bedtime.

Shouldn't I just stick to a reasonable bedtime for her, say 12.5-13 hours after she wakes? This is what I had been doing for the past 3 months until things went wrong. Or do you think I should deal with the viscous cycle because you think she needs to catch up on sleep?