10 month old long morning nap

[violetfern]

Just after a bit of advice if anyone can help
please! DD has settled after the horrible 9 month regression 😩 into a long morning nap of 2 hours and then only having 30 mins in afternoon. We are following the 2/3/4 nap
timings but most days pushing the first nap later than this as she’s up at 530 ish generally. She settles herself within a few minutes for each nap and at bedtime. Wakes once or twice at night for a feed then goes straight down again. Aware that this is a massive improvement from where we have been in the past!

I’ve been trying to restrict the morning nap to 1hr 15/30 max to try and get a longer afternoon nap to see if this helps with the early waking but she still only naps for 30 mins for the pm nap and is knackered by 630pm. This nap is generally in her pushchair so I’m thinking this makes a difference too as morning one is in her cot.

I suppose I’m thinking can I just leave things as they are and go with a long morning nap and just deal with early mornings, or keep trying to cut this down in the hope that we get a longer one later on? Feel bad that I’m waking her and she’s not then making up for it like I’d hope!

Thanks in advance!

My baby did this and I found I had to just go with it. He's now 11.5 months and has dropped the afternoon nap, and the morning nap pushed later so he has one nap at 12pm for two hours. The early waking has now stopped. I didn't take long for this to happen so it could be that he will move to one nap a day soon (although early).

Oh thank you! Good to know that sticking with it has helped. It seems a shame to wake her up when it ends with less sleep overall so I think I’ll persevere (although typically is now almost 2 hours into an afternoon nap 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️) x

My LO did the same at 10 months. I just dropped the afternoon nap as she had always napped better in the mornings. Their wake times increase so quickly that you’ll prob find in a couple of months that that morning nap has turned into a lunchtime/early afternoon nap x

Oh it’s good to know I’m not the only one! You see so much about pushing for a long pm nap

Since my DS was about 10 months he prefers a long morning nap (he’s now 13 months and still naps twice a day). I’d say give it a little while to see if the early starts begin to ease. Is she waking at 5.30am crying or seemingly content? She may be trying to work on a new skill and fancies a bit of time to practice it.
Like you I saw so much about how “important” a long afternoon nap was and I began to cap the morning nap, he’d still only sleep for 40 mins in the afternoon and then he’d be overtired at the end of the day because he hadn’t gotten enough overall sleep. I’d focus on ensuring total sleep needs are met in the day rather than when it happens.

Ah yep that’s exactly the same! Capping it just means less sleep overall! Yep she’s generally happy when she wakes up, just us that aren’t 🤣. Feel so reassured that it’s not just us, and think I’ll leave her to sleep in the morning and just see when things naturally change x