longer wake time...what happens to naps?

[cazao]

hi there. i`ve been struggling the last few days with how to manage naps now dd (8 months) is staying awake longer. she can now stay awake 3 hours before first nap, so if she wakes at 8am, that means she goes down at 11 and sometimes sleeps till 1pm. then it`s not until 3.5 hours that she`s ready for next nap. and putting her down at 4.30pm, even if it`s just for 45 minutes makes bedtime not till 8.30 (it`s normally been around 7.30) and last night she woke after an hour and i`m wondering if it was because she went to bed so late. as it is the last few days i`ve been waking her at 8am so she doesn`t start her day any later....we had a couple of days when i let her sleep in till 8.45am  (i know i know i`m really not complaining i promise!!:lol:) but she tried doing just one long nap and it was a disaster...she woke tons after bedtime becasue she was just so overtired by then.

so...as morning waketime gets longer, do i keep moving that morning nap back, and if so what happens to the afternoon nap and bedtime? or do i keep morning nap at normal time, and maybe it`ll just get shorter?
i`m sure there`s an easy answer, just not sure what it is!! thanks for your help...

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Haaaaa....Cazao it's only me... I just went to post pretty much the exact same question when I saw your post!  :lol:

As I write dh is still trying to get dd down to sleep for her afternoon nap after 40 minutes. The problem is she only had 3 hours of awake time and she needs at least 3.5 as well. But then there's not enough wake time in the evenings... I too am at a loss as she is skipping her afternoon nap altogether some days and it's not good...

I would also love some advice on this! The wheels are comin' off fast!  :?

Sharon

[sa]

i think .. may be you should be working towards a 9 month old routine.

9 months old:
Night: 11 hours;
Day: 3 hours, 2 naps of 1.5 hours each;
Total: 14 hours

if she sleeps at 8pm, she should wake at 7am to start her day (11 hours). or if she sleeps at 9pm, she will wake at 8am.

so i think your daytime sleeps are ok. bedtime will be later, or if you want wake her up earlier to start the day?

HTH

[lil'monkey]

Cazao, Sharon - we are on the 9 mos routine but I found that you are right, there isn't enough daytime to fit in two naps of 1.5 hr.  As dd is already sleeping only 10.5-11 hrs at night.  I think that is why she sometimes only take a 45min on some days.   I wonder if we have to sacrifice one long nap for a short one or shorter night time sleep.  Any suggestions from experienced moms?

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Dd has been consistently sleeping 11 1/2 hours over night no matter the bedtime and barring teeth, etc. will sleep about an hour and 15 for her naps. If I understand correctly, the 9 month routine will allow for a longer awake time between naps by dropping some time overnight...??

We don't seem to have too much trouble getting her to sleep for the first nap after 2.5 hours but we need the longer awake time between the 1st and 2nd naps. (My this gets confusing!  :lol: ) We also need the longer awake time between 2nd nap and bed. So. A day could look something like this?...

7 wake
9:30 nap until 11
2:30 nap until 4
8 bedtime

Leaving 2.5 hours 1st awake, 3.5 for the second and 4 for the third....fitting in milk and solids wherever works best.

Is that about right? I'm trying to not be rigid but something is definitely not working as it is! 

Sharon

[lil'monkey]

Well yesterday, I tried 3.5 hrs, 3.5 hrs and 3.5 hrs of awake time between sleeps and it seems to worked very well.  She had two 1.5 hrs naps and 10.5 hrs of night time sleep.  This morning however, she wanted to nap after 3hrs so we'll see if she will have a 1.5 hr nap.  How are you ladies doing?  i thought I read a thread where a mom had her lo have one long nap and a catnap so that she still has that long nighttime sleep.  Hmmm...

[cazao]

oh dear. this is nuts. last night she didn`t go to bed until 9.40pm!!! she just wasn`t tired before. she slept like a dream but, really, 9.40!!!

i woke her at 8 am. first nap was 11 - 1.15pm. then second nap wasn`t until 5.30..she was dropping then and couldn`t have gone any longer, but i`d tried putting her down an hour earlier and she just played. she only did 40 minutes, but just wasn`t tired until late.

it feels wierd to wake her from naps or in the morning now she`s this age..is that what i should do sa? or reducing nighttime sleep?...i guess if she goes to bed super late her nighttime sleep is reduced, but i`m not sure if i want her up all evening... :roll: is she trying to get herself to one nap? do babies have only one nap at this age???

aggghhhh!!!

sorry to see you guys are in the same boat...ella rose is again georgia`s twin nightmare!!

[Mum to Ella Rose]

NOT good here either!  Ella went down at 7:45, woke at 7:15. I think I should have woken her at 6:45 so it was 11 hours because after I just finished saying she'd do a morning nap after 2.5 hours...this morning she's having none of it!! We tried putting her down at 9:35 and that was a mistake. She's still crying! She won't stop rocking on her hands and knees. It's a half hour later and dh is now trying while I take a break.

I think you may have to shorten Georgia's naps. I think you're on the right track Mimi...but it does seem weird to be taking away nighttime sleep. Though I guess the key is the amount of awake time during the day? The only problem with us with one long nap and one catnap is dd won't nap for more than 1.5hrs... How are you doing it Mimi? Did you go by the clock?

