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Hi everyone, I just joined.  DS was a great napper once I learned to put him in the swing.  At 9 months, he outgrew it, and we switched to the crib for naps.  Nap#1 fell right into place, but his afternoon nap was nonexistent for a while, but usually lasts about 30 minutes.  There are days when he might sleep 45 to just over an hour, but they are rare.  At least I have been able to see that he is able to soothe himself back to sleep once in a while for this nap.

Recently figured out that his total waketime for the day was waaaay too much.  The past week he has been almost STTN (I do a dreamfeed or let him wake me up for it, but if I do it, it's at 10:30, and if I wait for him, it's around midnight).  Usually he goes right back to sleep, and it only takes 30 minutes.

He wakes up around 5am.  Putting him down for his first nap at 8am is impossible.  The older sibling is getting ready for school, and while I don't *have* to drive her, I do, and as soon as we get back, we start the naptime routine.  At least it's a scheduled thing and he knows what comes next.  It's rare that he has trouble with this nap, but it does happen (like this morning). 

Nap #2 sucks.  I can do it at 3hrs, 3.5hrs of waketime, it doesn't matter.  He only sleeps for 30 minutes, if at all.  So then it's usually about 4 or 4.5 hrs until I can manage to get him to fall asleep.  Total waketime is anywhere between 11 and 12 hours. 

Lately I have been putting him to bed early (around 5), but it's such a new thing for me that I have trouble being organized about it, so he doesn't get his bath (or if he does, then it prolongs the bedtime)…

I was looking at the "managing naps" handout and saw that you could try pushing the time back by 15 minutes and such.  has anyone tried this with success?  I guess she wouldn't suggest it if it wasn't successful.

Post edited 1:43 pm – November 13, 2010 by llcoxon78

Thank you for your response, I greatly appreciate another set of "eyes" on our situation.  I guess part of the problem is the chicken or the egg quandry.  He wakes up way too early, won't go back to sleep, anywhere between 4am and 6am (I am happy with 6, it works well), which means he either falls asleep at 7:30am or wait until after we get back from the school, which means falling asleep around 9am.  He almost always naps for an hour for this first nap, so where it used to be 9-10, since I've been putting him down earlier, it's 7:30-8:30 (but that's still a very new thing for us).  I *was* doing his second nap anywhere between 3-3.5 hours after wakeup, so with the 10am wakeup from his first nap, it would be between 1 & 1:30.  With the new 8:30 wakeup, I was shooting for a second nap of 12pm, but it was still only lasting 30 mins.  I know I'm supposed to try again within the next hour for another nap, but sometimes the pickup from school doesn't allow it, depending on the time of the afternoon nap and so forth.  All this was resulting in earlier and earlier bedtimes, which only makes him wake up earlier (that's the part I don't get about it all).  I do have the book, just got it the other day.  I will share it with my husband so he can help me stick with it!!

If, after reading the above, you have a different suggestion, I would appreciate it.  I was in tears this morning because he went from 4am to 9:45am, but not for lack of trying.

On a high note, just a few sentences ago, I heard him stir and fuss… and now it's quiet.  Which means he's either having a BM or he went back to sleep! 

Thanks :)