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Post edited 3:54 pm – April 27, 2011 by shannahsings

Ugh.  We are having the worst sleep-deprived roller coaster ride of all time.

About a month ago, I walked into my nine month old, swing-sleeper's room after his nap to find him dangling upside down from his swing (held in only by the lap belt) smiling at me.  That was it.  No more sleeping in the swing.

Needless to say, it was REALLY rocky at first.  I expected that.  But here we are a month later, and while he sleeps ok at night, the naps are just not going well. 

The issue that has been mounting is that his naps are too short and it has pushed his bedtime earlier and earlier, thus pushing his wake-up time earlier and earlier and basically screwing up the whole day.  On top of that, I have to take my 5 year old to preschool in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon right when Munchkin 2.0 wants to be napping.

Lately he wakes at 6am. He is tired and ready for a nap at 8am but I have to take the oldest to preschool at 8:30am (that's the earliest I can leave him).  So I don't get Munchkin back for nap until around 8:50.  He MIGHT nap an hour, but he's usually ready for his second nap at noon and I have pick up my oldest at preschool at 1:00.  So Munchkin doesn't get down until 1:20-ish.  He will then usually take a 30-45 minute nap and that means he's already tired and ready to go to bed for the night at 4:00 or 4:30pm.

I've read all the sleep books and know the philosphy enough to know that early bed times are supposed to result in better night sleep.  So I dove in, putting him to bed super early, no later than 5pm.  I was confident that not allowing him to get overtired would be the key to developing better naps.

Well, it backfired.  He started waking up earlier and earlier, unwilling to go back down. I'm sorry, but I just can't start the day at 4:30 or 5am.  And he would be tired and ready for a nap by 7am…and the whole day just got earlier and earlier and he got more tired.

So here I am at 2pm listening to him scream in his crib after only taking a 30 minute afternoon nap, knowing that he is going to be tired and ready to go to bed at 4:30pm. If I put him down for the night at 4:30, he WILL wake up by 5am.  If I try and hold him off a little, he gets over-tired wakes several times at night.

One day this week, I tried the following.  I got him down for his morning nap at 9am and it was a short one.  He woke at 9:30am.  He was tired and needed to go down for a nap before noon. I decided to try and stay on top of his sleepy cues so I just put him down for a second nap at 11:45. He slept until 12:45 and I was able to leave right on time to pick up the oldest.  I put Munchkin down for a third nap at 3pm and he slept for 45 minutes. He went down that night at 6pm and it worked out great.  He slept until 6:30 the next morning.  BUT that only works when he takes a short morning nap, otherwise his second nap time is right when I need to leave.  The next morning he took a longer morning nap and that threw the whole thing off again.

If I could get him to sleep until 7am, I think the problem would be solved. I could get him down for a 9am nap before he is overtired, he could then go down for his afternoon nap at 1:20 without being over-tired and might actually take a longer nap so he could go to bed at a reasonable hour.  I just can't seem to do anything to help him take longer naps or move his schedule as long as I have to chaufer my oldest to and from preschool.  And it's probably not a good idea to try to re-instate a third nap at nine months.

I would love any suggestions you might have.  Everyday is a whole new adventure and it just confuses things.  We are both floundering around trying to figure this thing out and I am just so confused.

Thanks,

Shannah

Really?  I would think it wouldn't be a good idea to re-establish a third nap right when he should be dropping it.  I guess there is nothing to lose since his naps have gotten almost non-existant.