But the kicker really is that when she takes her afternoon nap she usually plays for a long time in the crib at bedtime...from 7 p.m. until 8 or even 8:30 p.m. The problem being that then she wakes up earlier. It's the whole sleep begets sleep principle. If she stays up later she wakes up earlier, gets less sleep, gets cranky. But on days when she doesn't take the afternoon nap, she falls asleep pretty quickly at night and sleeps until at least 7 in the morning...gets her 12 hours of sleep. But on those days she's also generally cranky in the late afternoon / evening.
So maybe it's time to push her morning nap to midday and lose the 2nd nap? I decided to try it out yesterday. She woke up about 6:40 a.m. She had breakfast a little after 7...big breakfast. She started to fuss a little around 9 a.m. so I gave her a sippy cup of milk. She drank pretty much the whole thing. And then she continued playing happily. We missed music class on Tuesday since she was sick...so we went to a make-up class at 10:15. We got home about 11:15 and she had lunch at 11:30...her normal amount lunch. After lunch she was definitely tired but not fussy or anything. I put her in the crib at noon. She pretty much went right to sleep.
I was hoping she'd take a nice long nap...but no, she woke up about 1:35 p.m. An hour and a half is a good morning nap for her...but if she's only taking one nap it really ought to be 2-3 hours. She also woke up fairly unhappy. I'm not sure whether she woke up hungry or if something else was bothering her, but I gave her a sippy cup of milk. She drank it and was happy after. She then had a normal happy afternoon. Around 4:30 she started to fuss a bit and I gave her a snack. Around 5:30 she started to fuss a bit and I gave her dinner. She was fine during dinner and getting ready for bed and everything...not really any different than on a 2 nap day.
Shafi put her to bed at 7 p.m. and she played in the crib until about 7:30 p.m. Certainly that's longer than I thought she would play...but still better than she does on a 2 nap day. And this morning she woke up at 7:10 a.m. So she got almost 12 hours of sleep. So I wasn't sure whether we'd stick with the 1 nap schedule or not...figured I'd play it by ear. I have been told by friends that their kids went back and forth from day to day for awhile before settling on 1 nap...some for a couple of months.
So this morning she started rubbing her eyes and showing other signs of being tired by about 8:30. I poured her milk around 9 and gave it to her in her room with the lights low as part of a pre-nap routine...she went right to sleep when I put her down at 9:15 a.m. And she napped for just over 2 hours! Then after playgroup this afternoon she was definitely ready for a nap. She had her milk in her room again and went right to sleep at 3:45 p.m. She only napped a little over a half hour and woke up pretty unhappy. She perked up after having a little snack, but she was definitely fussy this evening, including during dinner...and she didn't eat very well.
She was fine during bathtime and getting ready for bed. And she drank all her milk and was in the crib and went right to sleep about 6:45 p.m. So I'm not sure whether the evening fussiness was from having less sleep yesterday or from being so active at playgroup and just being worn out. I guess I'll see how she does tomorrow...and continue to play it by ear from day to day whether she needs 1 nap or 2.
Leah looking very serious as she waits for her Baba to emerge from the bedroom...she's been in an I-only-want-Baba mood a lot lately:
Leah sitting in her chair drinking her morning milk: 
Leah standing in her chair drinking her afternoon milk:
Leah cuddling with her baby:
Leah playing with her activity cube...concentrating very intently on moving the cars back and forth through the door:
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