6 month dd's naps are all over the place!

[Northfieldmommy]

I roughly follow the baby whisperer routine for my dd and it has worked for us so far - up until the last week or so.

The way it has been working is that she wakes in the morning (between 6.30am and 7am), then is tired an hour later, will sleep for 45 mins. I then watch for tired signs which is usually about two hours later and she has a longer nap of about 2 hours. I repeat this for a late nap which is usually about another 2 hours after she wakes for about 45 mins. She's good a self soothing and settles herself well.

Anyway! This week, things have all changed. She's sttn and sleeps a bit longer - about 11 hours - which understandably means that she no longer wants to go back to bed after an hour, but i'm struggling now to work out when she does actually want to go back to bed!

This morning, she woke at 7am and started to show signs of being tired (winey cry, rubbing eyes) at 9.30am. I put her in her cot, but half an hour later, she was wide awake and playing with her feet! It's now 11.30am, and i have just finally got her to sleep.

Any advice in what i should do? Should i spend a week monitoring her new sleep regime and be led by her, or is there a recommended nap schedule i should follow for a six month old? And how should i put it into action? Would be nice to have a proper routine so i can plan my day a bit better.

She goes to bed at between 7.30pm and 8pm - depending on when she wakes from her last nap.

If it helps, my six month old normally has 2 naps a day, but timing is governed more by our schedule than his.

He normally wakes between 7 and half past, and is tired about 2 hours after waking; we normally go out about 9.30 to some activity with my DD who is nearly 3 so he falls asleep in the pram on the way to wherever we are going.

He will then have an afternoon nap somewhere around 2 pm. Most days, one of his naps will be long (2-2.5 hours) and the other around an hour but it varies which one is which.

TBH with having a toddler at home I have a limited amount of time to spend settling him for naps so quite often put him down in his pram so I can rock him while amusing my daughter at the same time.