Naps & nighttime sleep

[Milliesmummy]

Hi, I wonder if someone out there can give me some advice/guidance.

I've read through up to page 20 of this particular subject and cannot find a scenario the same as the one I'm going through so thought I should start a new topic.

My dd is 14 months old and I have been a follower of the baby whisperer since the day she was born.  She was born at 31 weeks.  She has always been good at night and sleeps usually from 7pm to 6.30am but her naps have always been an issue.

At this point in time, she has her bath at between 6.15 and 6.30pm, followed by milk then in her cot by 7pm, however she will now play for up to an hour and finally fall asleep by 8pm - this is occurring every night now whereas she used to be asleep by 7.15pm latest.  She now wakes anytime between 6.30 and 7.20am each morning.  Should I be putting her to bed later or just continuing as I am?

For her naps, she usually goes down for a nap around 9am however lately she's been playing for up to an hour or more and nodding off at 10ish am.  I have to give her her lunch no later than 11.30am so that I can get out of the door for work at 12.30pm (am currently trying to resolve my working hours and move to 3 whole days per week instead of 5 afternoons) - so if she hasn't already woken by this time, I have to wake her.

The problems really start with her afternoon nap (or lack of  :roll: ).  Most days she resists completely, although lately she will take an afternoon nap but not until 4pm and usually for 50 mins.  I can't help but think that this late nap is why she won't go to sleep until 8pm but I'd rather she had a nap of some sort in the afternoon than nothing at all as if she has nothing, she becomes very grouchy at around 5pm and by the time she's in the bath she is a nightmare!!!

Sorry to bang on for ages but I wanted to make sure I covered off anything to save any potential "rescuers" needing to ask me questions.

Please help me!!!   

Millies mummy

[Deb_in_oz]

sounds to me like you need to start transitioning her to 1 nap. she is the right age and showing the classic signs by resisting her old nap times and then getting late rest and having trouble at bedtime.

you have 2 options if you transition to 1 nap and i guess you have to take into account how your day will run. you can either start pushing out the morning nap to 10am or later and restrict it to 30-45 min (just to recharge her batteries to get to the othere nap) and then do another nap in the afternoon (because she only had 45 min will be more willing to go to sleep before 4pm) or you can do whatever it takes to get her to stay up until 11:30 and give her 1 nap then and keep time before bed low key as she will likely be a bit tired during the change. over the course of the 2nd year this 1 nap would probably move later (?12:30 is common in under 2s) to after she eats lunch

until you change your work schedule i assume you woudl prefer to start the transition by having a short morning nap, and giving the afternoon nap wherever she is when you work

[Milliesmummy]

Thanks so much for your comments.

You are right, until I get my work situation sorted out (which should be within the next month) I would prefer to shorten her morning nap and still put her down for an afternoon nap as otherwise her one nap of the day wouldn't be until 1pm by the time she arrived at nursery - which would be way too late at this stage.

I will try putting her down at around 10am and waking her after the 30/45 min mark.  Today, she fell asleep at around 10.10 so I will wake her at 11am if she is not already awake - no time like the present eh?

Again, thanks for your comments they are much appreciated. 

Milliesmummy