For the last few weeks, my daughter's naps have totally regressed. I usually put her down 2 hours after she wakes in the morning, when she is rubbing her eyes and seems ready. 6 out of 7 mornings, she will just play, and play, and play, and play. This morning, for instance, she has been playing for the last 80 minutes. I've tried keeping her up for 3 hours, etc.
Then, in the past week or so, she has stopped wanting to take her afternoon nap. Unlike the morning naps where she plays, in the afternoon she SCREAMS. I've been letting her cry herself to sleep, but then she will only sleep for 30-45 minutes.
I know that there is some developmental stuff going on, as well as some teething, but I was curious if anyone had any ideas?
By 5 almost every day, she is grumpy, grumpy, grumpy...crying, fussing and clinging! She is driving me nuts!
Mine stopped taking two naps a day by that age. Then they stopped naps all together almost entirely by the time they were 2 1/2.
Some kids just don't need as much sleep. I think the sleep they get at night is the most important so I wouldn't fret so much about the day time nap especially if they are screaming and playing the whole time.
My daughter is doing that now, 9 months old today. She refuses to take an early afternoon nap and usually will not take an evening nap either. The bad thing is that sometimes she gets really crabby and will hit you if you try to play and she doesn't want to. I am hoping this is just a phase since she did do this a few months ago.
When my son was about 9 months old he didn't want to nap. I tired everything.
I finally took his pack and play and put it in our bedroom just to see if would sleep there. And he did. For a couple of months he slept in our bedroom for naps and had no issues sleeping in his crib at nigh.
Maybe he just needed a change of scenery. I'm not sure but that is what worked for us.
Good Luck!
My oldest started phasing out his morning nap at 10 months. It was at that point that one nap wasn't enough and two was too many. By 13 months, the morning nap was pretty much phased out and we were back to 2+ hours for the afternoon.
Right around 9 months my son started not sleeping during his pm nap and had to be wakedn from his am nap. We switched him to one nap a day and it worked great. He would take a really long morning nap, but later (12:00 instead of 10:00). After about a month, he needed his pm nap back so we went back to the "old" way...a nap at 10:00 and another nap at 2:00. He must have been growing or something, but switching to 1 nap really helped and when he needed two naps we just switched back...he adjusted great. Good Luck!
Hi J.. The issues with the afternoon nap is a pretty common problem at this age -- it happened with both my kids and with most of my friends' kids. I suggest two things: moving bedtime 20 or 30 minutes earlier, and shortening the morning nap to 1 -- 1 1/2 hours total (even though your daughter is not sleeping at this time right now, I bet she will).
I really don't know what to tell you about the morning nap. Perhaps you should move that nap 30 minutes earlier (even before she is rubbing her eyes.) Maybe she is actually over-tired and is not able to settle down to sleep.
I think I would try several different ideas before moving her to one nap a day. Only 17% of babies ages 10-12 months require only one nap a day. Maybe your daughter is one of them! But don't give up on the 2 naps a day before you try everything.
My 10 month old is cat napping as well and sleeping much less. She also isn't sleeping well in her bed, but best on me.
Babywearing helps me a lot. You can get things done, she gets her mama time and she can sleep in the carrier too. I love the Ergo!
I also am part of a babywearing group in Lake County on Yahoo. Perhaps there's one near you.
Maybe she's ready for just one nap per day. Try adjusting her schedule so the new nap time is between the 2 old times. For example, if her old naps started at 10 and 2, the new nap time would be around 12.
Every child is different. My twins moved to 1 nap at around 15 months, but my 7 month old has recently been taking just 1 nap per day.
That's the only thing I can think of. Good luck!
