Progressively longer awake time for nearly 11 mo old

[Liliben]

Thanks meg's mom for all the info but I seem to be only getting more confused. DS old schedule was
6.30 wake
7.00 bf
9.00 nap for 1hr 20 mins
10.45 bf
12.30 lunch
2.30 nap for 1.5 hrs
4.00bf
5.30dinner
7.00 bf
7.45 sleep
 As you can see from about 8 months his awake time between naps has been 4 hours and 3.75 hours after nap 2. Now his awake time in morning is at least 3.5 hrs, his nap 1.25hrs but his awake time then is at least 4.5 hrs. I'm still not sure whether I wake him early from AM nap because then he might not get another nap at all. All of this has also caused night waking which never happened before. DS is not yet 11 months. Do I start the preocess of moving back AM nap to 1 nap or would you stick with 2?
Monday only 1 nap at 10 - 11.15 bed @ 6pm and ready to start his day at 4.30am so he's not extending his night sleep.
Tuesday 2 naps because I woke him after 45 mins from 1st to go swimming Nap 1 10.00 - 10.45 Nap 2 2.45 - 4.00 bed 7.30pm. Woke at 1am and at 5.00am ready to start his day.
Help! Do I stick with this or try to change it?

[Liliben]

Sorry to be a pain. Just thinking? Do you think the night time waking is because he's not getting enough sleep during the day? SHould I still offer 2 naps even as late as 4.30pm with the hope of a 7.45pm bedtime? At least then he might sleep his usual 10.5 hrs at night!

[lil'monkey]

"This too shall pass."  How many times have I heard this before???   :roll:

I agree with the sleepy cues being non-existent or inconsistent.  DD could yawn for a million times and still not want to take a nap in the pm.  I'm begining to foresee some communication problems with my dd when she gets to be a teen. 

Liliben - the latest time I would offer for the pm nap is 4-4:30 pm as I want bedtime to be no later than 8 pm. 

Michelle - thanks for the info but I find that dd likes to take a long am nap (2+ hrs) after 4 hrs of being awake.  Even if the am nap is short ( 45 min) she will still fight the pm nap unless I go for a drive.  If I leave her in the crib, she will just babble and play for 30-45 min then wants out.  It is as if her body will only let her nap once per day.  Very strange.    :? 

Which got me talking to other moms.   Apparently there seem to be 3 ways of doing this.

A.  Offer two naps but control the am nap so that you can fit in the pm nap.  This is the same as what Michelle posted, as you want to have a long pm nap. Then slowly move the pm nap earlier.
 
or

B.  Offer to naps but concentrate more on the am nap to make it long and just have a cat nap ( either in car or stroller).  Then slowly move the am nap to a later time.

or

C.  Only offer 1 nap and offer bedtime at an early time.  Then slowly move the times to when you want it to be.

I don't know which is better (as in less painful and quicker) but I really think that it has a lot to do with your lo's temperment.  I would like to do Plan A but I find that dd will take the am nap easily but not the pm nap.  So I'm guessing that I should try Plan B?

[CW]

This is a never ending story....the boy didn't take his pm nap at all yesterday!  Another day of staying up from 12noon til bedtime.  Last night, I made sure to feed him and tuck him in extra early.  He fell asleep at the bottle at about 6:15pm!  He woke this morning about 6am...I left him in his crib til 7am.  He went down for his am nap at about 9:15am and slept til 11:20am.  2 hrs!  I'm so happy because he really needed it. 

I think the 6am wakeup is almost best, because it gives us more room in our day for the two naps.  Though we'll see this afternoon what happens.  On days when he wakes at 5am, he'll fall back asleep and wakes at 7ish and then it seem like the day is completely off b/c the nap is then at 10amish, and hence the pm nap is really late.  It seems that if we start the pm nap after 2:30pm, he just won't take it at all.

I wonder if there's a way to wake him at 6am (like make noise or something) but still keep him in his crib til 7?  I want it all don't I? 

Michelle - I can see the logic for shortening the am nap to make sure the pm nap happens.  But at the same time, if he's not going to take the pm nap at all, at least I know he's slept longer!

I love that there are so many of us in the same boat right now.  I am continually checking this thread to see what's new for all of you!

[Meg's Mom]

Yes our own wee club - but we are all wishing we could jump ship :shock:

Lil'monkey summarized it perfectly.

If anyone needs/wants me to answer a specific question, please email (NOT PM) it to me and I’ll post it back here.  As I am getting confused  :?  :?  :?

Gosh I think infants are easier :evil:

[CW]

I phoned my dr's office and they really emphasized that 11 months was too early for one nap. They said to continue offering 2 naps...once you make the switch to one nap, there's no going back.

So the last couple of days I've sort of followed Michelle's advice. We are keeping the morning nap to 1.25-1.5 hrs tops. I found that if I can get that afternoon nap in before 3pm, then we're ok. If we go later than that, we always have troubles. For example, this morning, he woke at 6am, so nap #1 was 9:15-10:30am. That means I can get nap #2 in by 2pm which is ideal.

On those mornings, like yesterday, when he wakes at 7am, then it shifts a bit, but if I can keep the morning nap to 1.25-1.5, we're still in the ballpark.

I hope this continues!