How much naps for 13 month old?

[julieong]

My girl is 13 months old.  I'm having some problems with her naps and early wakings.

E.A.S.Y. routine

Wake up & bf 6am
Breakfast 7am
Formula Milk 10am
Sleep 10.30am/ 11am

Wake up 12pm
Lunch 12.30pm
Snack 3pm
Formula Milk 4.20pm
Sleep 4.30pm/ 5pm

Wake up 6pm
Dinner: Hardly any; too grouchy to eat.
Formula Milk 8pm
Sleep 8.30/ 9pm.

Total nap time: 2 hour
Total night time sleep: 9-10 hours

I like to have some suggestions on how to tackle her early wakings.  She wakes up at 4am, but I will ignore her and she usually sleeps again after crying for 5-10 mins.  Then she wakes up again at 6am but I feel that she is yawning around 8am, and seems tired.  I want her to wake up later around 7am.  Any suggestions and links to this?

Also, she takes a long time to sleep for her naps.  She wants to be carried in a carrier or car seat.  Although I don't have this problem for bedtime - she will fall asleep in the cot.

Should I put her to sleep later in the morning?  So that I can stretch her awake time?  How about her afternoon nap?  Is it too late?  Sometimes, she even survives on 1 nap a day. 

Would really be glad, if someone can direct me to the suitable links.  I'm feeling slightly lost when it comes to her naps.

Julie

[*jazzberry*]

Sounds to me like she is probably ready (or nearing) the transition to 1 nap. Have you seen this link?
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163278.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164033.0

I would probably try to stretch that morning A time and put her down for her nap a bit later - aiming for that first nap to be a bit longer, up to 2 hours. I would do it gradually by about 15 mins every 3 days to avoid OT. What would happen if you drop the second nap and go for an earlier bedtime? I would say that the combination of late pm nap and earlyish am nap is what is causing the early wakings and sleep disturbances. What do you think?

[Roseii]

Hi Julie

I agree with PP re the 2-1 transition, and you *could* try elongating the morning nap.

However she may be very OT from the short night and then relatively long A time in the morning-my suggestion would be to put her down earlier for the morning nap but capping it at, say 45 mins, then trying for a longer afternoon nap, and an earlier bedtime. With the aim of eventually dropping that morning nap altogether and having 1 longer nap.

If you can manage a 12 hour day/12 hour night then that's ideal, but obviously not always possible! If she is up as early as 6am, try for more like a 6.30-7pm bedtime. So s'thing like:

A 6am
S 9-9.45
S 1-2.30
S 6.30-7

Obviously this is quite different from your current routine so you'd need to change things gradually, and only you know if it will work for your baby.

You could also try dropping one of those bottles, see if she takes more in the way of solids?

HTH

[julieong]

Thanks ladies for the suggestions and links.  I'm going to try out the early bedtime first - going to put her to sleep at 7.30pm.