My son is 11 months old. For the last several months, he has been on a regular schedule where he wakes up between 6 and 6:30 in the morning without our intervention - I would love it if he would sleep until 7:30 or 8, just once. We have tried leaving him in bed at 6:30 to encourage him to sleep longer, but after over 3 weeks of doing that without making any progress at all, we decided he was just ready to get up. Oh well.
Anyway, we would put him down for his morning nap around 9:30, and he would sleep for about an hour. His next nap was at 1:30, and he would sleep for an hour to an hour and a half (on a rare occasion, 2 hours), and be in bed by 7:30. It worked perfectly (except that Mommy had to drag her butt out of bed at 6:30), and I had it down to an art form!
However, for the last week, My son has been going to sleep around 9 for his morning nap because he is so tired he can't seem to stay up until 9:30. We have no idea why he is suddenly so tired so early in the morning. In addition, he then sleeps until 11:30, then he refuses his afternoon nap. If I wake him up earlier than 11:30, he still refuses his afternoon nap, but he is also very grouchy. In the afternoons, I put him in his crib, and he will sit there, talking and crying, for the full 2 hours that he used to sleep. So he is getting his entire 2.5 hours of sleep in in the morning, and not needing it at all in the afternoon. You would say, well, he's ready for just one nap, and he wants that nap to be in the morning. Right?
The problem is that, without his afternoon nap, he is usually completely exhausted by 5:00 in the evening, and the 2.5 hours after that are just miserable. I don't want to put him down for an afternoon nap at 5:00, because then he won't be ready for bed at 7:30. What should I do? Can he have a catnap from 4:30 to 5 and still sleep well at night? Should I try to force him to stay awake until 10 in the morning so that his nap is pushed later? Any ideas?
Thank you to everyone for your advice! On everyone's advice, I have been trying to slowly move the nap back to the afternoon, and by giving my son a half an hour of "quiet time" in the morning (he has yet to sleep during this time), I have managed to push my son's nap back to about noon, and then he has been sleeping for 2.5 hours! We had to move his bedtime forward to 7:00 (even then, he's pretty tired by then) and he has been sleeping until 7, too! It feels good not to be chaotic anymore! Thank you!
My first son took two naps until almost 18 months old. My second son gave up his morning nap at 10 months. They are all different. Follow his cues. Some days he may take one, some days he may still act tired enough you try and he takes two. It will probably be a bit of a transition for a month or two, but if you pay attention to his cues, he'll work it out.
I had that problem with my now 21 month old son, too. The advice that worked for us was to not let him go to sleep at all in the mornings until his afternoon nap. Which was hard to do so we pushed it up from 1 to noon and then gradually back to the 1 (or in your case 1:30) and now he sleeps for almost 3 hours straight in that period. It was really hard to get him to stay awake in the mornings at first but if we were successful (and often times we weren't!), he'd sleep great in the afternoon. It took a while to get down but once we got him to figure out that we weren't doing a morning nap he got into the swing of things. It took a couple weeks. Good luck! We're having a new set of problems now!! It never ends..
Hi Amanda, its so hard isn't it? My son, now 14 mo. did a similar thing, around 11 mo. Most days his morning nap would be perfect but would only play or cry in the afternoon. I kept him on the morning and afternoon nap even if he didn't sleep in the afternoon just so he and I both had quiettime in the afternoon. If he's not crying, its not hurting him right? That way I could get some stuff done or just have down time. Then close to his birthday, I started to give him an early lunch (10:30, 10:45) and would lay him down after that and he start taking nice 3 - 4 hour naps. I can now keep him up till 12:30. Maybe keep the 2 nap times for a little bit yet and then try to gradually keep him up a little longer everyday in the morning and just give him that one nap. Hope that helps!
A. V.
Every baby is different when it comes to switching to one nap. If he is only taking a short morning nap, try and stretch him to noon before you put him down. My son switched at 15 months and I believe I started at noon and he would sleep 3 hours or so, that way his nap was in the middle of the day. He also would wake up around 7ish and go to bed at 7 during that time. At this time, most babies his age nap at 10 and 2. I watch a 15 mo old girl twice a week and she is still on that schedule. Remember that schedules are always adjusting as they get older, eventually you will figure it out! Good luck!
Oh the nap adjustment days....I miss those! So, he definitely shows signs of needing his naps adjusted. As a matter of fact, anytime a sleeping pattern changes when they're young like that, in my opinion, means it's time to switch up the naps. When my kids went from one nap to two, I would play with them in the mornings as much as I could when they showed signs of being tired. Then, I'd feed them lunch and try to get them to last until noon for their one nap. Eventually, he'll get used to staying up in the mornings, and you'll be able to push his one nap back to closer to 1:00. For the first week, you may find he wants to go to bed at 7, or you may find he's sleeping a little later than usual, but his body will get into the routine. My kids slept from noon until 2 or 3, and then after they were adjusted, I would put them down somewhere between noon and one until I got them to make it to 1, and at that point, they would sleep until around 3. They went to bed at 8 during that schedule.
Hey there, my son is 11 months too
he usually will wake up about 730ish and then will take a nap around 11 for an hour then he will take another nap at 5 and he goes to bed at 830.....the 5 oclock nap doesn't seem to affect him at all!! And he would be very exhausted with out the afternoon nap too!! Some babies just need more sleep, i found that will him moving around so much he really wears himself out!!
We've been going through a very similiar situation! But my son is quite a bit older. He's never been on a good "schedule" but has always taken 2 naps, just never at an exact time. Lately I feel like he wants to give one up, but same problem, he's so tired so early! I try just keeping him as busy and entertained as possible so that one nap is later, 12-1. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt! It is frusturating. he is also getting up much earlier 5:30-6 ish. So I'm confused too. he is cutting more teeth, and everytime he does, he sleep patterns change. Maybe this is whats happening with your son? Good luck!
Read this book!!...
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.
Dr. Marc Weisbluth
Good luck!
At some point between 11-12 months all my kids were down to 1 nap. The schedule was roughly wake up around 7am, nap 12-3, finish bedtime routine and in bed by 7pm. For the first few weeks, we'd sometimes start the bedtime routine earlier, like at 6:30 or even 6 on busy days when it was needed. But by 12-13 months they were able to go until 7-7:30pm at night. That 3 hour nap was wonderful. :-)
So... I would say skip the morning nap and move the afternoon nap to 12. After a few weeks/months you could probably move that back to 1-1:30 but beware that the later he naps, the harder bedtime will be. Also, we always woke our kids up if they were still sleeping at 3:30 otherwise it would affect bedtime (not as infants, obviously, but as older babies and toddlers).
I wouldn't try and force him to stay up in the morning. You'd likely just get "more grouch". I'd first try the 4:30 catnap and go from there. You may have to try several things before you find something that works for all of you.
What about putting him down a little LATER at night then he can/should sleep longer in the A.m.
Just another lil' tidbit if your interested.. i have an 11mnth old as well.. same sched as you..lol except i have toys in a bucket in his crib that when he gets up at 6:30 he plays w/ them until i get him out bout 7, when i'm done w/ my shower. I'm home by myself thru the week w/ 3 kids so i have to do everything in my power to fangle something to work so things run smoothly for me. I'm bout to get rid of my lil' mans morning nap. This way he'll go down bout 12-3ish and then go to bed bout 7, but it'll b in a few weeks. Good luck w/ everything :)
