Nap Disaster

[lactatinggirl]

My daughter is 1 year old and she's been taking two naps for a while now and always takes two, but she fights it every day.

We wake up at about 7:30 (and she goes to be somewhere between 7:30-9:00 the night before) and she's happy until about 10:30, then she starts getting super tired and grouchy. The problem is if I try to get her to nap (with the whole routine of rocking and nursing with the lights off and the music on like we do at night) she just get more tired and grouchy, but won't go to sleep. Without fail she never naps until after 12:30, which means two hours of grouchy baby!

I've tried just not trying to get her to nap until 12:30, but of course she just gets progressively grouchier and by the time I get her to sleep she's having a fit. I've also tried just nursing her endlessly when she starts getting tired, but not matter how close to sleep she gets, she never takes that final step to get there.

I plan on getting The No-Cry Nap Solution from a friend of mine soon, but if anyone has some ideas they would be warmly welcomed.

[pacificbliss]

If she consistently wakes up at 7:30 maybe the inconsistent bedtime throws her? Have you tried a set bed time? I know, easier said then done...DS had an inconsistent schedule and was ok with it but it doesn't work for al kids.

[lactatinggirl]

Actually the wake up time isn't very consistent either. She wakes up around 7:30 which is sometimes 7:00 and sometimes 8:30 (of course always late when we have something to do and early when we are planning on staying home :-P). We tried to do a consistent bedtime at one point, but found that it was less stressful for all of us if we just put her to bed when she started getting tired. That was about 6 months ago though, so it may be something I need to re-address. Thanks!

[katmann]

Just curious - are you putting her down in the same place for naps and at night? Or is she going to bed at night in your bed, and then you're trying to put her down in a crib for naps? We do this with ds, which can make naps a little harder to manage. Lately it's been better (he's 14.5 mos), though I've been letting him sleep on my lap after nursing for his morning nap, which is backsliding for us (daylight savings got us all screwed up and we haven't recovered fully).

She might be transitioning from two naps a day to one, which can be rocky. Has it been going on long? Is teething an issue? If so, some homeopathic tablets like Hyland's might help.

I agree with PP about consistent bedtime, too, though as she said, it's easier said than done.

[lactatinggirl]

She sleeps in our bed for nighttime and naps. She's been doing it for weeks, but it's gotten much worse for the last few days. I have been wondering if she may be teething because she's chewing on her fingers more than normal. Wouldn't that affect all of her sleeping though?