Taking longer to fall asleep for naps

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi All,
Am not sure if I need to post this here or on the easy forum but as it’s nap related I decided on here. I hope the moderators will move it if necessary. And I know this topic has been done so many times but as each baby is different I thought I would see what you all think.
My 11 month old has been on a fab schedule for the last 6 months which went as follows

7.50 Awake
8.00 Breakfast
10.00 Nap(45 mins by choice)
12.15-12.30 lunch
13.20 Nap for 2 hours 10 mins
15.30 Activity for afternoon / somedays includes bath around 17.30
18.00 Dinner
19.20 Milk followed by story
19.30-19.40 bed
In the last few days she has not been sleeping well at naptimes and taking longer to settle at lunchtime so I don’t know if she is trying to transition to one, today went as follows

Usual wake and breakfast time, sleepy by 10 Nap.
10.25 Asleep, so I  woke her at 10.45 usual time( the last time she did this I let her sleep longer so she pushed everything forward)
12.20 Lunch
13.15 Sleepy so bed, 13.40 Asleep
15.35 awake and waiting for me.
She was actually ready for dinner around 18.45 tonight and was in bed at 19.30 and asleep straight away.
It is taking her about 15-20 mins to settle at lunchtime, she just lies in her cot and plays but I don’t want it to get to the stage that she starts to fuss. I would prefer if she is going to one nap that she do it around 1pm ish as its too hot to go outside so we need the late afternoon and mornings free where possible.
There is also a lot of developmental going on, new tooth came through 2 days ago, crawling for the last 3 weeks , sat up in bed 2 today and pulled herself up to stand alone for the first time today. She is a very happy little baby most of the time though we have problems with eating and she is still on reflux med.
Am I  worrying too far in advance? But I like to be prepared as dh travels a lot for business so it’s just me a lot of the time.

Dh also wants to start putting her to bed as for the last 4 months between one thing and another I have always done it. Was going to let him start with naps at weekends but should I hold off now for a while?

Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully advise  :lol:
Fiona

[Gigismom]

my baby is a bit younger, so i don't claim to be an expert.  but to me, it seems your lo needs longer awake times in between naps.  she is maybe just not tired enough to go down.  i would try extending her awake time by 15 mins each day.  also, i am sure the developmental stuff is causing a bit of a disruption too...but not much you can do about that.
i read something the other day that said most babies aren't ready to transition to one nap until 18-22 months.  so i would try extending the awake times first before i would try cutting out a nap completely.

[Meg's Mom]

Hi Fiona
Megan too has starting playing in her crib for 15-20 before her nap#2 (she never did that).  But since i can't increase A time anymore or bed time will be too late, so i am just putting her down at the same time and she will at least get extra rest then her sleep.
Hope that helps,
PS: Hi Gigi's Mom!

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi Lindsey and Megs Mom
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Megs Mom would you mind posting what your day is like? I am not really sure which direction to take as if I increase activity time then she will go for her 2nd nap later which will push bedtime later too and I really want to keep the 7.30-7.40 pm bedtime. She did the same with her lunchnap yesterday played for 20 mins and woke about 45 minutes earlier this morning  :cry:  so will see how the day goes. Bummer when they change schedule, especially as we had it good for so long  :wink:
Thanks,
Fiona

Ps meant to say she is usually ready for her first nap 2 hours after she gets up so cant really extend activity time there either.

[Gigismom]

Hi again
as for the extending awake times, sometimes even though they seem sleepy after 2 hours for instance, you can still increase the awake time by say 15 mins.  it is not too much to make them overtired, but just enough to make them nice and sleepy for nap.  i know with my dd, she still shows sleepy signs sometimes as early as 1 or 1.5 hours after getting up, but if i put her down then, she will just play or scream.  i think sometimes her yawning/rubbing eyes is just telling me she is bored and needs a new activity, not a nap.  but that is just my lo.  yours may be different. 
also, about your dh putting baby down...i also did all the putting down until dd was about 4 or 5 months.  then dh wanted to start helping.  i was SO nervous, so for the first few times, we put her down together.  he actually laid her down, but i was right there too.  i think this was more for my peace of mind than for gianna.  i don't think she cared.  so to ease your mind, you may try doing it together for a while until you are confident he can handle it.
hope some of this helps...or at least makes sense!

ps-hi meg's mom.

[Meg's Mom]

Fiona, here is our schedule:

7am wake up (I wake her to ensure she isn't robbing day sleep for night as she likes to sleep 12hrs)
7.15 bottles
8.30ish breakfast
10.15am start nap 1 - (she takes 10min to fall asleep) till 11.30 - 1hr-1.30hr

2.30pm snack
3.00pm start nap 2 - she take anywhere from 15-20mins to fall asleep) sleeps for 1hr always!
7.15 bed (falls asleep by 7.30)

I agree w/ Lindsey (gigi's mom), Megan will show sleep signs anywhere from 1-2hrs in the am but she is either bored or needs food (breakfast or a snack).  Not to mention that if you are moving to 1 nap, she is going to have to be able to stay awake longer in the am...I would start preparing her now.

Personally, I think you have some room to play ... meaning you currently have 4hrs of A time after waking from pm nap and bedtime.  Megan will wake as late as 4.30 and still go to be w/o trouble at 4.30pm.

Hope this helps some, let me know if you have any questions.

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi Michelle and Lindsey,
Just thought I would update you on our week and thank you both again for your help. Friday and Sat were a disaster with extended wake times which didnt really work so Sunday I got up early to see what is going on in the morning. Turns out dd is awake earlier than I thought and is very happy to play in her cot until I come get her so this explains the need for a nap at 10. I have cut this nap down to 40 minutes and made her lunch nap 10 minutes later, this gives an increase of 15 minutes but for the moment it seems to make a differernce. She doesn't play in her cot and usually sleeps about 1 hour 40 mins and sometimes 2 hours- I don't let her go over. If she wakes after an hour and 40 minutes she is usually quite happy to play for 15-20 minutes. So the next time we hit a little bump I think I will cut the morning nap short by 5 mins again until it becomes just a catnap and hopefully this will eventually lead to dropping the morning nap and bringing the afternoon nap foward a little and for about 2.5 hours. Do you think I should start working on this now and start to prepare her for one nap?  I think maybe I should wait until we have problems again? She is sleeping about 12 hours at night give or take 10 minutes though last night for the first time in 6 months she woke at 12.30 and whinged on and off, didn't have to go in to her so am sure it was teeth pain so tonight I gave her meds before bed.
have decided to put off letting dh put her to bed as he is traveling so much she really plays up for him and thinks he is here to play, she cried after her story tonight cos she knew it was bedtime and he was here, something she never does with me.
Many thanks again for your help, until next time  :lol:
Fiona

[Meg's Mom]

Hi, thanks for the update and glad to hear you have fixed it...for now :-).

I would not recommend you continue to cut into the am nap yet.  I would wait until you have the next bumb and assess the situation/her age then.  If it isn't broke...etc...etc.