WWYD - Overtired 11 month old deciding to nap at 5pm

[KentishMaid1977]

My 11 month old's sleep (daytime and night) has been disturbed all week due to a cold and possible teething. Yesterday she was pretty hyper and overtired all day. I kept trying to put her down to no avail, until 5pm when she decided she really did want to sleep after all. So, I put her down and she woke up crying 45 minutes later in a right old state, didn't really want her dinner and she didn't go down to bed until about 10pm.

I just didn't know what to do for the best. She was clearly very tired and needed to sleep at 5pm, but it messed up everything else. Only asking because today is going the same way...

I'm with you. I make allowances when ill or teething, and pay for it, but it is only temporary! I've had the same cold as ds but not been able to sleep when I've wanted to (which has been very often), so I sympatize with him, and I'm not even teething. Give her some time and re-evaluate when better from cold at least?

Take her for a walk in the pushchair at nap times? She might sleep which gets her through to bedtime.

Thank you. She had a slightly better day yesterday, but still very snotty and woke herself up 10 minutes into her morning nap by coughing, bless her. She had a relatively good night, albeit in with us from about 4.30am!

I'm not one for staunch routines, but it's so tricky knowing what to do for the best when it comes to sleep. Would it have been better the other day not to let her nap at 5pm and try putting her to bed slightly earlier instead, even though she desperately wanted to sleep at 5pm?? Rhetorical question BTW. Hopefully she'll be back on track once she's over her cold.

I would have taken her for a walk at lunch time to try and get her asleep (have had this with DS). Or put her to bed at 5pm (again had this with DS) and just write it off! We had to put DS to bed at 5 and he slept until midnight, woke as hungry so we fed then back asleep after 90 mins.

I have had some similar issues with DD also 11mo. I tend to let have two approaches.

One is to let her sleep, but downstairs in her buggy with the lights on etc, and to wake her after 15 minutes. That way she has taken the edge off the tiredness but hasn't had a full (and satisfying) sleep cycle. Would then expect to put her to bed proper at normal 7pm bedtime or up to 30 mins later. FWIW, when she was little, it was around 4-5ish that she would have a very quick 15 minute sleep, and it was enough to 'put her on' until bedtime.

The other is to give her something to nibble on, it distracts her, and it gives her a bit of energy, and from that, she can make it through bath time to last bottle, at which point she can flake and have most of whilst v drowsy if she wants.

I also try and buggy at naptimes if I think she's not going to sleep well, to try and stay more or less on track.

Personally I probably wouldn't put her to bed that early and leave her, as then she would wake early and the next day would be all off kilter too, but people have different approaches to this so that's just my opinion.

Just my thoughts.

D