☆.A.
My rule of thumbs that I used:
#1. Never let a nap last too close to dinnertime (1-4 might be ideal).
#2. Any "ooching" of the schedule should be in small 20 min increments over a few weeks so the change isn't too extreme.
Good luck!
Hi Mamas,
My 27 month old has been sleeping from 9 pm to 7am, then napping 1-5pm (perhaps not that long, because she does goof around in her bed before falling asleep). In any case, I would like her bedtime to be earlier, and would like her to wake up earlier from her nap so that she could go to bed earlier and so that we could still get outside before it gets dark. Should I wake her from her nap, or just go with the flow and wait for her schedule to change naturally?
My rule of thumbs that I used:
#1. Never let a nap last too close to dinnertime (1-4 might be ideal).
#2. Any "ooching" of the schedule should be in small 20 min increments over a few weeks so the change isn't too extreme.
Good luck!
1-5 pm is a really long nap. You can start waking her up from her naps-just do it gradually. My 2.5 yr old son sleeps from 8pm-7am. I put him down for a nap at 12pm and wake him up at 1:45 so we can go pick up my daughter from school.
I always woke them if they were sleeping too long during nap time. Our ideal nap time was from 1-3. Then bed time at 7ish, and waking up at 7ish. This worked really well for us.
I wouldn't mess with it. Our mantra (that has worked for us, YMMV) is 'never wake the baby'.
Is 9:00 late? If she is happy, then leave her be! My son would be a mess when I woke him up from his nap. That was why he stopped napping at 2 1/2! As long as she is happy, she may need that many hours. I would not mess with it.
I think the key for mine (at that age and even now) is making sure they get down for the nap earlier and that they are active in the afternoon. That always helps at bedtime. Mine have always taken one long nap in the afternoon and it used to be 3- 3.5 hours long so I tried to get them in bed by 12:30 so they could be asleep by 1 pm and up by 3:30. If they weren't up by then I would wake them. I think you will just have try it and see how it goes. It's hard when they go to bed that late! Whatever you do make it gradual!
Adjust her schedule in 10-15 increments. The first day for bedtime, put her to bed at 8:45p. For nap, put her down at 12:45p and wake her up at 4:45p. Do that for a few days. Then start putting her to bed at 8:30p at bedtime, and for nap, put her down at 12:30 and wake her up at 4:30p. Keep doing that every few days and hopefully the change won't be a shock to her system.
I would do bedtime at 7 p.m. and up at 7 a.m. as they can get 12 hours of night time sleep. I would do lunch and then nap ( depending on what time you eat lunch ) but say from 1-3 p.m. , or 2-4 p.m. nap. That would give her time to sleep anywhere from 1-4 p.m. and would be better for bedtime. No later than 4 p.m. and if it was me I'd cut the nap to only 2 hours and then eat and bath, etc. and bed at 7 p.m. again. Of course you can be flexible but this should help with what you want to do.
I never woke my kids from their naps.
At growth-spurts, my son has been known to sleep for 14 hours straight, and also had his naps.
I let my kids, go by their cues.
And it never interfered with them going to bed at night.
Or put your toddler to nap, earlier.
Thusly, having lunch earlier too.
Nap after lunch.
Then bedtime earlier.
If that would work for her.
Just an hour earlier in both cases.
I have found that my kids had their own rhythms per naps and bedtimes. BUT I also knew their cues for naps/sleep.
And it was always at sane hours. And normal hours.
And they got the sleep/naps they needed.
At our daycare, they let the babies (up to 1 year old) nap whenever they want to and for however long they want to. This usually amounts to 2 2-hour naps (one around 10 am, the other around 1pm). Close to age 1, they start to get on an actual schedule. So, by the time they go to the toddler room, they are taking 1 2-hour nap from 12:30-2:30. This is the scheduled naptime all the way through pre-K. At school, that works fine, at home... not so much. On the weekends, we are much more flexible. I try to get my girl (she's 3 now, but we've done this since she was about 1.5) to take a nap starting between 11 and 1. She needs to sleep for at least 30 minutes, but not longer than 2 hours. These are our "magic numbers" to minimize afternoon crabbiness!
All kids are different, so you have to figure out what your dd's schedule should be. But, on the rare occassions where my girl tries to sleep longer than 2 hours (or past 4pm), I will (gently) wake her up! I'll tickle her neck, or cuddle with her and wiggle around a lot, or just pick her up and take her to the couch. You have to figure out what works for you, but I'd say "Yes" it's okay to wake her up!
I wake mine if they sleep too long. If a nap went over two hours, that was too long. I get to the point where I start waking them up after 2 hours, then shorten down to 1 1/2 hours and finally down to one hour max. Mama sometimes wants to go to bed at a decent hour, she doesn't want to play with a happy, busy bee of a toddler/preschooler at 10pm;)
I would think it should be fine to waike him up and not have him nap so long. I don't think my son's took that long of a nap at that age.
so my third son would do this long (1-5) type nap when he was young. I started listening cuz no matter what time I went to wake him up he was a dead head when he should've had 2 or 3 hours of sleep at that point. I couldn't figure out why he was sleeping so long. So one day, I walked out of his room but left the door slightly open so I could spy on him and sat down to read outside his door. I heard him sing, play loudly and playing and then it got quiet. I stood and watched and listened. he had put his blankets over the top of his toddler bed like a tent and I could here him inside his "ship" giving quiet orders to imaginary pirates, singing "yoho ho and a bottle of rum"!!! He carried this on for over an hour AFTER quieting down to "sleep". He played and played and played. from that day on I left his bedroom door open, checked often and assured him that this was not play time but nap time. If he took his nap he could play pirates later!
best wishes!