Things have gone a bit wonky since starting with childminder - 12 month old

[beckstrous]

Hi there

My daughter is 12 months old and started with a childminder last week. She will be there 2.5 days and with my sister 1 day.

Apparently she napped ok at the childminder's - doing about 2 hours on her first 2 days. I think she may have needed a little help, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Anyway ... sleeping has gone funny since then. She wakes up crying in the mornings for one thing, which I find heartbreaking. Why is she doing this? Has this happened to anyone else?

She also sometimes has refused naps this week, or woken early and upset from them. She was in quite a good routine before and would sleep just over 2 hrs on a good day.

Is this to be expected and should I just ride it out or is there anything I can do to help?

Also, she wakes really early. This has been going on a while so nothing new but 5.30am wake-ups (sometimes earlier!) are getting a bit much. She does often go to bed at 6.30pm (2-1 transition) so could this be why?

I would really love any advice!

Thanks x

[*Becky*]

I think it is really normal for sleep to go a bit wonky after a change so starting with the childminder could def cause some disruption for a little bit. The EWing could be looked at though - could you just post a typical day for me x

[beckstrous]

Thanks. Here is a typical day:

WU: 5.30am
Nap: 10.30-12.30
(Sometimes a cat nap for 30 mins at 3.30 or 4 but only if I AP it)
BT: 6.30pm
I would ideally like her to wake up after 6! She used to wake at 6.30 but it's changed now that bedtime is earlier. Most days she doesn't have the cat nap so that's why I do early bed time. Bedtime used to be about 7.30. We sometimes get wakeups as early as 5am and now that she cries when she wakes it is really difficult not to get her up!

[*Becky*]

11 hours overnight is really normal so we need to just shift the whole day forward a bit. The problem is that 6.30pm is not an EBT if she has woken at 5.30am and her nap finished at 12.30pm - yk?
Have you thought about ding a short (20 min) nap in the am and then a longer nap in the afternoon - would that work for the childminder? I know that both of mine would not have taken a CN if they had done a 2 hour nap earlier in the day and I wonder if she is quite ready to go to 1 nap yet?

[beckstrous]

Thanks Becky, that's what I thought. I think she mostly gets the right amount of sleep, it's just that the timings are difficult!

I think the childminder will do whatever we ask, but I've tried capping the am nap before and it doesn't produce a long pm nap. So I am trying to make the am nap later. Sometimes to get a pm catnap I have to walk or drive for hours. I think things would be ok if we could just get her waking at 6.30 but not sure how to achieve this? I find if I time the nap right, ie not too early, she can sleep 2.5 hours. She doesn't give tired signs until I start the nap routine so it's a bit of guesswork really!!!

[*Becky*]

you are right, it is a bit of guesswork when they first transition because you don't really know how they will handle it do you. I think you either need to keep the nap at 11am earliest and then cross fingers for a good one or put a CN back in but in the am so you know she will get another sleep later otherwise I think she will get v OT.

[beckstrous]

Thanks Becky. We are still trying to sort this out. She had tonsillitis and an ear infection last week but she is OK now. We had a couple of lovely mornings where she woke up between 6.30am and 7am but we are back to early starts again now. 5.30 yesterday and 5am today.

Today, after an hour of resettling she went back to sleep until 8am! So our day has really gone wonky. She went for a nap at 12.50 and is still asleep now (2.50). I don't know if I should wake her or not in order to preserve bedtime!

This week her naps have mostly b

[beckstrous]

Thanks Becky. We are still trying to sort this out. She had tonsillitis and an ear infection last week but she is OK now. We had a couple of lovely mornings where she woke up between 6.30am and 7am but we are back to early starts again now. 5.30 yesterday and 5am today.

Today, after an hour of resettling she went back to sleep until 8am! So our day has really gone wonky. She went for a nap at 12.50 and is still asleep now (2.50). I don't know if I should wake her or not in order to preserve bedtime!

This week her naps have mostly been quite good, at least. But I never know when they are going to happen! She can do 5 hours A time in the morning now.