Nearly 10 month old - brutally short naps!

[arb123]

Posted before about 8-10 month regression and 20-30 min naps, which led to over tiredness despite early bedtime to help compensate. Needing help. No issue with going to sleep but connecting cycles. This has been going on weeks now.

It’s still happening. Just back
from holiday and resorted to boob napping ( I know I’ve started a habit but in a house of 13 people it was the easiest thing to try get this back on track esp with the additional stimulation). She still woke and moved at 20 mins but fell asleep again and we were getting naps of 1-1.5hr which put us back on a good schedule with 3/3.5/3.75-4 which she responded well to. Night sleep not affected. Daily total 13.5hrs and has been on this amount for a long time and is happy and reaching milestones.

Boob napping is not sustainable for a number of reasons, at least on holiday I didn’t need to stress about housework etc although can’t say I enjoyed being in a dark room whilst everyone was having fun. I return to work in just over two months and this napping is messing up feed schedule too. Plus she will not sleep unlatched ( won’t accept a dummy).

For info she’s sleep trained, used to nap brilliantly in her cot easily for 1-1.5hrs before the regression and connected sleep cycles no problem. Sleep cycle used to be bang on 37 mins. We did Ferber now it’s CIO. I’ve tried giving her time to resettle between sleep cycles both with Ferber and CIO but she just works herself up so badly now she won’t go back down and is practically hyperventilating. All other variables nappy, temp etc checked. Room completely black and white noise on.

I need tips/advice of how to manage this situation without an overtired baby resulting in EMWs! Tried wake windows either side and no joy. Only so early I can put her to bed. Am I getting too stressed for no reason?! I’m at my wits end she did a 57 min first nap yesterday ( which was great compared to what we’ve had) but would not settle for the second nap so in end I boob napped her for 30 mins. Today she took a 24 minute first nap with no difference in morning wake time or routine/wind down for nap.

I am so done with the short naps, I need to know I’m not alone too as this is brutal!

Short naps can be restorative. My baby is one and always has just one cycle naps no longer than 35 mins. Occasionally I can boob back to sleep for a second cycle in the afternoon. I do envy people whose babies have an hour in the morning and two in the afternoon though so they get things done/have a break! Is baby suffering or is it more just annoying for you?

@Flittingaboutagain how old is your little one? True she's never been a 2 hour napper, only when she was small.

Both really, it makes the day super hard when she has been napping so little and means we sometimes have to revert to 3 naps. She does get cranky by time next nap comes if it's been short and it throws the whole day off with having to shorten wake windows esp if we have plans which I find myself doing less of because of this. This isn't making mat leave enjoyable at moment. Literally in May she was consistently doing 2 naps of over an hour long and still getting her 13.5hr daily amount.

It's frustrating and stressful for me as I worry about it impacting night sleep since we have been lucky with that but have had a few EMW. I also can't get anything done in such short times. We have no support due to in-laws in a different country and my family is small with my dad full time carer for my mum. Many one I've asked with kids either can't offer much or can't remember.

I should say she is a happy baby and is doing finally developmentally.

I'm sorry to say but I wonder if you need to adjust your expectations...maybe it suits your baby best at this point in time to have three naps a day still with shorter wake windows. Today my one year old had three short naps...and has gone to bed just fine. Other days this would have pushed bedtime back by hours. I was meant to meet a friend and her baby for coffee, but changed it to a walk so I could try and get the second nap earlier. It paid off as that also ended up being short and it meant that the final nap of the day could be in the car, done by 3.30.

Do you find being at home/in the sling/pram/car makes a difference? Perhaps you need to go with the flow and just follow baby's cues...back to basics maybe? I totally understand it's hard, but sometimes our stressing just makes it worse.

My DS started having 2 hr naps at about 18m old. Before then it was always 40m naps. Agree with PP who says adjust expectations - maybe 3 shorter naps is what she needs right now. Don’t worry - it won’t last forever. Could one of the short naps be in the pram so you can carry on with your plans? Good luck!

Thanks for the responses, totally get the expectations thing and I have spoken to HV regarding impact on development and she said go with flow. It’s just confusing as some days she’ll do a longer nap with no change in routine, DWT/night sleep or WW.

We still do three naps when days are totally off with reduced WW, infact yesterday was one. However she refused the 3rd nap and I tried pram, car, nursing in a dark room before it got too late in day to try anything else.

So she napped 1st nap 21 mins, 2nd nap 35 mins then was up from 12.30pm to 6.15pm. She has never been up so long before so it did make me anxious about night sleep despite a reassuring phonecall from health visitor at lunch time. We’ll just have to go with flow nothing else can do, maybe she’ll revert maybe she won’t.

She used to nap reliably at home in cot, being out in Pram always results in short naps as she’s gotten older. Car is hit or miss. Normally short, although the other week we had a 1.40hr car journey which we timed around first nap and I sat in back and put the snooze shade over carseat and closed it over when she was asleep and she did 1.15hr. We always follow cues along with suggested wake windows but hasn’t made any difference.