Nine-month-old suddenly refusing second nap and becoming overtired by bedtime

[Ovie1207]

My 9 month old has always been a bad napper, but the last week or so he will only take one morning nap for the whole day. We had moved to a 2 nap schedule, which seemed to be working well. But now, no matter what time his first nap ends, he will not have another one. His morning nap can be 30-60 minutes, and it doesn't make a difference how long this one is. Yesterday he woke up very early, so woke up from his first nap at 9.15. He didn't sleep again until bedtime. He's very clearly tired, rubbing his eyes and bursts into tears every now and then, but will not nap. He hasn't slept in his pram for months, and the car is only very occasionally. Because he's overtired I've been putting him to bed at 6pm, but he's still so restless overnight and wakes up crying a lot (probably due to being overtired). Is this just a regression thing that will solve itself or is there anything I can try? Afternoons are absolute hell at the moment since he's exhausted but won't nap, then I'm up constantly through the night.
Thanks.

That's one of the many things I tried, doesn't work 😂. The advice was to keep him in the dark and not feed him until at least 6 and wait until 9 for a nap to "reset". It didn't work for him, I'm starting to think he's just an early riser.

Would he fall asleep for a ten minute bridge nap at around the time he should be waking up. That means that his day is starting at the right time, and the short sleep should take the edge off sleep pressure enough that you aren’t either needing to nap at 9am, which pushes everything hours too early or trying to massively push the stretch to the first nap beyond what he’s comfortable with to try to keep to your morning schedule?

Oh lord! You poor woman!

Well, maybe a nice wedge of Calpol the next teething round will give you a night or two of respite?!

Mine was like this went to one nap most days at 9 months it did help with the shocking early waking, was much more reliably after 6. His schedule was 6:30/6:45 wake- breast feed books in bed. U
7:45 breakfast then wash and dressed out by 8:30/9am to swimming/ play group etc snack around 10am then home for 11:30/11:45 lunch then down for nap if I was lucky he would go to 2pm for a 7:45/8pm bedtime, if less lucky then 1:30 and a bed time between 7 & 7:30.
He dropped his nap to about an hour by 18m and to 45 minutes if I wanted a 7:30 bedtime. He dropped his nap completely around 26 months and has just graduated with a first from Oxbridge. Clever kids sometimes don't sllep much. Good luck.

That's something I haven't tried. He's not great being woken up from short naps, but it's worth a try!

We went through something very similar around that age. It turned out to be more of a phase than a permanent schedule change. For us, trying to force the second nap just made everyone more frustrated.
We had better luck bringing the first nap a little earlier, giving plenty of quiet wind-down time before the second nap, and accepting that some days it just wasn't going to happen. After a couple of weeks, things settled down again.
Hopefully it's just a regression or developmental leap rather than the end of two naps. Hang in there—it was exhausting while it lasted.

Definitely wake him up, it feels mean but if you want to nap train it’s the only way. I agree that he may be transitioning to one nap a day but that needs to be in the middle of the day or it won’t work.

So if he is waking at 4 or 5, and then wanting a nap a couple of hours later, let him nod off but wake after ten minutes. Hopefully he’ll nap again before bedtime.

9 months can be awful. There is a huge sleep regression and lots do wake early.

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? I think there is a chapter on early waking in there.

Can I ask how his eating and drinking is too? It may be that he appears to have enough but could do with some more good fats and protein during the day? Butter is supposed to help with sleep too so you could try him with toast and thickly spread butter before he sleeps?

There is a good guide to what they should be eating here.

The only thing I can suggest for his afternoon nap is trying him on a bed? It might work going into your bed with him or you could try a bed in his room with a bed guard? I’ve known a couple of babies around this age who won’t have their second nap in a cot but will sleep in a bed but then will sleep in the cot at night.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I thought we'd turned a corner, had 2 better days without really changing much and he even slept until 6. Then this morning we were back to 4.30 wake up and he's been screaming fighting a nap since 1 as he's so tired. I do think he might be getting his next tooth so maybe that's a factor, who knows 😂.