8 month old and long A times; how do I fit in 2 naps?

[VnessMorris]

Hi ladies,

DD2 is an Angel/textbook and has been STTN well. Since Easter Weekend, her activity times started to bump out with each subsequent AT slightly shorter than the previous (3:30's in 1st cycle, 3:20's in the 2nd and 3-3;10's before BT). With these longer ATs, how would you fit her 2 naps? Currently, she has a 1.5 hour morning nap and if I can, give her a 1:00 - 1:15 afternoon nap.  Sometimes the afternoon nap is only 45 mins due to long ATs.  This leads to a cranky baby!

Coincidentally, with these longer ATs, she mantra cries A LOT after BT, sometimes at every sleep transition (every 40mins to 1.5 hours!).  It doesn't last long (1-3 minutes) and she will fall back asleep; but it keeps us awake...and does this mean she's getting enough deep sleep?

Other points: developmentally, she's cruising, pulling up to stand, and starting to balance on her feet. And she's not in a Wonder Week, yet.

Any thoughts?  TIA!
V.

[jessmum46]

Essentially you do what you are doing, one longer nap, one shorter   It may be though that after her shorter nap she can't handle a full A time (those early night wakings sound like a touch of over tiredness) so you may want to allow a touch longer nap than you think, or a touch earlier bedtime.  The alternative is keeping two longer naps and pushing bedtime later.

To illustrate with the A times you suggested:

WU 7
Nap 10.30-12
Nap 3.20-4.50
BT 8

or

WU 7
Nap 10.30-12
Nap 3.20-4.20
BT 7

It can take some experimenting to find out what suits your LO.  My DD did better on less daytime sleep and a long night, sometimes over 12h, whereas DS has preferred his naps and been more of an 11h night man.

Does that help?

[VnessMorris]

Hi jessmum46,

That makes sense. Thanks for the tips. I have a feeling that DD2 will be more like your DD; shorter naps leading to longer nights!  She's stopped mantra crying recently and is back to STTN with the 2nd option you mentioned. I tried the 1st option and she was Uber cranky. Fingers crossed!

V.