DD is 6.5 mo, angel baby, who started daycare about a month ago and also started solids about a month ago. She is mostly happy, but only takes two or three 25-45 minute naps at daycare. Now I see that it's starting to affect her nighttime sleep because I think she's just so overtired. She comes home happy usually, but I know she needs more sleep. Her sleep is all screwy because of the nap situation. At home, she take 2 1-1.5 hour naps and usually doesn't need a third catnap. Here's a typical daycare day:
8am: wake and BF
9:30: breakfast
10:30-11:00 Nap #1
11:15: Bottle
12 or 1: Lunch
2:15-2:45 Nap#2 (clearly overtired!)
4:00 bottle
Sometimes she'll take a 3rd 20-30 minute nap at daycare from 5:15 to 5:45 or so. Then I pick her up, feed her dinner at 6:30, breastfeed at 7:00, then try to get her into bed by 7:30 or 8:00. But sometimes she's so awake from that 3rd nap that she doesn't go down until 8 or 8:30. This happens especially when her 3rd nap is in the stroller on the way home from daycare at 6pm. When it's that late, she won't go to sleep until 8:30 or 9. Then she wakes up 2-3 times a night, and either cries out off and on for 20-30 minutes and goes back to sleep (again, clearly overtired), or she cries so much that I BF her, which I try to only do once a night. Even when I BF her once a night, though, she doesn't take much breastmilk in the morning.
Ugh, this is just really worrying me. I just called daycare and asked them to make sure she's sleeping in her crib. They often let her sleep in a bouncy chair (they say it's because her nose is plugged), which of course is not going to be a restful nap for her. I also asked if they could try to get her back to sleep if she wakes up after 30 minutes, instead of just going and picking her up. But here are the problems: 1) they have a set nap time for the babies at about 10:30 and 2:30. And 2) an hour and a half into the nap time, they start turning on the lights, talking, etc. So even if babies are sleeping, they all wake up. These are two things I really can't change - it's just how they do it.
Any suggestions or just support? Even though DD is a happy, easy baby, I fear that she's not getting the sleep she needs for her proper development and it's making me really anxious!
Oh, and another thing is that 4 yo DS is at the same daycare, so I'm first trying to fix the problem before I consider other options because it would be logistically tough to have a nanny for her or have her in another daycare!
