Napping Questions

I'm afraid that my daughter is exactly like me. Not that this is bad per se, but my mom told me that I stopped taking ALL naps at a year old. I guess I just decided that I didn't need them anymore.

My babies are almost 9 months old. We are on a two nap schedule. Our day looks something like this:

Up for the day: 7:15
First nap is 9-9:30
Second nap is around 1:00
Bedtime is between 6-6:30.
Up at 10 for last bottle and sleep through

Has anyone had a real early transition to one nap a day? My daughter has really been fighting the morning nap this week. I put her down about 10 this morning and here it is 40 minutes later and it sounds like she might have fallen asleep - FINALLY! She does have a cold so I don't know if that is contributing, but the past few days, she's been up until well after noon before I can put her down and then she will sleep 2-3 hours and be up until bedtime.

The problem is that my son is way on the other side of the spectrum. He was lucky to make it until 9:30 this morning.

I know that they are each individuals, but of course, having them way off is killing me and I don't much accomplished in the way of eating, showering, or getting dressed! My husband is away a lot with his job. He was just away for two months at school and he'll be leaving again next week for 2 1/2 weeks - although he will be close and might be able to come home for weekends.

Oh - they get about two meals of solids a day - she gets 5 bottles total with around 25 ounces total (she's tiny). My son eats about 32 ounces a day.

I'm at a loss being a first time mom and all, so any advice, insight, suggestions would be great!

 

Haha, I have the SAME story. My mom says I stopped taking a nap at 1, and I wasn't able to sleep well at night either. Even now I am having trouble falling asleep. My daughter Vanessa is the same way, we always had sleep issues with her. At 1, we gave up on 2 naps, even if Max could have still napped twice a day. We cut the morning nap and the only nap was at 12 PM - it's closer to 1 PM. It worked better. After we switched them to one nap, she was sleeping longer - she was taking one 2-2,5 hours nap as oposed to 2 naps that were 30 minutes each - that's how bad she was with 2 naps. She is still napping, at 2, but most days she lays there in the crib and plays for 30 minutes before falling asleep. We hope she will nap longer, anyway, she is better than I was at her age, but we put a lot of efforts into it. We gave up bottles at 1, and switched to sippy cups, and that affected her nighttime sleep for a while also. They are 2, and I know we should give up pacifiers, but I am sure she will stop napping at all if we give up pacis. Max is a great sleeper, so at least we don't have similar issues with him.

 

My boys were ok nappers but one definitely needed less sleep than the other. We dropped to one nap at 14 months and it did help. I'd try to wait out the cold then give it a week or so and see if it was just tough for her to sleep/fall asleep with the cold or if it's a more permanent thing for her. You could try elevating her mattress on one side as it's tough to lay flat with a stuffy or runny nose.

As a side note, I'd suggest doing all the self-care stuff for you before they wake up/before you get them up as best you can. It's much nicer to be showered and dressed before you go get them than be behind and playing catch up.

 

I think it's really beneficial to them to keep the two naps at least until they're between 14-16months and are consistenly resisting for longer than 2 weeks.. 8-9 months is a typical nap regression period and on top of that she has a cold which will definitely be impacting on her too. I found saline drops really useful during colds as well as trying to keep them elevated as Michelle suggested.

When she fights you on the morning nap, give up after an hour and just move her afternoon nap up earlier, as what you are doing. But continue giving her the morning nap.. We always found it harder to bounce back from colds regarding naps but it pays to persevere with the routine which is in place (sounds great btw) and continue with the two naps rather than in a month or two's time having an extremely overtired baby on your hands.

For a first time mom, you're doing an amazing job! Hang in there in regards to the personal time. Is there a safe place where you can see her, while you have a quick shower? I used the pack and play for my chronic 45min catnapper to take my showers before she finally lengthened her naps at 10months.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I do have the pack and play in my bedroom as I hate to put her in the room with him when he's already been asleep. Silly that I never thought of just putting her in there while I shower. Thanks for that suggestion.

I did manage to get two naps out of her yesterday. I did notice that since she's been sick, she has been crying out more in her sleep - almost sounds like she is waking up and then she resettles herself. I ended up keeping her up just about 3 hours yesterday morning and it seemed to work. I guess she just needs more awake time. Kind of hard on the schedule, but I guess I will have to try stretching him out a bit more.

And I wasn't aware of a sleep regression at this point. Good to know as well.