My DD recently turned 12 months and has been completely upside down with her naps for about 8 weeks now.
At first, she kept refusing one of her two daily naps and gave us the impression she was ready to drop to one nap (even though I know it was rather early). She used to nap for 30 mins at 10am and then do her long nap at around 2pm for 1.5-2 hours. She kept refusing her morning nap and, if she did manage to nap, it would take her ages to go down and then she’d refuse the afternoon one - disaster!
So we decided to start putting her down for one long nap after lunch at 12:30. For about a month, this seemed to work well. She would go down straight away and often nap for 2 hours. We got to do more together during the day and I just thought great, this is the next chapter into toddlerhood.
However, the past few weeks she has been completely upside down. She has been ill on and off as she started nursery (only 1 day a week), has molars coming through and has suffered with bad separation anxiety. We have had night wakings and lots of screaming.
We went back to offering her 2 naps which worked well for 3 days but then she decided that 1 nap was enough again but she will only sleep for 30 mins and nothing more. Needless to say she is exhausted.
I am still encouraging her to do 2 naps but 10am is just not enough wake time for her (she usually wakes between 7-7:30am). She wants to nap at 11am but the issue is that she’ll do a short nap and then refuse a later one. Plus, the later one ends up being too close to her bedtime. I’ll try her at 2:30/3 but she often won’t fall asleep until 3:30 and I don’t want her sleeping much beyond 4 or else she just won’t go down for nighttime sleep until 8pm or later. Her usual bedtime is 7-7:30.
I just feel caught in an impossible situation. She is now miserable on both 2 naps or 1 and will refuse to sleep for more than 30 mins at a time. She is currently asleep now (fell asleep at just before 11am) and will likely refuse a nap this afternoon. Or, if she takes it, will have to be woken because it will creep too close to bedtime.
I am at my wits end and have tried everything. Tried putting her down at 12 the other day in the hopes she’d do a long nap then but she still only did 30 mins.
I’m finding it impossible to make plans because she is constantly overtired and has gone from having a great schedule to no schedule whatsoever. She is often inconsolable when I go out with her. She isn’t walking yet and is in the 98th centile so is very heavy to hold and contain when having tantrums!
Has anyone else been in this situation? I just don’t know what to do and it’s horrible seeing her so unsettled and tired all the time. 😔