Now DD is standing her naps are chaos. Any advice...?

[ElmMum]

DD has just turned one and in the past couple of weeks has started pulling herself up to stand and cruising round the furniture.

As soon as that happened, over night she changed from settling herself to sleep in her cot no bother (into grobag, hand over Sleeptot, kiss on the head, out of the room, that's it) to seeming to find it impossible to settle herself.

Put her down as usual and she either springs straight over and up, or seems to have settled then starts crying/shouting/babbling and ends up standing up. Even when she's obviously knackered she seems to be compelled to stand up.

She can sit back down again and usually ends up asleep in a bit of a heap on her front.

Timing of naps has gone right up the spout along with it. Was previously doing a longish morning nap (hour/two hours) from about 9am and a short nap (45 mins-ish) around 1.30/2.30pm.

Now it's an hour here or there, at random times of the day. And sometimes she goes into her cot but doesn't sleep at all and I just get her up again after a bit.

Should we try and get her into a routine? Instigate one long nap in the middle of the day? WHAT??!!

Any advice welcome!

[ElmMum]

Anyone?

[GentlyDidIt]

Ah you poor thing, this was one of my toughest episodes of parenting DD.

Maybe she is ready to drop one nap. I know that is a tough one to hear, as I came to rely on nap times for getting stuff done (like have a cuppa )

As for the standing up thing, I just kept going in and putting DD back down again. Often she would be standing and wailing before I reached the bedroom door. It was grim. After a couple of weeks she stopped, but by then I was only giving her one longish nap a day midday as that's all she wanted to take.

I also made sure that I let her fully explore her cruising capabilities every morning, getting outdoors as much as possible or if indoors playing lots of very active games that involved her doing all the physical work (cruise around the sofa to grab a toy was a favourite). Basically I would try to wear her out!

Even if she does just fart around in the cot for half an hour, if she's contented then try and take that time for yourself, rather than worrying about whether she's sleeping - grab a shower or something so that you get a break.

This phase tested my patience to the outer limits as it was my first real lesson in the changing nature of parenthood (i.e. just when things seem nice and stable, something new comes along to upset the applecart!).

Good luck and hand in there! She'll be walking soon and then with a bit of luck she'll be exhausted by naptime.

[ElmMum]

Thanks Gently,

You're right. I think I need to make sure she's really really tired before I put her down. The old clues (eye rubbing, yawning) aren't enough any more...

I put her down at 9.15 this morning because she seemed tired and she's still awake now (10.15). Not crying, just saying "uh oh" and crawling about. She's starting to go quiet now so I guess I should have played lots of tiring games with her til now and then put her down. Trouble is, I'm still in that mindset where you don't want them to be too tired when you put them down. Need to shift my thinking.

Agh, just when we seemed to be in a nice easy routine.

[GentlyDidIt]

Don't worry, you'll soon be in a nice easy routine of sorts again, just a different one, and first you need to figure out what it is going to be!

Have you ever noticed the relative lack of baby books advising routines for those over 1 year old? I think (whispers) it's because parents don't buy the idea by then!

Sounds like you're doing really well. Enjoy your one year old, they are maddening at times, but around now you'll be getting the two-chubby-arms-around-the-neck cuddles that smaller babies can't offer, so there are pros and cons!