DD sleeping too much or not enough??

[shannon S]

Every few nights my dd decides to wake at 1 or 2 or 3am and will be awake for 2 hours.  Last night as long as I sat in a chair with my hand on her through the rails she was okay...no crying. But she had her eyes open most of the time. Then if I thought she was asleep I would start to leave and she would cry. This went on for two hours and I finally had to rock her to sleep because I was so exhausted (I hadn't been able to get to sleep yet).
She has done this fairly often in the last few weeks. Last week I thought it was because she was still getting over her cold.

We have a fairly good routine.
Yesterday's routine:
7:00 awake and bottle
8:30 breakfast
10:00 nap (40 minutes)
12:00 lunch
2:00 nap (two hours)
5:00 supper
7:30 bed but difficulty sleeping until 8:15

dd seemed tired all day yesterday so I wasn't sure how long to let her nap. Usually I don't let her nap 2 hours in the afternoon.

Normally she naps 45 min to 1 hour in morning and 1.5 in afternoon.  But it just seems to be hit or miss as to whether she has a good night.

Now because she had a bad night last night I wasn't sure how long to let her sleep today.  She seemed extra tired of course so I let her sleep 1.5 in the morning and 1.5 in the afternoon.

Does dd need to catch up on sleep or should I not let her nap any more than usual?

I honestly don't know if dd was overtired or not tired enough last night.
and dd fell asleep by herself in her crib while I stood beside it.
I thought they were supposed to sleep better if the fall asleep by themselves??
Please help.
shannon

[shannon S]

Forgot to mention that dd is 11 months.
shannon

[Southernbelle]

By 11 mos, my DS had started trying to drop the morning nap and I found that if I let him sleep in the morning we had problems throughout the day and night.  You may want to limit the morning nap to 30-45mins and then keep the afternoon nap at least 2hrs.  When we finally dropped the AM nap, I had to move PM nap (was 2pm) to closer to 1pm.  That way he took a good two hour nap and was awake a little longer before bedtime.  Sometimes at that age he would sleep 2.5 hours in the PM with no AM nap.  It will take a while for her to get used to one nap and I did it gradually over a month or two.  Just a thought.  Someone else may have other ideas.  She could also be cutting molars which gave my DS more pain than the other teeth and it lasted for months.

[shannon S]

Thanks for the advise.  It's funny that you say dd may be cutting molars.....she doesn't have a single tooth yet!  So I'm afraid that when they do start coming, they will all come at once. She has had a couple of good nights (a couple wake ups but right back to sleep).

I try to keep the morning nap to 45 minutes but she always seems so zonked. I open her door and make a lot of noise and she still won't wake. I always feel bad waking her but I guess I'm going to have to.  I don't think she could do without a morning nap at this point.  Maybe if she starts sleeping consitently through the night or sleeping from 7:30pm to 7:00 am, then I could start shortening the am nap even more.

How does keeping the afternoon nap longer help them sleep better at night?  I always think it is too close to bedtime if lo sleeps from 2:30 to 4:30.

thanks for the help!
shannon

[Southernbelle]

Ohh, if she hasn't any teeth then she may be about to get a ton of teeth....that could be the problem.  Also, it's fine to keep the morning nap, but keep it short and wake at a certain time.  A long pm nap that starts early enough shouldn't effect night sleep.  My DS goes down now at 1:00-1:30 and I wake him by 3:45 but he is two and needs it to stay short.  But at your los age, he could easily sleep 2.5-3 hours in the pm (with no morning nap) as long as he had a good awake time before bed.  At that stage three to 3.5 hours was all he could manage to stay awake in the late afternoon before bedtime.  You just have to experiment to see the right combo with your lo.  But the teething thing may be just about to hit....especially because she is a late teether, you may not get a break between teeth.  Sorry!!!