9.5 MO fighting both naps 2-1 transition

[Lyna]

Hi everyone,

My dd2 is 9.5 mo. She was STed at 4 months and started sttn at around 5 months. She is an Angel baby and has always been a good napper. However it has been two days that she fights the naps as if it was the end of the world. We have been having an EW since the 3-2 transition that we were vever able to bring forward past 6 or 6.30 in the best cases. Here it what her normal day looks like

WU 6
E 6-6.15
A 6.15-9.30
S 9.30-10.30-11
E 11
A 11.15-14-14.30 (depending on what time she woke up)
S 14 - 15-15.30
E 15
A 15- 18.30
BT 18.30-19 (again, depending on how the day went)
DF 10.30
STTN

However in the last two days she has faught the nap for 30-40 minutes (and then we got a long 2-hour nap), finally going down after a 4-hour A time. DD1 dropped the second nap at around 15 months. Is is too early to drop that nap. And even if she can handle 4-hour A time, how can we organise the day to get a decent BT?

Thanks

[Layla]

Hi Lyna,

I believe she's too young for 1 nap but its not unheard of. If she's fighting the morning nap, probably needs a little more A. Where you go from here is a bit of trial and error. You could try keeping her morning nap short (I would probably cut it to 45mins) so that she's tired enough in the afternoon and takes a longer nap. OR you could let her sleep up to 1.5hrs (you can try 2) and then do a shorter nap/catnap in the afternoon so that bedtime isn't pushed too late. This is my LO's routine at the moment (who is the same age as yours)

6ish - awake
9.30ish - morning nap (she will either wake on her own or I wake her around 40-45mins)
1.30ish - afternoon nap (this one is generally longer, 1.5-2hrs long)
between 6.30-7 - bedtime

Have a look at this link and let me know if you have any other questions:
From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

[Lyna]

Thanks for your reply Layla!

We tried a longer A-time yesterday. It went well in the sense that she did not fight the nap like the previous two days. we had a 1 hour nap and gave her another 4-hour A-time after that. Woke her after 1.5 hours. This was her schedule yesterday.

WU 6
S 10.00
WU 11
S 3
WU 4.30
BT 7.30

We had an EW this morning at 5.45 I fear her day was too long but she has always had a 12.30-13 hour day. We tried several times to give her 12-hour days when we were trying to tackle the EW previously and it made no difference on the WU time. We might try it now, but then again I am worried about how to organise the day. I normally prefer to give her the chance to have a long nap in the morning. In this way, if she doesn't get it, we have a second chance of a long nap in the afternoon. But we end up with a really late BT. What do you suggest?

[Layla]

If you give her a shorter morning nap (shorter than 1hr, more like 45mins), the afternoon nap will be earlier and bedtime shouldn't be as late as 7.30pm.. if you prefer to give her a longer morning nap, you could look at something like this:

6am - wake
10-11.30 - morning nap (I would probably wake at 1.5hrs)
3-3.30 - afternoon nap
6.30 - bed

Or something like that? Because the pm nap is only short, she should hopefully be ready for bed sooner.

I prefer the shorter am/longer pm nap but that's only because it suits us better.

Generally though they do tend to have a longer day when they are in the transition period