For the first 6 months or so I didn't really have a routine but since then my daughter has started to fall into a pattern of when she feels sleepy. She usually wakes anywhere from 6-7:30am and has two naps, one from about 10:00am and one from about 2:00pm. These naps can vary in length, anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours each. This has been pretty consistent now for the last five months.
For the last few days though she has started to resist these naps.
On some days she will sleep for much longer than normal for the first nap and then completely refuse the second nap. When this happens I have tried making the second nap later but she still refuses. This means she sleeps from 10am-12noon and has nothing then till 8pm bedtime. I'm a bit worried about this, as 8 hours is a long time for her to go without sleeping.
On other days she refuses the first nap initially but will go down about 11:30 ish messing up lunch time.
Today I assumed she would go down at 11:30 ish again so I was going to give her an early lunch but she was knackered by 10!
So do you think I should just go with the flow and let her sleep when she wants on a day-by-day basis? I guess I'm just worried (okay, incredibly frightened) that this will mess her her night time sleep - she's only just started to go through with just one wake up.
Or do you think I should try to drop one nap and aim for one longer midday nap? How have people gone about this?
Also, do you think I should try and make her wake up times consistent?
Thanks lots for any advice!