10 mo 5.5hrs A time

[obladi]

Hi,
My LO is on EASY since birth and her routine has been quite good. However for the last week her A time increased rapidly.
Morning: 3.5hrs A time. Nap 1.5h (I wake her up otherwise our bt is too late)
Noon: 4hrs A time, Nap 1h (I wake her up also)
Bt: 5.5hrs A time. Last night slept from 8.30pm to 6.15AM in the morning.
No night waking.

She will be 11mo in a week.

Her days are too long and I started to lose my Y time in the evening, she sleeps later and later after day and i have to put her on 1 nap a few days ago bcoz she woke up at 9am on that day.

Sshould I change her schedule to 1 nap now, is it too early or keep it like this?

Thank you.

[creations]

Hi
It's probably a bit early to move directly to 1nap, although some LOs do transition to 1 nap at this age it would be quite unusual. What is very common at this age though is that they have lots of developments going on which disturb sleep and begin to move towards the 2-1 nap transition. It is possible to find a steady 2 nap routine to keep you going for a while before the final move to 1 nap.
She might have done well on the 1 nap day but over time (at this age) she may  not be able to continue like that.

I would suggest you look for a routine with 1 solid good nap and 1 CN.
As she is going down for a good nap after 3.5hrs in the morning I'd continue with that (until it stops working, either due to EW or short nap).
Rather than a longer second A time I would reduce it, making her less tired for the CN, this makes the day a little shorter. The nap will be a CN (30 - 45 mins) which also makes the day shorter.
Following a CN she may not need the 5.5hr A time leading up to BT because she has had less sleep. 15mins less nap might turn out to be the equivalent of an additional hour over night.

So your day might look something like this:
WU 6.30
A 3.5hr
S 10 - 11.30
A 3hr
S 2.30 - 3.00 (CN)
A 4hr
BT 7.30

This is just an example. If she will not go down for a CN after 3hr second A time you will need to make it a touch longer.  You may be able to reduce third A time, it will take a little experimentation to see what suits her for now.

Also if she is sleeping later and later (like 9am) I would set a time where you wake her every morning. Depends on if you need her up early to get out the house on time but lets say WU at 7am and no later than 7.30 as example.  This will give some regularity to the day.
In short you will be maintaining 1 nap, reducing 1 nap and keeping night as long as possible.

hope this helps

[obladi]

Thanks a lot for the reply. I did reduce her second nap to 30mins by waking her up on one of the day actually. It did not change her A time before bt so much. Another thing is that it is impossible to put her on a nap earlier than the given A time. I tried to settle her as usual, tried to nurse her to sleep, put her on the stroller and walk around, went on a car ride...doesnt work!!!!

Today I did manage to reduce her BT A time to 4,5hrs by giving her a lots of physical activities all day: walk her very fast and long distance (she is learning to stand on her own), take her out, take her for a swim. Of course as the result I was exhausted so I dont know how long I would last.

[creations]

OK, if she absolutely refuses a nap any earlier we'll have to work with what she will do
Physical activity does help but I understand there's a limit to what you can do, I also remember a time I had to tire DS out or he wouldn't sleep.  Maybe some physical activities at home in addition to a trip to the play park or swimming? Some ideas here which may help:
Indoor activity ideas for those cold winter days

The thing about your current routine I notice is that she IS tired because you are having to wake her from both naps and eventually she sleeps longer in the morning throwing your day off track.
So, with that in mind I'd reduce the second nap first to 30 mins for a few days. You may not see much or any change at first but gradually this reduction of nap time should have some effect.  I would also wake her in the morning if she sleeps too long.
After a few days or a week, if BT hasn't improved you could then cut the 30 min CN down to 15 mins.
Your day might be something like:
WU 7
A 3.5
S 10.30 - 12.00
A 4
S 4.00 - 4.15
A 4.5 (more likely to accept a shorter A due to the short CN)
BT 8.45

I know BT is still late there but it is a transition period. A routine like this could settle down and continue for a couple of months... or after a short time it may become apparent that you need to drop that nap earlier than most.

If you do need to drop to one nap early I would extend the first A time and let her sleep as long as she wants for the nap.
You day may look something like this:
WU 7
A 4
S 11 - 1.00 (2hrs or more)
A 5.5 (longer A after longer nap)
BT 6.30
When you move to one nap you'll need to bring BT much earlier (and lots of Y time )

As I said before it is early to move to one nap but a few do at this age.
I found with mine we had a period of transition from around 9.5 months and dropped to one nap around 11.5/12 months.

What do you think?

[obladi]

Thank you. It's very helpful. Today I managed to put her on a nap earlier by putting her on the stroller, she slept for 30mins and then stay awake for 5hrs before bedtime. Bedtime also with stroller because she was still very active, laughing and doesn't want to settle.

I will try for a few days both ways that you mentioned. Hopefully it will be ok this time. Thanks for your help.

[creations]

Let us know how you get on