Almost 9month old - struggling with afternoon nap

[Hoofbeat]

My DS is now almost 9months and his EASY routine isn't quite working any more with regards to his afternoon nap. I'm not sure if it's a routine issue, or because he's definitely trying to learn to crawl, but I'd appreciate some tips. He can self settle to sleep - I literally just put him in his cot and he will fall asleep as long as our timing is correct! He is STTN about 95% of the time at the moment (he only wakes due to teething pain/full wet nappy/cold or if he's having a growth spurt and is hungry).

7 - Fixed WU. 7oz bottle.
7:30/8 - Breakfast
10 - Nap
11:45-12:15 - Awake (varies hugely when he'll wake up, sometimes he does 1hr45, other times nearly 2hrs15 nap!). 7oz bottle.
12:30 - Lunch
3:30 - Nap (in theory). He used to go down for 30-45mins here, but he's now really really struggling to fall asleep. He just rolls around his cot chatting/trying to crawl (even when I've given him plenty of time to practise crawling after lunch!). He usually eventually falls asleep, but it takes ages!
4:30pm - 8oz bottle.
5pm - Dinner
6:30pm - Bath, massage, bedtime story. 7oz bottle.
7pm - Asleep.

I'm sure he needs the afternoon nap still, and no matter how tired he looks before hand he just wakes up when I put him in the cot and leave him to nap (he doesn't do this so much at the morning nap - he generally settles quicker). Should I be cutting short his morning nap so he's more tired?

[jessmum46]

What about putting him down a bit later for the afternoon nap?  I suspect he's just not tired enough at the time you put him down after such a good morning nap.  Maybe push it to 3.45/4pm, and wake him after 30-45 mins if needed to make sure he still goes to bed ok?

[Hoofbeat]

Thanks, I find if he sleeps past 4:15pm then he can be too awake to go to bed by 7pm and then we're out of sync for the next day. I think if I put him down at 3:45/4pm, he probably wouldn't fall asleep til 4:15pm and then won't wake until 4:45/5pm. I'm reluctant to push his BT back as he seems to be happy sleeping for 12hours at night til 7am and that's the ideal WT for our household (otherwise he wouldn't see his Daddy during the working week).

Perhaps I need to cut his morning nap to just 1.5 hours (yesterday he slept over 2 hours!) so that he then does 30-45mins in the afternoon. Would only give him 2hr-2hr15min day time sleep - is that enough? I was aiming for nearer 3 hours.

Today he's proving me wrong by struggling to go down for his morning nap too (and he's definitely tired as he dosed off for 5minutes in the car and he only sleeps in the car if he's really tired and he was showing tired cues before I put him down). Put him down 10 minutes ago and he's still busy chatting and rolling!

Maybe this is just a crawling development stage that's messing with his naps?

ETS: He's now fallen asleep for morning nap and it only took 12 minutes so can't complain really!

[creations]

Hi there
The description is typical of a LO who is starting to make the move towards just one nap per day.  That won't happen for some time yet but he's getting more ready for it.  As a result you seeing delay at the morning nap on and off, delay at the afternoon nap more frequently, but he is still sleeping well at night so I totally understand your reluctance to change BT or shift the naps too much - however if you don't respond to the changing need the risk is that one or both naps are totally refused leaving him super OT by BT and disturbing his night (refusing BT as too OT, NWs due to OT, EW possibly too again due to OT).  Rather than wait for the nights to go off track I'd suggest making some small changes now.

You probably need both naps to move a little, nap one to be of a more consistent length and maybe move BT a touch later too.  I know you really don't want to do this, the later BT is only when LO still need the CN but it need to be later and then they need a decent length A time before BT, once the CN goes completely the BT will move earlier again. You can try it without moving BT of course.

When LOs move to 1 nap per day it often starts around 11.30am and then is pushed a little later until it is at lunch time.  It would be tricky to move to a one nap routine with a nap at 10am - so gradually shifting things a little now and stabilising the routine again will be a little step towards that CN drop but without dropping it.

I would suggest something like
WU 7
A 3hr 30
S 10.30 - 12.30 (perhaps cap at 2hrs to maintain CN)
A 3hr 30
CN 4 - 4.30 (this can be capped shorter as you progress towards the CN drop)
A
BT 7.30pm

although the night sleep is reduced by 30 mins this is often needed. The sleep needs are dropping a little as you noticed (less sleep overall) but the sleep is needed in the day, not all at night.  When LO can get through the day on one nap BT returns to 7pm or might even be 6.30pm for a little while.

hope this helps