well. It was nice while THAT lasted. What shall I do about these naps?

[*Liz*]

J used to drop back his A's a bit early on as well. I really remember cutting him back to 3hrs all the way through when he was teething his top 2.

We used to get a lot of bored eye rubs at that age as well. I can't remember how mobile your LO is, but J wasn't at all and got very whiny and bored. He finally crawled at 10 mths and his A's all dropped and he turned into a happy little thing again.

I agree with Wendy that 4hrs is likely too long as well. I would say 3/3.5/3.5 seems better to me. For J it would have been 3.5/3.5/3 as he liked to be different  .

[Jiinx]

very true Wendy. Okay will keep at a max of 3.5 hrs...bed by 6:30. Thank goodness for her lovey. When she gets whiny and starts rubbing her eyes, I can count on her lovey to give her comfort as she stuffs it in her mouth and chews on it until the pain dissipates.

thanks  

can we put all our mommy vibes together and send some teething vibes to this girl??? lol

oh, just saw Liz's post. thanks! I can definitely see that she's dropping in A, but still gives me short naps. It's a lose-lose situation for me. *grin*
She's not mobile at all. She's like a cat- does the least amount to get by. She rolls to the side just to reach for something. If she's on her tummy she'll just roll onto her back. And she loooves being picked up and watching the world from -anyone's- arms - she's not picky.

[~Sara~]

I think she and Aaron are two peas in a pod!

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time, Sarah   I'd be more than happy to come over and help you out...but ya know, thousands of miles apart...that kind of thing.

Have you tried any motrin or tylenol to see if she sleeps better with that?  Or maybe something topical like baby orajel (we use the nighttime formula, though I don't think it's much different).  You know, just to see if her odd naps are somewhat contributable to teething?

You said she's now sleeping 10.5h nights.  What was she doing before that?

[Jiinx]

Hiya Sar bear.. Wish I could have you all over...I feel like I know everyone's kids and their temperament that it should be a cinch to have circle time

I tried tylenol once. It didn't make a crazy difference. Not much actually. *shrug* Could be a developmental thing.

Um. some products aren't allowed in my household. One of them is oragel lol

Thanks Sar..hope you're feeling better. I'm not having a terrible time. I mean she's pretty happy generally..she just goes into moments where she's in pain and needs something cold/lovey to chew on and it goes away. Just was getting somewhere with the naps, yk? It's not a big stress in my life anymore I can happily say - it's more of what do I do with this kid to occupy all her As.

She was doing 10 hours and 15 or 10 hours or so...she's being consistently waking up at 10.5 or 11 hours. I'm noticing she sometimes adds a bit of sleep to her night after being up for 10 or 15 mins (between 5:15-5:30ish). Which is great but doesn't make her any more rested for that morning A.

[dingoheid]

She's like a cat- does the least amount to get by. She rolls to the side just to reach for something. If she's on her tummy she'll just roll onto her back. And she loooves being picked up and watching the world from -anyone's- arms - she's not picky.

It must be frustrating, but it also sounds rather cute!  You've helped me soo much with my lo...I feel badly that I can't help in return...I read the messages because our lo's are almost the same age...a month apart more or less...hope the teething is over soon...hoping for a good night for yours and mine:-)

[Jiinx]

  thanks!!

[Jiinx]

so we had a good night. She slept for 11 hours (despite a fire alarm blaring for a half hour...).

1st A: 3 hours and 20 mins = 1 h and 5 min nap
2nd A: 3 hours and 40 mins = 45 mins


Logic tells me to to up her A time, guys. I'm quite bewildered. Should I just wait for her teeth to cut before I up her As? I'm kind of tentative about all these A times considering she's doing what 9 months + should be doing, really.

Lately: 1st A of 3 hours or less = 45 mins; 1st A of 3 hours and 20 mins or less = 1 hr and 5 - 10 mins; 1st A of 3 hours and 40 mins: sometimes 30 mins, but also I get 1 hour and 15 mins. I don't want to accept these numbers!

She was refusing the catnap back at 5 months though....it was insanity to get her to sleep for that last bit of the aft. I'd be so exhausted by the time she FINALLY went for her catnap that I wanted to sleep too.

she was doing these sorts of A time before she started the teething behaviour.

