Long night wakings for 10 month old

[Bellesmummy]

I have posted on here before with great success with dd1 and I am now looking for advice with my son.  My 10 month old has become a bit of a pickle with long night wakings at night. He is usually a brilliant sleeper going from 7.30pm - 6.30am. However, he hasn't slept through the night for a good few weeks now and it is becoming exhausting.

He was taking a long morning nap (1.5hr) and then a 30 mins afternoon nap. This caused him to wake up at 2/3am wanting to get up and play. I then cut his am nap to 30mins in the hope he would extend his afternoon nap but this is still only 30 mins long. I am assuming his long night wakings are due to over tiredness?

How do we get out of this cycle? Our EASY is like this:

Awake: 6.30am
E:
A:
S: 9 or 9.30 for 30 mins (I wake him up) He has started to fall asleep in the pushchair at 9am on way home from school run.
E:
A:
S: 1.00pm for 30 mins (wakes up crying and will not resettle)
E:
A:
S: 7.30pm

I have left him sleeping in the buggy this morning in the hope it will help to catch up on sleep?

I know I have probably caused a problem by waking after 30 mins on the first nap. What is the best way forward from here do you think?

[lauradj]

I would suggest pushing his A time a bit.  Most 10 month old babies can handle between 3.5-4 hours of A time and it may just be that your LO can handle more. 

[Emami]

^^This for sure.  2.5hrs A time is really short for his age and that's all he's doing in the morning.  Having said that, if a 9am nap suits you and he's sleeping easily at that time you could keep it, stick to half an hour, but then move the second nap earlier.  I'm wondering if by the time he goes down for his second nap he is OT and that's why you get another short one and then the NWs.  My daughter is also 10 months, and if I give her a 30min am nap I cut the second A time to 2.5hrs, she'll sleep 1.5hrs and then has a decent A time (4hrs ish) to bed.  Sometimes it's not down to the routine though. My baby also does not consistently STTN despite various tweaks, and I think she is just easily affected by developmental milestones and teething, which are fairly constant 

[Bellesmummy]

Thank you for your replies 

Yesterday we had another short 30 minute am nap. LO fell asleep again on the school run, arghhh! I put him down for his pm nap after 2.5hrs activity time. It was about 2.3/4 hrs by the time he went to sleep. He had 1 hour! So reducing the activity time between the two naps did work as you suggested. By evening, he was full of cold and had a fitful night sleep.

Despite LO being so tired he didn't fall asleep on the school run today and kept refusing his am nap. He eventually went to sleep after 4hrs activity time and only had 20 minutes. He was definitely OT and his cold isn't helping matters  I gave him 1.3/4 hrs activity time and he only had 30 minutes on his 2nd nap. Too be honest he was rubbing his eyes from only about 1hr activity time when he was eating his lunch. We went for a walk in the stroller after he woke from his short nap and he didn't go back to sleep but at least he was resting....

Realistically his naps won't get back on track until his cold improves, bless him.

If LO does eventually have a morning activity time of 3.5 / 4 hrs before his first nap, how long should the am nap be? I am just wondering how it all fits in with a pm nap when having to do a school pick up at 3pm?

[Emami]

Ugh, colds and illness always ruin things. And school runs! I have to leave at 3 every day too and it's a PITA. Depending on what time my daughter wakes up in the morning I adapt the day around the pick up.  She either has a long NW and wakes up later or sleeps through with an earlier wake up. So either
WU 6am
Nap 9-9:30 (car on school run)
Nap 12-2
BT 6:30

Or
WU 7
Nap 11-12:30
Nap 4-4:30
BT 7

It's not perfect but hopefully gives you some idea of working around school runs

[Bellesmummy]

Thank you for sharing your information on naps. There are so many factors that affect sleep; it certainly keeps us all on our toes! I didn't think the school runs would interrupt LO's schedule so much. I guess the key is being flexible and taking each day as it comes.

LO had a better night sleep last night. We put a vaporiser (warm steam) in his room and it helped to clear his nose. We used it a lot when he was a newborn as his nose was always stuffy....  He has been chewing on his fingers all day today so his teeth are also on the move again 

I will just grin and bear it this week until this cold eases off and then try and get the naps back on track ish... It is definitely useful knowing that a 30 minute nap results in a much shorter activity time.

Thanks again for your advice. I will post our progress in a few days.