11 mo just started fighting naps

[BonnieJade]

Hi!
My daughter is 11 MO, i started easy when she was 6 months and i've had a relatively good sleeper for the past 4 months. She's been sleeping 12 hours solid every night and still does but one week ago she started fighting naps.

She wakes between 7-7.45am every morning then i was putting her to sleep after 3 hours awake time. Her 2 naps a day have always varied in duration but typically she would do 1 longish nap (over an hour) and then would sometimes take a catnap for the other nap. Her naps have always been a little unpredictable but she always went down without a fight and fell asleep pretty quickly.

Now it's all messed up. I'm assuming its the beginning of the 2-1 but i'm unsure of how to navigate through this. I've increased her awake time in the morning from 3 hours to 3.15/3.30. Right now as i'm talking i've been trying to get her to sleep for the past 45 mins. It's now been 4.15 of awake time and she's standing up in her crib crying. i don't really know what to do, do i go in and place her on her back and then walk straight out? I've resorted to rocking a couple of times but have decided to put a stop to that now. she closes her eyes instantly as soon as i start rocking but of course the second i put her down she's crying again.


Other info to consider
- No teeth yet, so she's probably teething but teething gel and paracetemol don't seem to make any difference.
- She has 3 breastfeeds, 3 solid meals and one snack a day plus water
- regardless of how poorly she's napped during the day she always has a fantastic night sleep - i really want to do everything i can
to protect that!

Any help would be super appreciated! Thank you
XX Bonnie

[becj86]

Hi

Can you post a day or two in EAS format, please? That will help make things a bit clearer in my mind. I'm not altogether surprised she's fighting a nap at 3:15 A time at 11 months, that's more an A time for a 7-8 month old generally speaking. I think you're definitely in the 2-1 transition but keep in mind that it lasts a while.

[BonnieJade]

Hello and thank you for your reply!

Her naps and when she eats a snack are pretty inconsistent at the moment but here's an example of a good day

7.15am awake and nurse
8.15am eat breakfast
10.30am Sleep
11.55am Eat snack
1pm Eat Lunch
3.15pm Sleep
4pm awake and eat snack
5.30pm Eat Dinner
7.15pm Nurse and bedtime


I've been slowly keeping her awake for longer. Sometimes she's awake for 4 hours and will only do a catnap, other times she's awake for 3hr10min and will do a 90minute nap. Yesterday was a perfect day and today she did a great morning nap and is resisting the afternoon nap again. i realize it can take a couple of months before they're ready to just take one nap and i guess i have just have to roll with whatever each day brings.

[becj86]

Ok, so a few things to say:

She'll probably do a long nap and a CN as you've got there if you just make her day a bit longer - a 12hr night is not really a reasonable expectation at this age, more like 11 is typical. If she is sleeping 12hr solid happily, I'd say you could make the CN a bit shorter and/or a bit later and see if that helps with the nap refusal.

[BonnieJade]

Hello again,
it's so funny that you wrote that infants her age usually sleep 11 hours, the last 3 nights in a row she has slept exactly 11 hours.
I feel so confused and am at my wits end. i really don't know whether to bite the bullet and transition her to 1 nap or to do 2 naps.(it's her first bday tomorrow!)

i've had two mornings last week where she woke around 5am because the previous day she only took one nap and i put her to bed early, around 6/6.30pm and she had night wakings then woke up at 5am!

Yesterday she took 2 naps, a morning 35min catnap then a 1.5 hr afternoon nap where she woke up at 3.20pm. I put her to bed at 7.45pm and she woke up at 6.50am

Please let me know what you think

[becj86]

Yesterday she took 2 naps, a morning 35min catnap then a 1.5 hr afternoon nap where she woke up at 3.20pm. I put her to bed at 7.45pm and she woke up at 6.50am

This sounds pretty reasonable and something that'll be sustainable til she's more ready for one nap. Most babies are not ready for 1 nap at 12 months and given yours was sleeping 12hr solid a month ago, she's almost certainly not going to be one of that minority.

i've had two mornings last week where she woke around 5am because the previous day she only took one nap and i put her to bed early, around 6/6.30pm and she had night wakings then woke up at 5am!

Depending upon the nap length, this may have been reasonable - I mean if the nap was 2.5-3hr long... 6pm-5am is a perfectly reasonable night. Its not necessarily when you'd like her to wake but its not technically an early waking if BT was 6pm. Some babies will tack on to their night and sleep and longer night if you do an early bedtime and some won't. The key to getting a tacker to tack is to make BT early enough (I successfully did an EBT of 4:30pm on several occasions with my DS around this age and he slept 14hr) because if you make it just a bit earlier and they're OT, it can backfire.