Hi again. I think I wake up everyday with 10 new questions. Ha ha! I am curious to what kind of schedules you all have with your 10-13 month olds? My Addison is now 11 months & we have has some rough nights lately (probably teething.) She usually is an early riser, but has been falling back to sleep and getting up later than normal. Which means breakfast later than normal, nap later, lunch later & so on. Problem is - is NOT a good sleeper & do ALOT to get her to take regular naps. Normally this is our schedule:
Wake 6:30 (Bottle of formula)
Solid food/breakfast 8:00
Nap 10:00
Bottle upon waking 11:30ish
Lunch around 12:00 to 12:30
bottle around 3:30
Nap 3:30 or 4:00
wake 5:00
supper at 5:30
Bedtime 7:30
How can I tell if shes wanting a different schedule? I kind of just picked this one & went with it. At this age...do you all give bottle/nurse in between or around mealtime. I would like to know others schedules and how you decided on it.
Trouble with Addison is since we Walk/Rock her to sleep for all naps and bedtime I have never really been able to tell her "natural" napping time, except morning. And again she is sleeping into the lunch hour & then skipping afternoon nap.
Thanks again!!
She is old enough to cut out the morning nap and sleep longer and early in the afternoon. She can sleep later and not disrupt the entire day. I found that to be an easier to follow as the don't need as much sleep.
C. B
R.,
My daughter is almost 15 months and she went through similar times at 10-13 months. My biggest concern was keeping her on a nap time schedule. She would also take a morning nap and one around 1:00. Now she sometimes takes a morning nap and afternoon, but sometimes she does not. I think this is a time when they are transitioning into a one nap a day. Also my daughter likes to snack during the day. I wanted to have set times for her to eat, but it is not a reality at the toddler stage (at least that is what I am told). My daughter no matter if she gets one nap or two during the day, she is ready for bed at 8:00 every night.
My only suggestion is to get out of the habit of rocking her or walking to get her to sleep. If she learns to sleep on her own it will make the schedule thing a lot easier. Just from my experience. I have a light thing that plays music in her room and she falls asleep to that. You may want to try something like that to get her used to falling asleep on her own. Other than that, keep up the good work! Teeth are hard and if that is the case they are all off during that time.
J. S
Unfortunately, in my 4 years of experience schedules are never set for long. As soon as you get used to it, their needs change and thus the schedule changes. I must also admit I fought against a schedule for a long time.. it does make things easier and it is something they want.. but sleep needs change and then there are growth spurts and mile stones and new skills that all cause bumps in the road.
My favorite book about why sleep is so important and helped me make it a priority -- my son was colicky, terrible napper and woke a lot during the night... but after a lot of work he took long naps and slept through the night. While naps are no longer part of our lives.. he does sleep 11-12 hours each night which for him is enough sleep. Oh, I digress.. the book is called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. I still use this book today.
Good luck... just remmber it's never permanent and some things again may just be blips for a day or so and then return to normal. Google growth spurts and look at age milestones.
L.
I would really watch your daughter's cues. Does she seem tired or cranky? Those are good signs that she needs a nap. Refusing to play or not wanting to interact are also usually good cues that babies need a break.
I also agree that slowly easing out of the rocking/walking to sleep will be better for both of you in the long run. You don't want to be stuck rocking a three year old to sleep! So the advice to just hold for awhile and then gradually start shifting to just sitting beside her is good. If you get to the point where you can lay her down just as she is about to fall asleep, and she is comfortable with it, that's even better.
You can expect more changes as she grows. I really just followed my girl's cues. She let me know when she didn't want to nap, usually by playing in her crib or babbling at me.
Overall she doesn't have a bad schedule and you are right they change every few months, you might want to cut back to one nap a day, late morning is usually a good time. When moving a nap around it can be difficult the first few days but almost always worth the effort, if she is fighting her regular naps she is most likely ready to cut back.....every mom dreads it but it does happen, earlier for some little ones then others. One other suggestion I have is to feed her before you give her a bottle, this will help cut them out during the day, except at nap and bed time and you will get a little flack for still having her on a bottle but I believe in weaning at a gentle pace without going cold turkey, offer a cup with her meals this will also help.
I have also rocked all of my little ones to sleep, I don't mind it, but a little trick that helps them get themselves to sleep on there own is to sit with them, but no rocking/walking, it is a pain at first but it usually just takes a day or two, them I lay them on the couch and sit by them and when they want to get up I say night night time lay down, and help them that takes about 2 days and then I move further away and as I am able to lay them down on their own I start to get up and move away, it seems like a lot of work but really it isn't that bad, about the same effort as rocking....just a thought good luck!
