Hello,
My baby is a week away from 9mo. She has always been a good napper. Has gone down easily right when she shows signs of tiredness. This past month or so, we've been trying to help her sleep through the night with minimal wakings and no feedings. She is now doing that fairly successfully, but now we are struggling a bit with figuring out if WE should implament changing her naps from 3/day to 2. Or if we should continue to let her go down easily at the times she seems tired and let that evolve on its own. I've tried to keep her awake the past couple days to 9:30-10am to put her down then and then keep her up 'til about 1:45-2pm for a second nap. She is showing major signs of crankiness about 4-6pm then when she never did that before when she was taking 3 naps/day. She goes to bed around 7-7:30. She's been waking at about 5-5:15am which is awfully early for us/me. So I've been thinking that if I try to keep her up until that 9:30/10am time, she may sleep a little longer in the morning making that early morning nap merge with the night time sleep which it oughta I think. This morning, she woke at 6:30 and slept straight through the 11 hrs. last night, but then today, her naps are screwed up and she hasn't gone down easily AT ALL. Oh, I'm so confused. This is my first baby and I don't know if I should be trying to "schedule" her or if I should simply continue in the manor that was working before, letting her take a nap when she naturally gets tired in hopes that the 3 naps/day will reduce to 2 on their own. She sleeps way better then and never gets cranky. Or if I should endure the crankiness for a while in hopes that she continues to consolidate her night time sleep and take fewer naps. Is it typical for 9 mo. olds to take 3 naps a day? I've read that they should be taking 2. What to do?
Hi B.,
Keep in mind every child is diffrent, and mom does know best. Total sleep for a nine month old should be about 14 hours daily between naps and nightime sleep. My kids as infants have always napped and hour in the morning, from 9-10 and 2-3 hours in the afternoon. 1-3pm or 1-4pm. Both kids go to bed about 8pm and sleep until 7am. Good luck and follow your heart.
My daughter was born June 1- so close in age to your daughter. I am a weisbluth follower (Happy Sleep Happy Child) so I follow his book and timetable. Basically, 1st nap should be around 9, lately my daughter has been going down around 8:30- He calls this an extension of the night sleep. She started 3 weeks ago to take really long morning naps and then was having a hard time going down in the afternoon so I started limiting her am nap to 1.5 hours. I have another daughter at home that takes an afternoon nap so I really cherish my afternoon quiet time. Her second nap is at 1ish. I follow Weissbluth's suggestion that 2-3 hours of awake time is what she needs. After a good 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon she is usually awake until 6-7pm. She will sleep until 6:45am with an wake up some nights (tends to need a diaper change at that time).
I used this same schedule for my 2nd daughter also. She was a little more temperamental with her sleep schedule. She was always in bed by 5:30pm and continued that bedtime until 2 years old! She continues to take a great nap at 1 pm and she is 3.5 yrs now. If I try and extend or skip the nap she turns into a mess.
I guess my suggestion would be to ease your daughter into an earlier bedtime to get rid of the third nap. I love the saying "Sleep begets sleep" the earlier to bed the better they sleep and usually longer! Hope this gave you some ideas!
Hi B.,
Just trust your instincts, what does your heart tell you to do? Listen to your heart, then follow it!
It's OK to make mistakes in parenting. That's how we learn what not to do with the next one. LOL!. Those are the times when you can look back and laugh because you can't believe you were worrying about that, or what you did, what they did.
Everyone's situation is different. Every child is different. Each family situation is different. My hubby worked first shift and I worked third shift when our son was born. I got to sleep when and if he slept. It's just that. You do what you have to do.
If you need to change your daughter';s sleeping habit for a reason then by all means do so., She'll let you know if it's not going to work or not. And then you move on to plan B. If it works, you are good to go.
J.
I really like the book Good Night Sleep Tight, The sleep lady. Naps are the hardest thing to do. But I think you are doing the right thing by doing the two naps. It will take her
awhile to adjust but it will happen. But don't stress about it. Eventually her body will adjust and she will sleep in later in the morning. Just make sure that those naps are longer then 45 minutes or they don't count. Good luck.
My suggestion would be to let her guide your decision. If she falls asleep easily at naptime, and still sleeps well at night (in terms of falling asleep, staying asleep, self-soothing during night-wakings, and length of sleep), there's no reason to push losing a nap. For both my boys, I wondered the same thing, and then all of a sudden, they started not falling asleep, or waiting longer and longer for those sleepy cues, to the point where we could no longer squeeze three naps in. (Like, for example, when that first nap usually started around 8:30 or 9, then became 10, and he would sleep a little longer. Then his second nap got pushed even further back, to the point where that last late afternoon/evening nap would never work.) In other words, they'll change it up for you soon enough! :)
Hi B.
I think you need to follow your heart. but research has shown that over tiered children sleep worse than well rested children so if your goal is to have a happy healthy baby I would say. keep the three naps and let her decide when she needs two. Good Luck:) T.
If she shows you when she's tired I would let her guide you to her nap times. If you keep her awake when she's tired she will become over tired and not sleep well if at all. Both of my boys have dropped naps on their own time when they were ready. My youngest is 13 months and still taking 2 naps a day because that's what his body needs for him to be a happy toddler.
