9month old EASY does this look Ok?

[darcys mum]

Hi we have been going through a bit of a rough patch lately and our routine has been thrown out the window for a while   DS has just turned 9months old and had a lot going on, 6 teeth in 4 weeks! Has been crawling since 6months and recently lots of pulling up, attempts at standing alone and lots of physical and mental leaps. Sleep has been pretty bad and as I said our routine has been somewhat lost, I have just started getting us back on track, but looking at other sample routines for this age ours looks a bit different, would love to know your thoughts to correct any problems before we get too far in. DS had been taking very long naps I think to compensate for his many, many night wakings so I have been limiting these on the advise of our HV.
Here is where we are at:

7.30wake & 8oz formula

8.30 Breakfast- not a big eater in general but breakfast is our worst meal

11.00-12.30 nap

12.30 Lunch - our best meal

2.00 8oz formula

4.00- 5.00/5.30 nap

5.30 dinner

Bath

7.00 8oz Formula

Stories and Bed Asleep by 7.30

It's mostly the nap times I am curious about, others seem to have them both earlier in the day.
We dropped down to 3 Bottles at about 7months as he was leaving a full 8oz across the day anyway and eating basically no solids as he was too full. Since doing this it has improved his solids but he is still a small eater. He is only 19.5pounds and 28inches long, so not a big boy, his dad is only light as well though.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated, thankyou in advance

[huntersmummyinoz]

hiya, do u think he is OT at all on those A times or is he falling asleep and staying asleep fine? if he's good with it then i dont see a problem.

ds2 had WAY longer A times than other LOs, so much so that he dropped to 1 nap at 10mths little monkey. so it's not unheard of for some LOs to need more up time than the average.

my only thoughts: r u waking him for that first nap? has HV suggested 1.5hrs max for naps? if so, i would personally consider letting him nap 2hrs for first nap and then keep 2nd nap to 1hr. just that holding on to a 2hr nap can be REALLY helpful when he starts to drop to 1 nap later on. sometimes it can be hard to get back to one nice long nap if it's been cut too short for too long and they ideally need a 2hr or more nap to cope on 1 nap days initially.

looks like u r doing great at getting back on track

[Claudiamummy]

Hi there, dd is about the same age and we are roughly on same A times (3.5 am,  longer in the aft 3.50) and we only dropped the cn a couple if werks ago so A times are finally "normal-ish!!" :-)

I agree with PP, if ds is happy on those naps then stay as u are, but if any, then then PM one is the one to watch

[darcys mum]

Hi and thankyou for your replies!

I don't think he is OT, he does sometimes start to show tired signs after about 2hrs, yawning ect... But If I keep him distracted he seems ok and yes he goes to sleep very easily and stays asleep, so that means it's ok right?

I have been waking him from the first nap yes, HV said he should have no more than 2x2hr naps that being on the generous side, he had been sleeping 3hrs+ in the morning and another 1-2 in the afternoon, that is why she suggested capping as it might have been contributing to his NW. I have been limiting it to 1.5 though because that seemed to be the average looking at the sample routines. I had been wondering though If I should let him go the full 2hrs in the morning...... I also thought 3.5 was average A time for this age too??
He is definately not ready to go to 1 nap though, as I said he would happily nap all day long! We dropped the CN a few months ago though as he had started to refuse.

I guess I am a little confused about nap timimg though, it seems that 3.5hrs is the average A time so that puts our AM nap at 11.00 and our PM nap at 4.00 but it looks like others are doing more like 10.00 and 2.00? I had thought that as his A time increases his morning nap would get pushed later as would the PM nap until it was closer to bed time then it would drop?? But I am reading that people cap the morning Nap at 1hr and then have the PM nap only 2.5hrs after waking? And that a PM nap too close to Bedtime will affect Night sleep, though it doesn't seem to with us? And I guess they then gradually make the AM Nap shorter and shorter? Does this mean I am doing it all wrong or can you do it this way as well? I hope so because it really seems to be working out well this last week.

