Posted by
Wheelymate
19 yrs ago
baby is now 9 months. we used to do:
9am (put down by 8.50am) until 9.30am
afternoon: 12.30-2/2.30pm.
but the past week, he seems to have a harder time falling asleep. so i put him down at 9am and he only sleeps by 9.10/9.15am and i wake him up by 9.45am latest or else he sleeps too little in the afternoon and gets seriously grumpy before bedtime.
just wondering if this means he is cutting back on am nap so need to put him down even later (around 9.15am) and restrict this nap to about 20-30mins max so that the afternoon nap is not affected?
he is pretty much on gina ford routine so wondering how other moms on similar routines cope with this cut back on am nap. whatever it is, i want to ensure he sleeps well during lunchtime.
thanks!
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Wheelymate -
going through the exact same thing right now. My older one - I kept giving her the 9 AM nap until she was a year - but month 11 and 12 it was a lot of fighting putting her down and sometimes she would only sleep 10 minutes. (always woke her up at 9:45 to ensure a good afternoon nap.)
Now my 2nd - seems to not want to take her 9:00 either. I think in Gina it says that if they start sleeping less than 15 minutes, just pull them off of the nap. TOday my little one didn't take her 9:00 and made it fine until 12:15 when she conked out. I try putting my down closer to 9:15 as well - and still didn't sleep. Some does she DOES take it though - so I'm going to try and keep giving it to her so that she takes around 15 minutes as she was pretty fussy at lunch.
By a year, I will cut it out I'm sure. Will make for a hairy morning getting one for school while the other is causing a ruckus!
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crj
19 yrs ago
We have the opposite problem most days.
Baby is 11 months.
He sleeps 7:00 pm to 6:30 am.
Morning nap - 9:00 - 11:00 almost every day, although some days it is less.
Lunchtime nap - 1:30 - 3:00 most but not all days - sometimes this one is shorter.
He is zonked out for his morning nap, he sleeps really deeply and very well. So although most books say a lunchtime nap would be better, he sleeps so well in the morning and at the same time every day, I dare not disrupt his natural schedule.
We used to always wake him up at 10, but then a few months ago decided to see what his natural sleep pattern was. I have to say he is much happier with this and he sticks to the time most days since it is his schedule :)
But he went through a phase of not wanting the morning nap a month or two ago, but it passed.
Maybe your baby's natural pattern is changing - observe for a couple of days and adjust the schedule accordingly.
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that's the funny thing, he is taking longer to fall asleep but once he does, he can probably sleep for at least one hour if i let him so i guess my problem is a combi of both your babies! but if i do let him sleep on, then the afternoon nap ios pushed back, i will have trouble getting out of the house for errands (selfish i know, but i don't have a helper who can babysit).
my aim is to maintain the afternoon nap, as it is, i find that most days he does 1.5hours rather than the preferred 2 hours.
i think tomorrow we will try:
put down at 9.15am and not let him sleep more than 20 mins.
put him down at usual 12.15pm...he usually chatters on until he falls asleep at 12.30pm. this guy needs his wind-down time.
if he is still taking forever to fall asleep, than maybe the scary reality is that he will drop the am nap soon...when will i ever have time to shower??!!! :)
hkcc: how much is your no. 2 sleeping in the afternoon?
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crj
19 yrs ago
Of course, saying this - today was bad nap day and he only slept an hour for each nap - ha ha
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SSN
19 yrs ago
i have had and i think (i may be wrong) that babies are very easily adjustable and whatever routine you want, they will take it on as long as you are persistent and reasonable about it. some babies really sleep well from 8 to 11 30-45 am and then conk off by 7 pm, while some need shorter naps. mine slept from 8 to 10am, then from 2 to 4pm. but at 9 months, he decided to move from 9 to noon and then no sleep until 7 pm. When he turned 1, i slowly started moving an hour ahead, from 9 to 10 to 11 to 12, 1 hour per week and got him finally to sleep by 12 30 when he was 1 year and 3 months.
