Living in nap hell!!!

[traceylw]

Hello all,

My 9 month old daughter has always been a good sleeper but she has recently decided to have no routine what so ever to her daytime sleep. Some days she will have 2 or 3 30-40 minute naps other days she will have 2 1 hour naps. No matter how hard i try to keep her in a nap routine it doesn't work. Her routine was gret until about 6months old when she used to have 3 1.5 hour naps each day. As she is older and more alert she wants to be playing all the time. How do i overcome this. She is sooo tired in the evenings she is usually in bed for 630. She usually wakes up in the morning between7 and 730 though some days can be even later. Am i letting her sleep too much in the night ( if thats possible!)?

Hope somone can help

Tracey and Ella x

[ambersmum]

Dear Tracey,
                  For what it is worth my 4 month old baby has days where her naps are all over the place. I don't worry unless it is making her cranky. On a day that has been a 'bad nap day' I will get her to bed early, say 6:30 instead of 7:00. The thing that has worked for us is getting up at 7:00 am, if we lie in much later then my DD doesn't nap so well at her first nap time and that has a knock on effect for the rest of the day.

[ambersmum]

Sorry- forgot to say I reckon that 12hours sleep is reasonable to expect as night time sleep. Does Ella sleep longer than that at night?

[traceylw]

Hi ambers mum, glad to know it's not just us.
Ella's night sleep is ususally a minimum of 12 hours but can be as much as 13 hours occasionally 14 hours. I guess i've naswered my own question about getting too much night sleep.!!

[Aarismom]

Mine does the same

Looks like we're all on the same page. 11-13 hours of sleep at night, wakes between 6:30 and 7 most days.

Lately though she's been waking at 4 and fussing for 20 mins (my DH has been getting up and patting/putting a hand on her back to settle her). I know this interrupts her sleep, and she has pretty bad nap days. I've been fighting 30-40 min naps now for weeks even though I've moved her waking time up to 2 hours and adjusted her nap schedule accordingly. Some days I get 1.5-2 hours out of her, but only because I help her through the 30-60 min interval of REM/light sleep time. I think she's dealing with some teething atm as well...does anyone know if babies get hooked on baby tylonal It seems to help, but it's almost like she expects it before bedtime, and I've only been using it now for 2 days due to shots (which caused fever) and teething.

However, I've decided to keep the schedule the same, even if she ends up being up 2.5-3 hours before her next nap (usually within a half hour of her usual nap time). I think it's important to keep the nap schedule after 4 months so they know when it's time to go to sleep. Naps all over the place drive me insane, as I know it's not good for her biorhythm, and affects what time she goes down for bed. Oddly enough she's not terribly wigged out by her next nap, just really tired, and she usually goes down pretty easily. Babies 4 months and older should be staying up 2-3 hours anyway, definately a solid 2 hours. I'll see how that works for awhile.

Gotta go...approaching the 30 min mark of her second nap...*sigh*

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[ambersmum]

just wondered how things were going Tracey. Any progress?
 love juliet

[traceylw]

Hi there ambers mum, we have had defdinite progress over the last few days, she is back to taking her naps in her cot. First few days only short naps , but with a lot of pu/pd ( and a bad back now- large baby) i have manged to get her taking 2 hour and half naps, trying to make her afternoon one a bit longer but we are definitely getting there,
Thanks for all help and advise

Tracey x