Confused - advice please?

[KB]

Hi all

We seem to be in a strange place in our EASY right now.  Lo is 11 months and I am struggling to get the day to work.

Used to look like this:

7am wakeup BF
8am breakfast
9am morning nap (2 hours)
11am drink
12pm lunch
1pm bf
2pm afternoon nap (1 1/2 to 2 hours)
4pm snack
5.30 pm dinner
6.30pm bath
7.30 pm bf and bed

This worked great, except for some night wakings which have improved and I even had four nights straight through last week 

But it's changing to something like this over the last week or so.

7am wake up and BF
8am breakfast
Resisting morning nap until 10am (1 1/2 to 2 hours)
12pm wakeup
12.30 lunch
2pm BF
Resisting afternoon nap to close to 3pm (1 1/2 to 2 hours) (Some days won't have it at all)
5pm wakeup
6pm dinner
7pm  bath
Not tired and resisting sleep to almost 9pm some nights

Are we heading toward 1 nap?  Should I be slowly aiming for this?  setting a later morning nap and if she doesn't have pm nap earlier bedtime?  Night waking has returned after improving as well, still only 1 around 2 to 3 am.

Any ideas?

Thanks

KB

[HeatherC]

Hi, KB.  I have some thoughts.  First, I wouldn't necessarily jump to the conclusion of needing only 1 nap just yet.  While it is entirely possible even at 11 mos, sometimes it's just a phase and she'll be back to napping more regularly soon.  My suggestion would be to limit the morning nap to 1-1.25 hrs so that she will have enough A time before the second nap.  It is natural for her to lengthen her A times, so since she will still need to nap, you want to leave enough time.  Lengthening A times is how she will eventually come to consolidate her naps.  However, if you strongly feel she is ready for one nap, I have been told to expect a period of time where the one nap will be only as long as she's used to napping (1.5-2 hrs) for awhile until her system adjusts.  Therefore, you would need to compensate for less sleep with an earlier bedtime. 
Has she reached any developmental milestones recently, or is she teething?  Both of these can cause havoc on sleep.  What do you do when she wakes at night; does she settle easily? 
Have you checked in with the Birth Club Forums at the top of the EASY Forums?  It would be a great place for you to "compare notes" with moms of babies your dd's age.

[KB]

Thanks Heather, you have helped a lot.  One of my thoughts was that I should be waking her earlier from naps but I always feel guilty as my Mum thinks I should always let her sleep as long as she wants to, so I let her go.  I was wondering how to get longer A times without the afternoon nap being as late as 4pm some days which of course plays havoc with evening bedtime!  Will start to shorten morning nap.

Have also wondered if all this day sleep is robbing night sleep sometimes.....

When she wakes at night sometimes she doesn't need me to go in, is back asleep after a few mantra cries. But if she really needs me I will go in and nurse her.  Pu/pd is just a disaster with her, DH seems to have lost the ability to settle her and I am not commmited enough to see it through - freely admit that.  We have gone from three night wakings to one (and sometimes none) using the "Gentle Removal Plan" in the book No Cry Sleep Solution.  It has worked really well and usually means I only lose 20 minutes sleep a night so I'm okay with that.

Developmentally she is moving in leaps and bounds and will be walking I think right on 12 months, is already starting to experiment with standing on her own.  Teething?  Well I'm the worst at working that one out.  To be honest I am a little skeptical that it causes her too much trouble as she had all four front teeth by six months (bottom ones at 4mo!) and at that point she was sleeping through 11 hours straight at night and even dropped the dream feed so I can't be sure. She now has ten teeth and never shows any of the classic teething symptoms so really don't know.

Just reading your response has been great - it has only cemented what I was starting to wonder about waking her earlier from naps.  She can sleep close to four hours in a day and maybe that is just too long.  It is really hard when relatives think you're mad for waking a sleeping baby but I can see that she might need it.

[HeatherC]

Well, some babies can sleep all day and night at any age, others need our guidance to sort out sleep amounts.  I know it is so hard to wake a sleeping baby, I've struggled with it all of my dd's life, too.  But it's in all of your best interests, especially if too much day sleep is robbing her night sleep. 
I'm not familiar with the "No Cry Sleep Solution", but I feel you should look on our Night Wakings Board, as well as Props board so that you find ways to stop nursing her at night and set her back on track to settle herself.  I truly don't think she needs to nurse in a hunger aspect, but she might be seeking the comfort from you, and there are ways to help her without nursing.  That is just my opinion though.
Hope things improve.  Please keep us updated.