My (almost) 10 month old goes to a sitter during the week and has been only taking one nap, from around 10-11, most days when she is over there. Then she is overtired by the time I pick her up around 4:30 or 5, and several times lately she has gone to bed at 5 pm, instead of her usual 7 pm bedtime, which means my husband and I basically get to spend no time with her. When she has gone to bed this early she has woken up around 8 or 9 for a bottle and then gone back to bed. I know the sitter tries to get her to take a second nap, but I think it is too noisy/busy over there a lot of times and in her words "she just wants to play!". This does sound like my girl:) I am not blaming the sitter, I know she is trying her best, and she has 4 other small children to take care of, plus my daughter has never been the easiest to get to sleep. I know she needs more sleep than this, and I'm not sure what I can do about it if anything. I also know she doesn't get enough formula when she is there, she is very good about eating all of her solid foods, but she often will refuse the bottle and usually only drinks one 8 oz bottle during the day when she is there.
Her schedule on the days she is home is quite a bit different. It goes something as follows:
5:30-6 am: wake up (she has been waking up this early for months!)
7 am: bottle
8 am:breakfast-usually oatmeal and fruit
9 am:nap for 1 1/2 hours
11 am:bottle
12 pm:lunch-yogurt and fruit
1 or 2 pm:nap for 1 to 1 1/2 hours
3:30pm:snack-small bottle and cheese or cheerios
5:30 pm:dinner-protein and veggie
7 pm:bottle and bedtime (sometimes doesn't take this bottle)
She always wakes up one or two times a night. Sometimes she will wake around 10 pm and will drink a bottle, other times we can get her to go back to sleep without one. She pretty much always has a full bottle around 3 am and then goes back to sleep until 5:30 or 6. We have tried to get her back to sleep when she wakes this early and sometimes it works but that is rare. We would love her to sleep until 6:30 or 7 but we don't know how.
She is generally such a happy, fun baby, and we just want her to be getting the food and rest she needs. I know she has fun and is happy at the sitters, so I feel like that is the most important thing, but it is very hard on us when she is so tired when we get her home and she is tired/cranky or just goes to sleep. Sorry this is a lot of information! Just wondering what an outside person thinks.
