10 months too early to drop morning nap?

[AnnieDelores]

My little boy is almost 10 months but already showing signs of needing to drop his morning nap. He normally sleeps from 7.30pm to 6 or 6.30ish if we're lucky.

He shows no signs of being tired for his morning nap before 9.30am (unless he's had a restless night) but I assume he's just excited with life so I give him a cuddle and put him in his cot in a dark room. He will fuss, crawl around and stand up for half an hour before finally crashing at around 10am. This is probably partly due to the fact he's tired himself out protesting! I wake him if he doesnt wake himself by 11am. He then won't go down for an afternoon nap until 2.30pm at the earliest. Today it was 3.15pm and that was after a big fuss. I woke him at 4.15pm and the result was that he didn't want to go to bed till gone 8pm.

Should I shorten his morning nap to 30 minutes (I hate waking him though) or should I experiment to see when he wants to take his morning nap naturally (I normally go by the 2nd yawn and eye rubbing) . My concern is that a late afternoon nap is making bedtime tricky and he wakes at 6am no matter how late he goes to bed.

Thoughts?

My youngest stopped ALL daytime naps at the tender age of 18m so it's perfectly possible that your son is ready to give up his morning nap.

The main thing is that he continues to sleep through the night and it's sounds like you have him in great routine there. I would try dropping the morning nap and see how he goes. With a bit of luck he'll make it through to (an earlyish) lunch and then nap early in the afternoon. And if it doesn't work you can always reinstate the nap! Babies are more flexible than we sometimes think!

Thanks Rotkehlchen. I just feel uneasy because everything I read says 12 months AT LEAST for dropping the morning nap. But you're right, I could try it and see how it goes.

Nope, morning nap stopped at 10 months for dd.... I have held on to the pm nap for another year but I should think that that will also disappear before 2nd birthday. Exhausting for us but kind of easier to plan your day!

My DS went to one nap a day at about 8 or 9 mo iirc. He's currently 16mo and only has an hour at about lunch time now - sleeping later that 2 WRECKS bedtime

How do you get your babies to sleep through the night??

My ds2 is ten months. Wakes for a bottle around eleven and then around half three he's after more milk

He is a big baby, but I don't know how to get him to sleep through!!

Well BoysBoysBoysAndMe, that's a big question. If your son is getting enough food during the day, he should not need milk at night. It's like giving him a mars bar! I reckon at this stage it's habit, not need......that's what the "experts" say anyway. Have you tried giving him water / diluting his milk / some gentle controlled crying (leave him for 5 minute periods until he gives up and goes back to sleep)? My son would take milk if he woke at 3 because its nice and comforting, but I know he doesn't need it. I give him a dummy and a back rub / head stroke and tell him its night time and leave him. If he's still fussing after 5 minutes I give him water. After that, I leave him to grizzle himself back to sleep. I make sure he gets 3 good solid meals a day and 500mls milk over 2 or 3 feeds. Does that help?

My dd went down to one nap a day at about that age but couldn't last all morning so would nap from about 11-1 and have lunch when she woke up. Her nap then shifted to after lunch at about 16 months.

That's interesting ellesabe. I reckon that's what he would do. Did you give her a snack before her nap to get her through till lunch?

Thanks delores.

Just confirmed what I was thinking really. I'm going to offer him water or diluted milk I think. I just feel mean.

He gets plenty through the day. Just greedy. Thanks and fingers crossed.

Dilute it gradually....till you get to just water. Fingers crossed he will then get to the point where he doesn't "need" food because he's stopped getting it. Worth a try at least!

Yeah I would give her a snack at 10:45 then put her down. She'd have a nice long nap and ten still be knackered by bedtime. Perfect!

and then

My DD completely dropped her morning nap by about 9 - 10 months, I just went with it and put her down for a long afternoon nap from 1.30 for 2 hours. Dropping the morning nap meant she slept a solid 2 - 2.5 hours and slept all night too. She dropped all daytime naps from the age of about 2. Some babies do drop naps earlier that the "books" say IMO and she was just one of them, no point in trying to force her to sleep when she wasn't tired and she was always a champion nightime sleeper so no complaints.

Try him without a morning nap and see what happens.

Ok. This is encouraging to hear. Today he woke early at 5.30am so napped from 9.45 to 11.15am. He refused to go to sleep at lunchtime / early afternoon so I kept him up till 6pm when he finally crashed. I think this is the way it will be and I'll try to Hope he doesn't wake at 5am because he's gone to bed at 6pm! Saying that, his morning wake time doesn't seem to have anything to do with the time he goes to bed. Here's hoping less sleep during the day might lead to a 12 hour night!

We kept the morning nap and dropped the afternoon one at 9 months. Still having morning naps at home (21 months) but after lunch naps at nursery. At home he just starts yawning at 9:30-10 so I just go with it and let him sleep then. No reason that babies have to have their nap in the afternoon!