Author Topic: 11.5 month old - gone a little haywire  (Read 985 times)

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Offline ladymugg

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11.5 month old - gone a little haywire
« on: March 22, 2015, 07:32:26 am »
Hi there

My EASY for my 11.5 month old daughter looks a little like this:

6 am WU / bottle (about 250ml)
7.30 am solids breakfast
9.30 snack
9.45/10 am - nap
11.30 am - wake
12 pm lunch
2 pm snack
3 pm sleep
4.30 pm wake up
5 pm dinner
6-6.30 bedtime routine including bath and 250ml bottle
6.45 pm bed

This has been working well for us for around a month or so, but recently dropped to two bottles (she is eating more solids and snacks after I cut out the lunch time one, and if she is really hungry or teething so not having much solids I'll give her a small snack-sized bottle midday ish), that's about the only change.

The issue I have I don't believe has coincided with the bottle reduction by the way.

I have read the 10-12 month old EASY sample pages over and over and what I'm doing is pretty much similar to the 2-3 examples provided.

My issue is the past week or so naps are getting shorter and shorter.  The morning nap used to be as above in the EASY of about 1.5 hours and the afternoon one 1-1.5 hours.  The past couple of weeks they have been shorter (not consistently, but enough to be noticeable and something I'm concerned about).  This morning was 30 minutes and this afternoon was 30 minutes too.  I have tried resettling (I use a variation on pick up put down, she is older so responds quickly to this usually) but when I leave the room this tends to make her more upset (horrible screaming).  She is an Angel/Textbook baby so the screaming is a bit unusual to say the least.

I have also considered increasing her awake times beyond 3.5/4 hours - but she yawns and rubs eyes so I don't think she isn't tired, and because she seems tired I don't believe (after having read the 2-1 sleep transition pages) she is ready to go down to just one nap per day yet.

Second issue, she has for the past 2-3 weeks (maybe longer to be fair) waking consistently at 4/4.30 am with scared cries. Either hubby or I go in, do some very minor resettling, then leave her and she's fine until 6 am or whenever she wakes up.  But we now think it is a habit.  Should we just leave her?  Might try that tonight.

I should add that she has been walking for about 6 weeks and is very into exploring and running and being very active.  I think this, along with teething (she is a late teether, only has two teeth at present) has made her even more tired so figuring out the correct A time is a little hard.

Help please!

Mum to DD born April 2014 and DS born April 2016.

Offline jessmum46

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Re: 11.5 month old - gone a little haywire
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2015, 12:05:59 pm »
It could be teething but she is also prime age for 2-1 silliness to kick in.  It doesn't mean she is ready for just one nap, but that two full naps are now too much for her and really she needs 1.5 naps.   Are you medicating for teeth to rule out pain as a cause of your short naps?  If that's covered have you thought about how you want to approach the 2-1 - keeping a longer morning nap or a longer afternoon one?  She may have started having shorter naps as a result of being a little UT (tired signs notoriously unreliable at this age - they can be due to habit and being used to sleeping at a certain time) and ended up OT.  You can work on slowly pushing her first nap a little later and so the second nap becomes more of a catnap, or you can keep the first nap where it is but wake her after say an hour in the first instance, move your second nap earlier and have a slightly longer awake time before bed.  What do you think would suit you best?

Also, if she is screaming in the early hours for you I would go and offer reassurance +/- meds if you think teeth could be bothering her :)

Offline ladymugg

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Re: 11.5 month old - gone a little haywire
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2015, 05:49:57 am »
Thanks jessmum46

I think you could be right, these shorter daytime naps do seem to be around the time she has been teething.  Well spotted!  I have been giving her some Pamol baby paracetemol when she is especially sore which seems to help.  The last two days she hasn't been sore and just as you say, the naps have been longer.

I think she is headed for a longer morning nap of about 1.5-2 hours and then a shorter one in the afternoon of 45-60 minutes.  That was what happened today and yesterday so while I don't think she is going down to one nap yet I agree the afternoon one is naturally getting shorter.

I think she is even more tired even though we were at a 3.5-4.5 A gap now she is walking, she is just so busy.  So sometimes (like today, when she slept in til 7 am, went down again at 10 am, and then slept for at around 1.5hrs) she is just stuffed and needs it which was surprising to me.  I just need to roll with it more I think.

I may be exaggerating the 4.30 am screaming come to think of it... it's more of a whinge to be fair.  But the last couple of nights it has settled down.

Thanks heaps for your suggestions and input jessmum... it means a lot :)
Mum to DD born April 2014 and DS born April 2016.