Oh I'd better run, I can hear dd getting worse!  :cry:

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Oh my word!!!!! So we finally just got dd up after trying to get her to sleep for an hour! Now our day is truly a mess. I am at such a loss...

Sharon

[Meg's Mom]

Mum to Ella Rose - I don't know if I can help, but post the schedule you are attempting to work to and maybe we can come up w/ some suggestions.

Cazao, 8mos is a bit young to move to 1 nap.  Can you also post your schedule?

From what I have read on the subject of moving to one nap and what you have posted so far...you are on your way to 1 nap soon.  Sorry  :?

One thing you can both definately do is to wake them after 1hr from the am nap.  I know it feels un-natural but this is the nap they will eventually drop.  So encouraging the pm nap to be the longer one will help with that transition when it comes.  It will also help keep bedtime at a more reasonable hour.  I would cut 15min every few days and hopefully that will help.

They (and you) will get thru this I promise!

[Mum to Ella Rose]

HI Michelle... thanks!! Our schedule has been as follows adjusted for wake time. (anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30)

7 wake

7:30 bottle 8oz

8 solids

9:30 nap for an hour and a half or an hour and 15

12-ish lunch

2 nap for an hour and a half or an hour and 15

3:30 bottle 8oz. though the past bit she's wanted it before the nap but the last few days still won't go down after

5:30 solids

7 bath

7:15 bottle 8oz

7:30 bed

Today after the hour of trying with the morning nap... we put her down again right after lunch. She slept for 40 minutes and that was IT. She was grumbly and more work than usual but didn't go to sleep again until 7:15 when she conked out after the bath and bottle. We tried again in the afternoon to get her to nap but she only played quietly in her crib with us in the room after trying again with no success. (oh and she was up at 7:15 this morning after an 11 1/2 hour sleep) She is FIGHTING her naps soooo badly but is sleeping through the night.

Any help is MOST appreciated! Thank you!

Sharon

[lil'monkey]

We had two 1.5 hr naps with the awake time of 3hrs, 3.5hrs and 4hrs between sleeps.  I don't want move back her bedtime further than 7:30 pm as I would like her to sleep around 11 hrs at night (she wakes 6-6:30 am).  I'm going to try to keep these awake times for the next few days and see.

[zayandme]

Hey! Just wanted to encourage you all to stick with this for a few more days. Even with a very young baby, adjustments take a few days. With this age baby I'd give this a week or so. Its tough work but dont forget to read their signals and guide them to some semblance of a nine month schedule. I bet it will all start to iron itself out in a few days.

Btw- did you take a couple days to write everything down, making sure to observe?

Hope it all works out! Keep us all posted, please!
Sarah

[Meg's Mom]

Sharon – Mum to Ella Rose, thanks for posting your schedule.

I am interested to hear how today went?  This nap refusal can only be developmental - is she on the verge of crawling, standing, walking?  Hang in there, we will help you through it.

I have read that at this age they need set times, we did that at 8-9mos and it helped w/ our LO.  So from reading all your posts some ideas (you may already be doing this):

1.   I would suggest you set new nap times and stick to it – if she misses the nap then hold her over until next nap time.  This should help set her body rhythms
2.   keep last 15-30min of A time very low key (like: reading in room, walk if she won't go to sleep in stroller!)
3.   make sure she is going into her bed, awake. If you are winding her down too long, she is probably going through the stages of falling asleep in your arms, instead of in her bed. When you lie her down, she will probably flop about, fuss.. etc. This is okay.
4.   make sure her room is as dark as possible
5.   make her day start no later than 7 am
6.   the schedule you posted should will work (once we get her back on track).  But shorten the am nap to 1hr.
So:
7 wake
10.00 nap till 11 (3hrs A)
2.30 nap till 4 (3.5hrs A)
8 bed (4hrs A)

gives 11hr night sleep as they will rob one for the other.

I hope this helps, I have also sent an email to the board to see if they have any ideas.

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Thank you again Michelle! I definitely think it's developmental. She has pulled to standing once, has figured out how to rock on her hands and knees(has previously only scooted backwards) can go to her tummy from sitting by folding her legs (is working on doing it the other way 'round! :lol: ) has cut one top tooth and the other is right behind it. whew. We tried basically what you suggested, today. After being in asleep by 7:15 last night (due to no sleep yesterday) here's what our day has been so far.

6:30 we woke her up

10 (on the nose) fell asleep after 15 min. mantra cry

11 woke by herself though we were going to wake her here if not.

2:30 napped until 3:45

Now she is at Granny's and we were going to put her down at 7:30 tonight and wake her again at 6:30 though she does seem to really be a "four hour girl" in the evenings so maybe we'll try 8 and wake at 7. Though that wouldn't give her the 3.5 hrs in the a.m.... oh well maybe I am over thinking at this point. We'll see if she'll go down after 3.5 tonight. I'll keep you posted and THANKYOU so very much for the help! It already is better! (of course sometimes it makes me think of one's car making horrible clunking noises until you get it to the mechanic's where it runs like a charm!  :lol: )

Mimi thank you too for your help! 

Cazao, how goes it at your place???

Sharon