1 hr 10 min naps for a week!

[jlmlyle]

Hi there,

Well I can't figure it out.  My 19 month old DD has been napping for roughly 1 hr 10 min for the last four days.  She used to do 1.5 hrs or 2 hrs, but this is off. She wakes rather happy. She just plays and I leave her there "to rest" until closer to the 2 hr mark.  She doesn't usually fuss.  But in the afternoon she is definitely needier and it doesn't seem like she was well-rested enough.  Plus she seems to get tired by 6:00 pm.

Her rough schedule:

6:45-7:00 Wake
12--12:15 nap (used to be till 2:00 or 2:30 depending on when she falls asleep)
7:00 bedtime

At first I thought she was OT, so I moved her nap up to 12:00 and that worked for the last week as we were catching up.  We had OT due to Thanksgiving and a busy schedule, so we had been consistently putting her to bed by 7:00 instead of 7:30.  I noticed that if we put her down around 7:00 she is asleep by 7:30 typically.  But if I wait till 7:30 she won't sleep until near 8:30 giving her only 10.5 hours sleep which I though was OT?

Anyway this was all working until about 4 days ago.  Two days of 1 hr 10 min naps at 12:00 nap time, than yesterday she didn't actually fall asleep until 1:15 and only slept 1 hr 10 min.  Today we ran errands and I put her down for her nap at 1:15.  Went to sleep by 1:30, no OT, and than woke up at 2:40.

Any ideas?  UT, OT?  I thought today was to help her get more stimulation. Maybe she needs more physical activity. But now that she is sleeping 11-11.5 hours at night, is that shortening her naps?  The problem is she has always needed an earlier bedtime to not be OT and rolling around for hours at BT.  But these ~ 1 hr naps have her kind of off in the afternoon.

Please help!

Thanks! Jasmine

[Mimi 2]

Since she wakes happy then she's definitely not OT.  She could be shortening her sleep as you have tried to put her to nap earlier but the same happened.  What you could try doing is give her more activity and if she still wakes at 1hr 10 min then let her be until she fusses.  Sometimes just by resting/laying in a dark quiet room can help.  Also, I would keep with the early bedtime (asleep by 7:30).  What do you think?

[jlmlyle]

Well I thought she wasn't overtired because she did really well yesterday and she woke happy.  But by the evening she was spent and in the late afternoon she seemed off.  With these short nap days it seems like she's already ready for bed by 6:00 pm.  Than today her grandma had her and she was down for her nap by 12:00 but she was very tired and she was even yawning by 10:30 and I normally don't get any sleep cues.  She went to sleep immediately, but was up at 1:00 and not crying.  But today all afternoon and evening she was obviously tired and she has dark circles under her eyes it seems every other day or so these last five days.  I do think she needs the early bedtime of 7:00 so she's asleep by 7:30.  Tonight she went down at 8:30 due to holiday stuff, and she was so clearly overtired tonight.

Do you think she really is trying to shorten her sleep at 19 months? She still seems off with only 1 hr naps during the day.  She is definitely more needy. She is usually an angel baby and very independent, but she has been more clingy.  She also is getting more easily upset.  Is this just behavioral stuff?  She hasn't had the typical tantrum behavior you hear about.  She has had two smaller tantrums so far, and there were during overtired weeks around Thanksgiving.  She very much is an angel baby/toddler.

I will continue to let her be until she fusses.  Quiet rest in bed is better than stimulation.  But tomorrow I think I am going to do a 11:45 nap to compensate for today.  And if it is still like this, I will try some days at the playground in the morning to see if it is a physical activity thing.  What do you think?  Should I do 11:30?

[jlmlyle]

OK.  Another update. It seems now that she is OT.  She only slept 10 hours last night and had an EW.  I haven't dealt with EW since the 2-1 switch and that was when we had 2 naps but were shortening one.  Do I put her down early for the nap because of EW and than continue with an early BT?  In the past with early bedtimes she still slept till her normalish waking time.

I am thinking a 11:30 nap or even earlier?  Before compensating for Thanksgiving, we were on 12:30 naps consistently.  But I was worried it was a bit late, so we have been doing 12:00 naps since with two hour naps.  And than this week of 1 hr- 1hr 10min naps with naps at 12:00, except for my little deviation this week to 1:00 when I thought she was UT.  Ugh...I knew the 1 hr naps were going to mess us up.

[Mimi 2]

The shortening of sleep needs is not always black and white.  She may be ready to shorten the sleep BUT her body isn't.  That's why it can take a very long time for los to adjust to the increased in A.  DS was like this last spring.  He suddenly increased his A by 1hr then after a few weeks he was back to about 5 hrs.  Confusing to say the least. 

Anyways, do the early nap to let her catch up. If she wakes after 1hr or so, can you try to resettle her?  How is she with showing you tired/sleepy cues?

[jlmlyle]

Thanks for your thoughts! 

Well the early nap ended up not being as early as I thought.  She had sleepy cues today in the sense that she looked tired all morning, dark eyes.  Lunch went long and I got her in bed by 11:50 and she was asleep by 12:05 or 12:10. Not sure, as I checked the monitor later.  She did mantra cry, so I think she is OT.  She's sleeping now.

I haven't tried resettling her in ages.  That last worked when she was 4 or 5 months old.  Since them I've had better luck with adjusting A times for longer naps.  I could try today I suppose.  The pattern is that she just bolts up straight, sometimes MC, sometimes not, and starts talking and playing with her lovey.  Today she might not since the OT is finally obvious. I also thinking since she is stringing words together and her vocab is exploding, it could be a developmental milestone.

With the shortening of sleep needs, how do you deal?  Just keep moving the nap around accordingly? 

[Mimi 2]

Milestones can affect sleep.  I found that this to be true with both of mine.  As for shortening of sleep, I adjust the nap time and length.  This involves a lot of trial and error to get it the way I want it to.  Personally, I don't mind the short naps as long as the nights a decent.  My aim is roughly 11 hrs nights. 

Try W2S to see if that would help.  Also I found that if there's a sippy of water in ds' crib, he will fall back asleep after taking a few sips.