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Wheelymate -
#2 sleeps from 12:30-2:30 - MOST days. Some days she herself cuts her nap shorter - 12:30-2:00ish. But for the most part she takes a two hour nap. These days she's all over the place, crawling and pulling herself up and falling down - so I think she's more tired which is why her afternoon is so vital.
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HKCC,
I have been experimenting with nap times the past few days and I have to say, it's been a big hit and miss - I really don't know what works!
Because he takes longer to fall asleep, I put him down closer to 9.15am and wake him up by 9.45am no matter what. And I am putting him down later for his pm nap too (used to be 12.15pm) but now 12.30pm because when I put him down at 12.15pm, he would take about 1/2 hour to sleep! so what i do is put him down at 12.30pm and he is asleep in about 5-10mins. the problem is the length of this nap. on sunday, we slept for almost 2.5 hours but today, as i am typing this (now 2.05pm), i can hear him although have not gone to him as i want to see if he can settle back to nap.
i wonder if this means i really need to cut back on the am nap and not let him sleep beyond 9.30am??
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don't know the answer to your question Wheelymate. I would say you could try and experiment. My #2 has skipped her 9:00 AM nap a few times (put her in the dark room only to go in 45 minutes later to her laughing and rolling around her crib) and other days like today she was knocked out the whole time. It depends on her morning start time I think. I used to let it slide from between 7:15-7:45, but sometimes she wakes up a bit before and amuses herself in her crib. The mornings she wakes up earlier - she takes a better AM nap.
you could experiment - I love her two hour afternoon - like you I think it's a great time to do a lot of stuff. One long uninterrupted stretch of time is a marvelous thing. So I do everything to keep that 2 hour stretch for my own sanity. (this is just what I do - not what I am saying is the "best" thing.) So I cut her AM nap to 15 minutes and that seemed to help. But since she turned into this massive adventurer, she takes 30 minutes and still conks out for 2 hours at the 12:30 nap.
Is your crawling or cruising yet? If not quite yet, probably can cut back on the nap time, and when they start getting really active slowly start extending it again - as they probably need it.
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hkcc,
the thought of skipping the morning nap at this point feels me with dread...hahahahaha so i want to optimistic and think i can still put him down for at least 15-20mins for my own sanity!
what i will try today is cut his morning nap to 20 mins and don't let him sleep beyond 9.45am. then we'll see how the afternoon nap goes. i have a friend who swears that if her kid sleeps even a minute more than 20 mins in the morning, the afternoon nap goes haywire!
he is a seriously active guy, crawling and standing since about 7 months. he is trying to stand unsupported now so lots of activities so don't know why he can't sleep a solid nap in the pm! the amazing part is (and perhaps in a way good for me) is that he actually doesn't get cranky by late afternoon. i guess that tells me he probably needs a max of 2-2.5 hours per day, spread out between the 2 naps.
oh well, i won't give up, the afternoon nap is so precious to me to catch up on household stuff and bacth cooking his food!
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MayC
19 yrs ago
Hi Wheelymate, maybe the nap times are too close together. Baby wakes up in the morning, then has to go to bed at 9am and then again at 12.30. It worked for us in the first year (sort of), but after her first birthday, we did 10am, then 3pm and then the night sleep at 7.30pm. Now at 2 years old, since she started full time school, we had to cut one nap time completely.
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hi mayc,
the thought did cross my mind too...
some of my friends put their kids down at 8.45am and then they have a nap at 1pm.
i could try that too!
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Sometimes they won't sleep as well when they are learning new things....I noticed when my first started to crawl he just wanted to practice in his crib and sleep went out the window, same with standing up and walking etc. Also growth spurts and teething all affect good sleeping skills.
I did what my children needed usually, and this is a tricky age cause both my kids took about two months of swapping between one and two naps a day depending on how tired they are. Really to be honest I still just go with if a baby is tired let them sleep and afternoon naps is the one I cut a bit short if I knew it would go beyond 4 or 4.30pm. And always keep bedtime the same time.
my youngest is one and in the middle of the transition between one and two. He did one from 11 - 2.30 or 3 for about a week but this week has been sleeping all morning 8.30 - 11 then again from 2.30 to 4.30pm, and still going to bed at 7pm. So I figure he needs it!
