1 nap already at nearly 9 months??

[Mum of girl, boy, boy]

Hi there my DS has been on a good routine and always slept longer than others his age but things have been changing. I am not sure if he is just moving to 1 nap or whether a couple of missed morning naps have set a trend. I know from the other posts it seems to early to go from 2 to 1.

We are only at 2 or 3 meals a day recently and sometimes I even drop a meal if he's been sickie and I think it will be too much but for the last few days it has looked like this (two versions)

8am bf
930 breakfast (will just chuck up if I do it before)
go out. doesn't sleep in pushchair
12.00 lunch
1pm sleeps til 5pm
5pm tea
730/8pm bed.

or

8am bf
930 breakfast
11 nap of 2 1/2 hours
lunch
try for another nap around 4 but doesn't seem interested
7 / 730 bed.

DD is starting play group in September so need to get him back to two naps so I can benefit from it more. How would you go about this?

Thanks for any input.

J

[Meg's Mom]

Hi
I agree that is it too early to move to the one nap at 9mos.  You say he missed a couple of morning naps, how many and what has happened when you tired to get him to sleep? 

For version 2 of your schedule:

8am bf
930 breakfast
11 nap of 2 1/2 hours
lunch
try for another nap around 4 but doesn't seem interested
7 / 730 bed.

The 2hrs+ nap in the morning is probably giving him all the sleep he needs for daytime.  So i would limit that 1st nap to 1.5hrs and then see if he will go down again for nap 2 about 3 or 3 1/2 hours after nap 1 ends.  If he still refuses nap 2, then i would cut nap 1 back to 1.15hr and try again.

It could also be that a developmental issue is on the way, crawling or standing or something of that nature.  That can also mess w/ naps.  But i would keep trying to get him to take two naps a day.  Last point, napping in the push chair might not work any more.  I seem to remember my LO found it too distracting to sleep in her stroller about this age, bummer i know!

I hope that helps.

[Mum of girl, boy, boy]

Thanks for your response. Will try that.

Yesterday He took two naps. I put some bonjela on and it does seem to help (not that he's unhappy - far from it)so perhaps that was part of it. He had only missed a couple of naps. Perhaps 2/3 days at most. Will try for two again but won't let him sleep too long.

I think sometimes what happens is that I give breakfast a little later so he doesn't always wake for lunch. I am sure once I start waking him up for lunch the afternoon will extend again. DS has always been quite good for making up his sleep if he misses some. I can't say it was that easy with DD if I missed a nap I'd pay for it for a few days running!!!!! How can two lo ones be soooooooooooooooooo different. Now I know why I go so wound up with her sleep and still do!!!! Maybe a girl / boy thing who knows.

Thanks again.

J