Naps for a 10 month old?

[rrreow]

We're trying to introduce a bit of a routine/schedule for our 10 month old. Before we've just been doing things on the fly as and when they occur: bed with us around 11ish, up whenever he'd wake up naturally (usually around 11am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later), nap whenever he'd fall asleep in the day.

Having not had an evening to ourselves since he's been born we've been rather keen to tackle this issue! Bedtime routine is going quite well thanks to nectarina's wonderful thread in this forum, however I am not sure about how to handle naps. How many naps 'should' a baby of his age have? I've tried putting him down for naps with varying success. Sometimes he drops off after a bit of grizzling/crying, but sometimes he just DOESN'T go to sleep, despite the fact that I know he's tired.

He's 'scheduled' for a nap about 3.5-4 hours after getting up, but the past few days he's actually fallen asleep before then (and then put in his cot when already asleep). But then trying for another nap later in the day just doesn't seem to work, but then he'll be tired before his scheduled bedtime or overtired by the time it's his bedtime.. So you might say bring forward his bedtime, but then he'd just be getting up earlier so it would just perpetuate the problem and keep bringing forward his bedtime/getting up time. Argh!!

Should he be having two naps? Is one (longish - today he slept 2 hours for his nap) enough?

Please give me your input / share your experiences!

I can't remember exactly bit I do recall this being a tricky age as my son would transition between one and two naps. He was totally down to one nap by 12 months. So don't think it's an easy age to start working out naps - don't feel bad if it's confusing!

Snap Fevrier, our DS went down to 1 nap after his 9m growth spurt. He was having a long morning nap and then a short afternoon nap and it was the afternoon nap that he started refusing but was too tired come bedtime. I was at my parents' for the week and out and about during the mornings, which meant he didn't want his nap til midday-ish. When we got home he just carried on in this pattern and now just has a 2 hour nap. I'd never intentionally keep him awake but it seemed to help him transition quickly.

The other solution is to cut his morning nap short and hope he'll be tired enough to have an afternoon nap. I've never had the heart to do this as he was a terrible napper when he was younger and I still have nap-refusing nightmares

I would aim for a short morning nap a couple of hours after waking followed by a longer nap in the middle of the day (timings of these will depend on when you start and end your day). Most toddlers over a year old end up dropping the morning nap and having one long (2hr) nap around lunchtime. This is ideal as it stops them being overtired or under tired by bedtime.

Yes good advice there... Oh makes me remember the troubles with a long morning nap and then him refusing the afternoon one but crashing at 5pm.... The problem with bably led routines eh? But what I end up doing.

Ooh that's good to know that this age is a bit of an in-between thing. That does make sense why sometimes he has two naps and sometimes one, but doesn't seem consistent. Thanks for your input, really helpful!

FYI, I did used to wake my DD after her short nap to make sure it didn't go on for hours! If you're anti-waking a sleeping baby, you'll need to see how he regulates himself.