I give in - I admit I DO need a routine for my 10 month old DD, but what and how??

[ilovespagbol]

10 month old DD is not really in a formal routine (well, one that works). Day starts with breastfeed in our bed, anytime from 6.30 to 7.30 for 40 minutes, sometimes more, after which I get her up for the day. Breakfast at nine. She will nap anytime from 11am to 2.30 pm, for anything from 35 ? 90 minutes!! She sometimes she need a nap and its lunch time, recipe for disaster. Do I need to be more structured? A friend has suggested regular nap times at the same time each day. I have no idea when this ought to be as I only try to put her down if she shows signs of tiredness (ie., after she has rubbed her eyes a few times, then I change her nappy and get her upstairs for a short story) Will this work? Even now when I try and put her down for a nap, she cries and I know she is tired as she is rubbing her eyes! Please, where do I start, what is a reasonable waking / feeding / sleeping routine for a ten month old? (soon to be with childminder two days a week!!) Thanks for listening!

I can share what generally happens for my DS who is 9 mos....wakes between 5:45-6:45 (yawn...but he goes to bed very early!), BF in bed, then food breakfast around 7:30 or 8:00. Nap about 3 hours after waking for usually just over an hour, sometimes more sometimes less. BF after nap, then food lunch about 12:00, then a second nap about 3 hours after waking from first nap. This nap is usually short and in the buggy. BF after nap, then food dinner about 17:00. Then bath, BF and bedtime about 4 hours after second nap finished.

We have used tips from the No Cry Sleep Solution about putting in place a "wind down" routine before naps. E.g., nappy change, same story, same song, draw blinds, etc. This seems to work as he knows a nap is coming.

Sounds complicated but it is just what he fell into! The Baby Whisperer has a lot of useless/bad advice, but what does work for me is keeping track of awake times....so we don't have set times for naps, but base it on about 3 hours after waking. A 10 month old might be able to go a bit longer than 3 hours from waking.

I also have to watch the clock as my DS gives no tired signs until he is way past it and then melts down with overtiredness.

Most 10 month olds I know seem to have 2 naps...one morning, one afternoon, one a bit longer than the other. Maybe totalling 1.5-2.5 hours over 2 naps? Then at some point they start to drop the short nap and move to one longer sleep in the middle of the day. Am sure lots of babies do nothing even close to this, of course!

Thanks for this. Perhaps I ought to try and schedule her a bit more on hours of wakefulness. Today for example, she looked sleepy at 9.45 am but despite eye rubbing and lesving her in her cot she would not sleep so after 25 minutes, I got her up again. Perhps she was over-tired and the window was lost? I then tried at about 12.20 but it was near lunch time so she was tired but hungry. During lunch she was very sleepy so just as she was finished eating I scooped her out of her hight chair into her buggy which was laid flat ans she was asleep in minutes and is asleep now. Yesterday she had one whole half hour when we were out!

My 10 month old DS wakes 6am-7am, breakfast, does the school run with older DDs, then falls asleep in bugggy reclined flat at 9am for about an hour, sometimes 90 mins. Lunch at 12ish then nap for about an hour at 2pm. Also has an additional BF before either the morning or afternoon nap. Has tea at 5.30ish, then bath and in bed at 7. I think two naps is fairly standard for this age and it is surprising how often they have a very early nap ie, only a couple of hours after getting up.

Our routine is set by the older children's school run so is quite easy - I found it much harder with my first baby as I would change what I was doing day to day. My DS also shows v clear signs of tiredness eg, eyer-rubbing, irritable and even a sleepy 'song' noise he makes.

The most important part is settling well in the evening - if your baby is fine going to bed, I wouldn't worry too much about day time routine.