Changing baby's sleep routine

lovekids2016

Guys - our baby is almost a year old. She sleeps straight from 8-5am and then naturally starts falling sleepy at 10am in the morning and sleeps 10-12pm. Hence, a total of 11 hours which is on the lower side. She doesn't take an afternoon nap instead of trying but does fall sleep around 5ish but if we allow her a nap then, even a short one, she doesn't sleep till 11pm and hence we just keep her up. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile changing her sleep routine all together moving her morning nap start from 10am to 12pm. That way, there is a smaller gap to the night sleep. Is it natural to do that and would it harm the baby?

Thanks

nackie

This might seem counter intuitive, but have you tried moving her bedtime earlier?  A lot of times naps improve if you do that.  She's young enough that she really should be getting two naps in if possible.  
But it shouldn't harm her if you push naptime up a little if you're only going to do one.  I would do it gradually in 20 minute increments to get her used to it.

Sarcasm101

Yes, I think you need to overhaul your LOs sleep schedule. It might cause for a few week adjustment, but it is so much better to fix sleep habits early on.

First I think that you need to move your first nap forward, way forward. At 11-12 months, babies shouldn't be awake for 5 straight hours. If your LO wakes up at 5, try putting her down at 7:30-8. And then again at 1-2pm. 

I agree with PP that you should also move her bedtime forward, to closer to 7pm. If my Lo woke up at 5am, I would treat it as a MOTN wake up and try to get LO back to bed. 

The ultimate goal is 12 hours at night and 2 naps, at least for this age. 

ladylolly89

Yes, she should still be taking two naps. Like @Sarcasm101 said, I'd treat the 5 AM wake up like a night time waking and try to get LO back to sleep.
First nap should be 3-ish hours after waking for the day, then a second in the early-mid afternoon. And definitely try to move bedtime earlier. 8 is awfully late for a 1-year old to be up.
To be honest, based on the way she is sleeping, she sounds overtired. Babies need to be well-rested in order to sleep and nap well; it's a cycle.