I'm not in the mood to go sh/pat her. she's quite capable of extending her naps by herself now.

btw, I didn't meant to ignore your suggestions of A times for her...but with what you guys mentioned about rubbing eyes being just a part of teething then I just figured I'd try to keep her going, yk?

hmm actually she's been waking up pretty hungry so maybe I should increase her solids and feed her before her second nap tomorrow.

[Tweakster]

Hi there Sarah, well you know both Liz and I had/have our LO's on 1 nap at 12 mths...so it's not entirely inconceivable that she's high A times.  If she were NW, EW etc. I would claim OT but since she's giving you 11 hours...I suspect you need to wear her out to get better naps...maybe a combo of a slight bump in A time but more vigorous activity.  When I started getting good naps at 7.5 mths it was because I was taking him out more, doing more activity, more physical stuff, drop in groups with other kids.  And now that he's 12 mths and walking he's tired enough to take a 2.5-3 hour nap every day.

Personally at 8 mths I would not shush/pat either to extend, unless she was off the wall OT or ill etc.  You are correct in that she knows how to do it because she has done longer naps for you.  So it comes down to either she's just a short napper or she needs more A during the day.

[Jiinx]

I missed your reply..thanks for getting back hun.

My little munchkin isn't active, but she does love people and getting out..lately she's just been grumpy gus bc of her nagging soreness in her mouth, I suspect.

I'll play around with her A times and make more of an effort to take her out more.

What are your thoughts of taking Finn out during his last A before bedtime, though? I feel so much more comforted having her at home as I don't want her OT but that'll become harder as she gets older. It also becomes unrealistic, really. Are they able to do the same amount of A before bed even with an outing?

Also, last question Is Finn a morning person? Mine's incredibly subdued and mellow until she naps..when she wakes up she's completely perked up. Should I engage her in activity here too or just keep it mellow until nap time?

Silly questions..but I'm so wrapped up in OS and OT and UT from birth that I think I'm only now starting to let go of precautions that I used to take.

[~Sara~]

With her A times being high, you're gonna have to start cutting back on daytime sleep anyways.  Yay for the 2-1!!  Personally, I'd keep the first A time as it is if you're getting ~1hr nap.  Then tack on 10-15 minutes for her second nap to see if you can get it to 1h+ too.  Naps can suddenly shorten with no warning...some LOs need an increase in A time that suddenly.

Also, with the OT at bedtime issue; I think it depends on your LO.  I've noticed that Aaron can now do a full 3.5h for his last A time, even if we're out and about, in public, running around, etc. and he doesn't get OT anymore.  But again, that's him.  The last A time is a scary one for me because there's no nap buffer, iykwim.  I think you just have to experiment with it in 2-3 day intervals.

So there's my two cents' worth

[*Liz*]

Sarah - I think part of the reason why she is so high on A ATM is that she isn't mobile yet. J was very similar - but everything did become more sensible once he was on the move. Still had him on 1 nap at 12 months old though.

Personally I don't think you need to think about OS too much at this sort of sge. In fact I think they need activity and exercise to tire them out a bit. Sure - do a sensible length winddown - but there is no need to keep the whole A low key even if they are short napping. I think they actually start to need the stimulation as much as they need their rest really.

My DS does similar A's regardless of what we do activity wise. And I'm pretty sure that I was doing that at 8 mths as well.

J IS actually a morning person and is very much on the go throughout his first A as well as his second. Has always like to do stuff even first thing really. They are all different with things like this though - but again as those A's extend I found J was less of a grump if he did more things - tended to get frustrated and grumpy just sat there iyswim?

[Jiinx]

thanks sara and Liz...

sara - thanks for sharing how Aaron is before his A time at bedtime. It's nice to know what other babies are like.

Liz - makes so much sense about her A times and her inability to move. It's a matter of her body catching up to the A times. Such a simple concept but I didn't think about it that way. Mummy mush brain.

Guess I'll wait for her to start moving and teething and just let things fall into place on their own time.

Thanks ladies for all the important tips and information.