8 month old sleep schedule

[SR35]

Hi, I'm just after some advice on naps for my 8 month old lg. I found a website detailing suggested sleep schedules and while she was 7 months it was three naps a day which worked quite well. However at eight months it says to get them on to two naps a day, an hour and a half for each one. However, two things! Firstly it's based on your baby waking at 7am. Which mine doesn't, she wakes at around 6am if I'm lucky, sometimes earlier! So it says to put her back to bed at 9.30am but if she has been up since 6am then are you meant to bring everything forward by an hour? If that's the case then she'll be going to bed at 6.15pm which I tried the other day and it meant she was wide awake at 4.50am the next morning!

So should I just stick to the set nap times regardless of when she wakes up and she will just have to be awake longer? Only the other problem is that she doesn't always sleep for the hour and a half, usually in the afternoon. So it's meant to be nap from 2.15pm to 3.45pm and in bed asleep by 7.15pm. But the other day she woke up at 3pm from her nap, 45 mins early. I still put her to bed at 7.15pm but of course she was overtired so an hour later she was awake crying and a nightmare to settle. But if I'd given her another nap at 5ish then it would have been too close to bedtime?

Sorry that was a bit long winded but it would be good to hear what other people do. I have tried just doing naps when she seems tired but it never seems to work out right and I think she is a baby who needs a routine.

Also yesterday she slept for 2 hours in the morning from 9.30am to 11.30am (I just let her have longer as she was a bit sniffly) and then the afternoon she slept from 2.50pm to 3.50pm. So it worked out okay for bedtime but she did still wake a few times in the night/early morning but went back to sleep on her own until 5.50am.

I'm just a bit confused really. If in the mornings she naps for longer, should I just let her and then she can have a shorter afternoon nap or should I wake her after the hour and a half and hope she does the same in the afternoon?!

Thanks for any advice xx

 

[LaceyKeo]

I never have woken DS from a nap unless there's a legit reason (gotta go for a doc appointment or something).
He's just over two years old.

If he got tired and dozed off, I let him sleep until he was ready to wake up.

Sleep routines on the web/wherever are a great guide, but you certainly don't need to follow them to the letter. Just let DD sleep. I'm sure you know her patterns (even with random differences) much better than a website.

If she wants three naps a day, let her nap three times a day. She'll drop them of her own accord. Xx

 

[kumber]

I agree with Lacey - my LO is 10 months and has two naps a day which vary between 30 minutes and 3 hours! He also does a solid 11-12 hours a night! I've noticed that changes in this routine equate to a very tired a grumpy child who will not be put down and who will just cry and cry until he is somewhere he can sleep. We have always gone by what he wants, I figure that when he's ready to nap less, he will tell us. As Lacey said, sleep experts don't know your child.

 

[lisastevo]

100% agree with what the other ladies have said. I tried to follow sleep schedules being a first time mum and it was hell. I ended up with an overtired screaming little boy and at the time I had no idea what was wrong and it's taken me till 5 months to realise he just needs a lot of sleep. We now get a very happy awake baby instead of a whiny one!! He even takes a nap around 4.30pm and still goes to bed at 6 and sleeps through. They say sleep promotes sleep and I totally concur.

 

[littlemonkey]

Just reinforcing what has been said already, it's best to let your LO settle into their own routine. I wasted my time following expert's advice on routines and it just ended in tears for LO and I!!

I get the impression that you're looking at a day time routine in the hope of her sleeping better at night? In my experience, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference and no matter what I did my LO would wake up when he wanted!

At about that age, my son was waking at anytime from about 6am. It didn't bother me too much as I was back at work by then and had to have him out with the childminder by 7.30 most mornings anyway. He'd have as long as he wanted for his morning nap, which would be any time after 9, and he would usually only manage two hours max. He tended to have a little afternoon nap, anything update to an hour by about 4/5 and was ready for bed between 6-7. Because I was working and he was between the childminder and home, I've always been quite flexible with his naps. It's worked better for us so he could nap in the buggy while we were out etc.

 

[SR35]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I am going to give it a try and do one morning and one afternoon nap, and let her have as long as she likes. Yes little monkey, I was hoping that better daytime naps would help with her night time sleep. She used to go to bed fine but the last week or so she wakes about an hour after going to bed and sometimes through the night. Mostly she settles herself down again but she woke at 5am this morning and cried on and off until 6am when she woke properly. I don't mind if 6am is the time she wants to get up, I just want her to have a nice restful sleep. I'll give this a try for the next few days and see what happens! Thanks again for all the replies xxx

 

[kumber]

She could be going through a developmental leap, so her brain is just exploding wih new feelings, sensations and understanding. I find that ds is a (excuse the phrasing) fussy little you-know-what during a leap, never knows what he wants, struggles to sleep, becomes very clingy and is generally the complete opposite of my usual happy little chappy. He's currently finding sleeping on his tummy extremely comfy until he gets a dead arm and wakes up crying cus he can't move himself properly. Silly thing!

 

[SR35]

So I've tried the last week or so letting her sleep as much as she wants. It's been generally 2 hours in the morning and 1 - 1 1/2 in the afternoon. But she has been waking at around 5.30am and not going back to sleep, and this morning it was 4.30am! I tried giving her some milk and putting her back down but she was having none of it. I don't know what to do now, I'm so tired! Should I try making her bedtime later or not letting her sleep so long in the day? I know people say that it doesn't effect night time sleep but it does seem to with her. She's never slept a 12 hour night so maybe she just doesn't need as much? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks x

 

[kumber]

Have you tried getting her to snooze in bed with you? We've had to start doing this as 5:30am starts aren't entertained in this household! Once he's awake he won't sleep in his cot so I caved (probably shouldn't have but hey ho) and let him come in with us for a snooze. This morning was a 5:45 wake up, got him in with us and he left til 8:45! It's not ideal but those few extra hours really help me.

If that doesn't work or you'd rather not do it, I have no idea what to sugeest, sorry hun what time is her bedtime?

 

[SR35]

Well I did think about it but was worried she might want to do it all the time! I did end up bringing her in this morning but she was wide awake and wanting to play. Well when she was having two naps a day her bedtime was between 7 and 7.30. It couldn't be any later really as she would be overtired. But so far today I have given her an hour nap from 8.30 to 9.30, an hour from 12.30 to 1.30 and I plan to give her half an hour at 4.30 ish. That way her bedtime can be around 8 and fingers crossed she won't wake up so early! I don't like waking her from naps when she is still tired and it may not even make a difference but not sure what else to try!

 

[kumber]

I think it's just a case of trial and error, seeing what works and what doesn't. Hopefully another mummy has more helpful advice!

 

[Alipops1986]

SR35 - I have seen similar schedules and use them as a rough guide. I think the bit you're missing is while your LO transitions to 2 naps, you may need to bring their bedtime forward so it's earlier, or sometimes they'll need 3 naps not 2 depending how the timings fall.

My LO is now just about 9 months and our schedule is roughly:
6/6:30am - wake up
9/9:30 - nap (1 hour)
1/1:30 - nap (normally 1.5 - 2 hours)
6/6:30 - bedtime.

Hope that helps - like I say, the sample schedules are helpful as a guide.

Alipops x

 

[SR35]

Thanks alipops, I did try this at first but she was waking up so early having gone to sleep at 6.30pm, I don't think it suits her. After making her naps a bit shorter yesterday she did wake up at 4.30am again this morning but after having some milk she eventually did fall back to sleep again until 7.15am so hopefully that helped a bit. It will probably all change again soon I expect! I did think she would be sleeping through the night by now but hopefully it won't be too long!