another thread on nap advice!

[jennyh]

Hi

My 6 month old usually sleeps around 12 hours at night with a few wakings that don't usually cause too much drama. She wakes up full of beans and plays very well for a couple of hours, when it comes to her morning nap she is usually completely knocked out and is upset when I wake her. Because she is so tired, I usually let her have a maximum of 1.5 hours in the morning. She often wakes before this time but there are many times when she is upset at being woken up and is clearly in a very deep sleep. She then has an alright nap at lunchtime providing she is put down in the cot, anywhere between 45-90 mins (much less in the pushchair) and another shorter nap in the afternoon.

My worry is that she will go to a childminder in 2 months where she won't be able to have that really long nap in the morning but she is really moody if she doesn't get it! I know that if I reduced her morning nap she would eventually have make her lunchtime nap the main one which I know is preferred but she seems to need this extra shut-eye and gets very grizzly and lathargic if she doesn't get it. I know all babies are different but my childminder has a way of doing things and I know that she wouldnt be happy to fit in around her mammoth morning sleep when she has other children who are up and about!

Anyone got any thoughts? I cant really get her to sleep longer in the morning because when I go back to work she will have to be up at 7 anyway. I am not sure that her morning tiredness has anything to do with her night-time sleep because she is sleepy whether she has had a disturbed night or not!

Part of me thinks that she is sleepier at the moment as she is reaching lots of milestones and learning loads of new things like sitting up etc, plus she is teething. I know there is a developmental leap around now so maybe that has something to do with it but at the same time she has been like this for a long time! Can I expect any real change by the time she is 8 months or should I be trying to change her bodyclock a bit??

[Saffron]

Not sure how much you can expect her to change naturally by 8 months. Babies are really variable in their nap needs and their pliability to change.

If that's been her pattern for a while, it may take a couple of weeks to change it when she starts with the childminder. Instead of a morning nap, could your childminder give her some quiet time in the morning, eg music or ceebeebees?

[catgirl]

My 6 month old also often has her best and longest sleep in the morning. My older 2 were the same with the morning nap gradually getting shorter (naturally) until about aged one when they both moved to just one sleep after lunch.

I know it's stressful when you're going back to work anyway and trying to work out how your baby will cope with a new environment and routine but try not to worry as it will work itself out and she will be fine.

In my experience, most childminders tend to go out in the morning to playgroups / parks etc and then have a quieter afternoon but your daughter would be able to sleep in the buggy and I guess her morning sleep will just gradually tail off as she gets older anyway.

Why don't you talk to the childminder about it - I'm sure she (or he?!) will be able to answer your concerns, they will have dealt with similar situations before and can discuss with you how they plan to work with / around your daughters needs.

[jennyh]

Thank you! I'll def speak to her as it gets closer. I think it is just a nerve-wracking time! She has now decided 6am is def her get up time so is quite sleepy in the morning now. She's adjusting every week to something different yet I still try to predict it, I should have learnt to give up! Maybe for baby 2 I will! Sure it will work out as these things always do, I'm just trying to prevent her being totally overtired and screechy at bedtime and sadly she is far too interested in what's going on to nap in the day without considerable encouragement and direction!! :)

[JJSP]

Mine was in exactly your pattern when I started her with our nanny-share at 6 months. The other baby was older and was doing short morning nap, big afternoon one. I wanted them to be in sync to make it easier for the nanny. I just slowly cut down the morning nap over about a week and extended the afternoon one.

In our case it was really quite easy to get her to change I was doing it earlier than you as well. That said, clearly it depends on the child. I just mention to give you one example of where it worked pretty easily. Maybe just start trying to shift the naps and see what happens?

J