Nap timings - 10 month old

[BlueGecko]

Hi all

I've had great advice before off you MNer's so I'm posting again to see if anyone can help.

My Dd has just turned 10 months. Breastfed. Good eater of a variety of foods.

Been sleep training to get her off the boob to sleep which is going ok. Using a gentle method of sitting in the room with her. She can now self settle - and she can do it with minimal fuss when she wants.

Typical day:
Up for day around 6:30/7. Bf pretty much straight away.

Breakfast at 8am.

She was then put in buggy to do school run at 8:30. Often if I called in shops / got chatting to other mums she'd be in her buggy till 9:30. Despite looking tired she wouldn't drop off.

Get home, bf and scamper about till 10am.

Put in cot for nap at 10am. Struggle to get her off to sleep and often will only sleep 20 mins.

Lunch starts around 11:30/12.

Put down for another nap about 12:30/1. She'd often sleep for 1.5 to 2 hours.

School run again. Home.

Tea - 4:30/5.

Bf at about 5:45/6 downstairs.

6/630 bedtime routine starts upstairs.

In bed for 6:30/7. Often a struggle to get her off to sleep. Sometimes a Lot of screaming which I think is maybe due to over tiredness? Sometimes I worry that she's hungry as she doesn't seem to spend much time bf these days. But I'm trying not to feed her again once in her bed as I know she wants to fall asleep on me!

She doesn't have a dummy. She often wakes once or twice for a feed in the night. I'm trying to wean her down to one bf about 11pm.

Trying to bf her in the day is a job as she is soooo nosey. I often don't think she takes enough. But after limiting milk in the night, last night, she fed really well when she woke this morning.

My main question is - does she still need her morning nap? It's consistently only 20 mins.,.,

Anyone have any other observations on our routine?

Thanks :)

Please can someone answer - how long do you personally give it to get your baby to nap before you give up? An hour this morning of screaming before nap aborted. What would others have done in this situation?

I wouldn't have had baby crying for an hour if it could be avoided. But neither would I have given up. I know my baby's needs better than a baby understands herself, so when I know she needs a nap, I know she needs a nap.

I have an escalating series of methods I use to give increasingly more help to sleep, depending on how much baby is fighting sleep. At 10 months old it would go something like:

• in cot hand on chest, dummy and wait
• in cot shushing and patting with dummy
• offer bottle of milk, then repeat the above
• on my bed cuddling together, dummy, holding quite still within a full body cosleeping cuddle
• into bouncy chair. At 10 months baby is too big for this routinely, but useful for occassional over tiredness
• if still not having any of it and all else fails, a very lobg car drive will always do it.

If I have to escalate up these stages for a nap, I use that to inform future naps. It means baby is over tired so next time to get baby going to sleep earlier.

Definately agree with lady lolly. My 11 month old has always fought sleep (for naps). We got stuck in a really bad cycle of overtiredness which went on for months. All we could do was bring bedtime extremely early (anywhere from 5pm for putting him down). He still woke at a really early time the following morning, which he did with a later bedtime, but he was getting better quality sleep and more of it. He has always gone to bed without any issues though, so not sure how you can overcome this, but hopefully not being exhausted will help settle them easier and faster. Naps have always been tricky for us. He will not sleep in the pram, even if it's his usual(ish) nap time. He just can't switch off. So even if your little one is looking tired etc. But doesn't fall asleep on the school walk, it probably means they are tired but don't want to miss out. Then they get past the tired point which makes it harder for them to settle and to stay asleep in my opinion. Ive had 2 children who struggle with overtiredness and its so hard to do anything with the baby because I know he will not sleep while being pushed around in a pram. I try to make sure we are always home for at least the first nap of the day so that I can get him to sleep before he gets too tired.
I wouldn't say we've definately 'cracked it' when it comes to sleep. We still have shitty cat naps thrown in here and there which makes him a nightmare to deal with, and we sometimes have ridiculously early mornings, but things are definately much better now he's getting 11 ish hours at night and 2 naps a day. I'd also say that trying to extend wake times can cause real issues and not to push it (easier said then done when you have to take an older one to school but hopefully summer hols could help with this part). I also think that more day sleep definately helps with better nights sleep and also getting them to bed before they are exhausted (3 hours ish after they have woken from their last nap for mine).
My little one currently goes to bed at 5.45 and is almost always asleep within 5-10 minutes.
So he sleeps solidly 6-5.30ish. Wakes usually because he wants to get up, but sometimes has a bottle and goes back over
He is always ready for his first nap around 8/8.30. I try to put him down before any tired signs coz this works best for him. He can nap anywhere from 40minutes-2 hours or so (slept 8.30-11.45 yesterday and 8.30-11.20 the day before but this was a first!).
I struggle to time the second nap and very rarely feel like I get it right. If he's only had a mini nap, I try to give him dinner early and put him down after that. This usually then leads to a very long wake time before bed and he gets exhausted! He can also sleep anywhere from 30 minutes-2 hours. I try to put him down for his second nap around 2 and a half-3 hours after he woke from previous nap.
He gets bathed at 5 then quiet time, bottle and into cot at 5.45. He very rarely wakes through the night.
One thing I have found is that you under estimate just how much sleep they actually need. My little boy didn't wake until 6.40 today(never does this) (asleep from 6.10 last night). Thought first nap would end up being much later but he started wingeing at 8.30, and was asleep at 8.40 and is still there now.
On an average day he gets around 2-3 hours of naps and 11 hours at night. I'd definately stick to 2 naps, shorten the awake times and persist in leaving them to put themselves to sleep. Even after a 3 hour+ nap yesterday, he was still ready for another in the afternoon (we were out visiting so it ended up being after he'd shown tired signs). Slept 2.45-3.30 in the car on the way home. Still went to bed fine at his usual time and had a better lie in this morning for it! Some childrens sleep habits seem a bit back to front, especially in my experience