He had previously been having many many NW (though teeth were an big part of that) and wouldn't resettle unless I picked him up and sat with him until he fell asleep again, sometimes for 1hr+ and if I didn't pick him up he would go mental. Now he is waking only once and is sitting up crying but all I have to do is pop his dummy back in and lay him down with my hand resting on his back and he is asleep in 5mins! I don't get it, is it just a fluke and he would have done this anyway or is it the nap capping and waking him at set times in the morning (he had been sleeping late in the morning after all the NW and I had been letting him go thinking this was the right thing to do, let him catch up a bit, but HV said don't let him sleep past 8am, which has been working out a lot better as sometimes he would sleep till 10am and it was hard to then fit everything into the day and bedtime was all over the shop).

Thankyou in advance for your thoughts, it is much appreciated, Hunters Mommy would love to know how you did naps and went down to 1.

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi there,
dont sweat it too much about being diff from the sample routines, they r just there for a guide, sometimes u need to follow something slightly diff that suits your LO better and that's just fine and is what baby whispering is all about.

so with your little guy based on the routine u gave, i'd look at something like this:

7.30 wake
11-1 nap
4.30-5.30 nap
7.30 asleep

alternately you could do naps at 11-12, and then 3-5, but in that case the second nap may well interfere with night sleep as it is the longer one.

with some bubs, having even a catnap too late in the day can interfere with night sleep but it never did with my boys either, so i went for the long nap first as tbh i found it easier as i didnt want to risk cutting the first nap short and then maybe have a busted 2nd nap. also, both my boys would nap longer naturally for the first nap of the day (2+ hrs) compared to their 2nd nap (rarely more than 1.5hrs), so it made sense to me to hang on to their best nap. seems like it is working well for you too and if it 'aint broke dont fix it'  

basically, your little guy is in the start of the 2-1 nap switch. he isnt anywhere near ready to be on one nap, but there just arent enuf hours in the day to fit in 2 good long naps anymore so u need to start cutting one of them short.

sounds like nap capping and setting his routine times for wake up is working well for his NW, great that he is settling easily at night. could well have just been his teeth too, but it does look like he was getting a lot of extra sleep in the day. if they dont have enuf A time in the day they make their own unofficial A time at night. if my LOs r sick or teething or had a horrid night then i will let them sleep around 30mins past their usual wake up time as otherwise it just messed up the day and bedtime.

have posted a link with some info on the 2-1 nap switch for you so u can read ahead for what's coming up soon. i followed option 2 with both my boys. ds1 is touchy with enuf textbook that we just kept cutting the catnap down and down to around 20mins and then eventually got to one nap. ds2, i'd only got as far as cutting 2nd nap to 45mins when he decided he just wasnt going to take it anymore (little monkey!!) but i got away with putting him down 30mins later than usual and he would do stellar 3 to 3.5hr naps so it was pretty easy in the end. with your little guy, i'd try the 1hr 2nd nap and stick with that so long as he still goes to sleep easily at bedtime. if he starts taking ages to fall asleep at bedtime or giving bedtime resistance then u may need to cut the nap 15mins shorter and see if that helps.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163278.0

sounds like things r going well tho hun so keep it up

[darcys mum]

Thanks so much! I thought we were doing really well, but started to doubt myself reading too much and seeing that we were doing things a little differently to everyone else So that is reassuring! Today I let him have 2hrs in the AM which he woke for naturally then he also woke naturally at 1hr from the PM nap so I think this will definately be the way to go! He has always liked a long AM nap so yeah, I won't mess with that! Fingers crossed he keeps going well and Nights keep on the improve!!

[huntersmummyinoz]

sounds like a great day hun, good luck and shout out if u need more help 

[darcys mum]

Hi again, we have been going really well with the new routine, been doing the 2 hr nap 11-1 and 4.30-5.30 which he normally wakes from himself but he has been waking up really grumpy and too grumpy/upset to eat much dinner. We then do bath and in bed by 7.30. Do you think this has something to do with the routine, or is it just him having a fussy period (have never really had this before, even when he was only little(er!).) he has still been going really well during the night only waking 1-2 times, if at all and settling back to sleep straight away. Should I maybe try putting him down a little earlier for the pm nap, say 4-5.30? Or will this mess with the nights do you think?

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi hun, sorry for late reply. morning sickness (well 'all bl**dy day' sickness i prefer to call it!) and ds2's birthday mean i havent gotten on here much.

how is it all going now?