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gherron,
absolutely agree with you on the 1st point about learning new skills....mine wakes up earlier in the mornings when he is teething or when he started crawling, standing, etc.
ok, we have tried 2 days of 20 mins in the am and looks like it's the magic number for him to go down for 2 hours in the afternoon. see how it goes this weekend although come monday it'll be a real mess cos we will be out for x'mas lunch!! i think i'll just let him sleep as long as possible in the morning to make up for a shorter nap in the pram when we are out.
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hi there,
just want to re-visit this topic as i need some advice:
yesterday, my 10.5 month old missed his morning nap for the first time. so i fed him an earlier lunch and put him in bed by 11.50am - he was out by noon and slept for 2 hours.
today, he had a 20 min nap in the morning so i put him down at his usual 12.20pm naptime. but he didn't fall asleep until 12.45pm.
based on the above, should i continue to put him down in the morning and say if he is not sleeping for 7 days in a row, it's time to drop the morning nap? or do i cut the morning nap out cold turkey so that i maintain a 2 hour lunchtime nap?
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crj
19 yrs ago
Ha, I had the same question around 10 months.
The answer is... it is just a phase, you still need the morning nap until about 18 months or more for most babies, but you might need to change the time.
Our schedule is now:
6:30 am - wake up
9:00 - 10:00 - morning nap (most days)
1:00 - 2:30 - afternoon nap (most days)
Sometimes the morning nap is even earlier! at 8:30 or 8:45 if he is yawning.
And at one point as per my post above, the morning nap was 2 hours and the afternoon nap 1 hour, but I started to wake him up after one hour and after a few days he pretty much wakes up naturally after about an hour.
Of course, there are some days it is all upside down, but that's babies!
good luck!!!
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WM - I know you like the 2 hour lunchtime nap = as it's your "get things done" time. I know how it is.
My #2 takes her morning nap some days and not on others - but i'm planning on cutting it out in the next week or so - to ensure her taking the 2 hour big nap. I would just wait and see to see how many days he doesn't take the AM nap...and then make a decision. It is hit or miss and a lot of guessing.
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hkcc,
exactly! the 2 hour nap is essential!! :)
i think i'll continue to put him down in the morning and if it's really not happening over a period of time, i'll put an end to it. but hubby reckons at this stage, even if he's not actually sleeping, if he's not fussy in the cot, it's a good "quiet time" for him. hkcc, when you do cut out the am nap, will you move the nap forward to say, 12 noon or still keep it at 12.30pm?
crj, my boy changes everyday, can't keep up!!
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crj
19 yrs ago
Waffle - I do agree all kids are different, but I do think that we sometimes think that they don't need a nap when they do... I was convinced a few months ago mine was going to drop the morning nap, but then when I loosened the schedule and let him get a natural pattern again - he actually started sleeping MORE not less... so sometimes we need to take a break from OUR schedule for a week or so, and let them find their natural one, then 'structure' it to what we want too.
WM- I agree with your husband, a nap does not have to be 100% sleep, it can be quiet time which is a good thing!
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WM -
quiet time is good in the cot too. De stimulating time...I like a few moments of quiet myself in the morning. Bella sometimes goes in and just chatters to herself and then after about 20 minutes I'll hear her get up and start banging on the cot with a toy and then start throwing diapers onto the ground. (she can reach this hanging thing where the diapers are.) Very funny.
I will keep the nap 12:30. Even when she does miss it, I can usually get her to stay up to 12:30.
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Well2
18 yrs ago
i know this is about 9-10months old babies. But my 5 months old has the same problem recently. As soon as i put her down in cot for her morning nap, she screams!!!! She used to be very good at both naps. It was like the second I put her down, she closed her eyes and out. But this week, at her morning nap she has been sceaming until i pick her up. Don't know why? But apart from the morning nap, she is still sleeping well at her 2hrs lunch time nap and night. Is she just teething??
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