Afternoon nap 11 month old going tits up

[SharkSkinThing]

Please help - I may be jumping the gun here but I'm keen to nip this in the bud as soon as possible.

After weeks of painful very early waking, DS is now sleeping through from 7pm - 5.30am. But the last 2 days (since he's done the longer sleep), he would have his am nap ok, but has had a total meltdown when I try to put him down at his usual 1pm time for a nap.

He has ended up having a nap much later (3 - 4pm yesterday, 2.30 - 3.15pm today).

I do not want this to continue, it's too late in the day for him to nap (going back to work end of July, and childminder does school run at 2.45pm, so he needs to be sleeping earlier if he's going to get the full benefit), and I don't want to push his bedtime later (it's currently 7pm).

Should I just go with the flow for a few days and see what happens? Perhaps he'll drop his am nap? Or should I force him to do it?

Gah. You solve one thing and another crops up!

All advice welcome, thank you, xx

[Seona1973]

both mine dropped to 1 nap at around 11 months. I'd try gradually pushing the morning nap later until it happens just after lunch. Ds used to nap around 9am and when he started dropping a nap I made the morning nap around 11am and then started pushing it back until it was around 12.30pm - it took a wee while and some days he still had to have 2 naps or he would have a meltdown.

[SharkSkinThing]

Thanks, Seona!

When you were pushing the morning nap (DS has one around 8.30am), would you still try and fit in an afternoon nap? Would you shorten the morning nap?

DS wakes at around 5.30am, so it's a big push! How much would you increase the amount by each day? 30 minutes?

[lukewarmmama]

Mine still had two naps until about 18 months, it was only around 10 /11 months that we dropped from 3 to 2!

If he's up at 5.30 then I think going to one nap might be a big ask myself (by the way, DD2 did 5.30am for a few months starting at around this age, in the depths of winter, it was hell, my sympathies...).

How long does he sleep for at his first nap? My strategy would be to gradually cut this down until the desired lunchtime nap time/length happened. Although he's only done this for 2 days you say, so maybe give it a few more days to see if it settles down first?

[latrucha]

My 11 month-old DS has only had one nap a day for weeks now. And he's up by if not 5 every day.

[Iggly]

Can you wake him a little earlier from his morning nap? Also I found that DS needed his nap after lunch earlier than 1 when he woke up early in the morning - half 12. Otherwise he'd be difficult to put down. Overtiredness I think

DS is 20 months and still has a morning power nap if we're out (around 10-20 mins) plus a 90min/2 hour lunch time nap. So be careful dropping naps too soon because if they still need them you risk ending up with a baby which is overtired which could manifest itself through lots of tantrums etc.

[SharkSkinThing]

Thanks so much for your advice.

The last month has been very hard, with DS waking at 4/4.30am! I have now managed to get him sleeping from 7pm - 5.30am, so am really, really thrilled with this. I'm ok with a 5.30am wake up, and he babbles quite happily in his cot until 6am, when I get him up.

Morning nap tends to be between 30 and 60 minutes. Lunch time was around 1 - 2 hours. Even with the extra sleep at night, I think he still needs both of these naps, I'm just wondering why he's suddenly fighting the afternoon one, and how do I resolve that?

I think leaving him for a few days and seeing what happens would make sense. I generally leave at least 3 hours inbetween waking and naps (so, up at 5.30am, ready for nap at 8.30, ready again for nap at 1pm etc).

He was quite red-cheeked yesterday afternoon, so I've got teething in there as a possibility for the disruption, and alas, calpol has no effect on him!

Thanks again. x

[hophophippidtyhop]

Ibruprofen is supposed to be better for teething pain, worth a try. Also, is he on the verge of learning to crawl or walk? sometimes this affects sleep too. My dd's sleep is a bit out of sync, she's teething and looks like she's going to start crawling in a few weeks. I remember dd1 being like this at this age. Also she cut down to one sleep at 13 months and this was the build up to switching to 1 longer sleep for her.

[SharkSkinThing]

Sorry for the delay, Hop - but that's really helpful, thank you. He has just cracked crawling, and yesterday skipped his morning nap (though took it today).

As you predicted it's now settled down, for now! Has your DD settled a bit better too?