When my son was an infant and would wake prematurely from a nap, I would let him fuss/talk for a bit and he would settle back into sleep. Now that he is older (21 months old) - should I just be thankful that he has slept at all if he wakes after say and hour or so? He was taking 2 hour naps daily and needing every minute of them up until a few weeks ago (also coincides with changing to big boy bed...?) and now takes shorter naps. He does seem a bit distressed when waking up, I think he needs more daytime sleep. But he does sleep a solid 11-12 hours at night, so perhaps at his age I should just let him up when he wakes and be thankful he has napped at all? Or should I ignore and try to make him sleep longer?
Things have changed since moving to a big boy bed. He doesn't get up and wander and usually goes right to sleep - but I think if he stirs during a nap, he no longer goes back to sleep because he's not in the crib. So, not sure if that should change my reaction...?
Hmmm..I am kind of there with my 23-month-old girl but she isn't in a big girl bed yet.
The other day, she woke up and cried for five minutes and went back to sleep.
Other times, I rocked her back to sleep, especially if it was only 45 minutes or so.
I think it might be trial and error of letting him cry a bit or if you feel like he needs more sleep going in.
Anything less than an hour, there's no way my kiddo got enough rest! Anything more than 2 hours, I wake him, otherwise he won't sleep at bedtime.
My 2 year old was never a good sleeper, and horrible to try to work into his own little schedule. My other kids were super flexible, but not my 2 year old!! Too much or too little sleep severely affects his mood.
Shorter naps are normal at that age... longer naps, to me, usually means my son was overstimulated (preK) or is getting sick. But anything less than an hour, he can sit and fuss! At least being in there gives him the opportunity to go back to sleep if he needs to.
ETA: The toddler bed is still new. He may falls asleep on the floor, in the toy box, in the closet, but me personally, I'd let him sleep where ever he lies. I wouldn't let my older kids (when they were young) come out of their room until the clock said nap time was over!
Because I have multiple children ranging from 19 months to 4 years, I have 2-3 children that wake periodically. We do require them to stay in bed. Often they will fuss a little and go back to sleep. But by the time they do, they have woke up someone else. It's making it frustrating to have someone awake the better part of 2.5 hours. I don't allow anyone to run around. BUT, the 2 that rarely sleep more than 30 minutes are in rooms where I can put on videos for them. They are both by themselves. The ones that sleep most of the time are in two other rooms where we can watch over them. I do let the ones that sleep straight through get up a bit early and go into the kitchen for a snack. The ones that go back to sleep end up sleeping longer at the end than the ones that slept straight through. AAAAKKK... Just be glad you have just the one LOL.
This sometimes happens when you put little kids in big beds and they were used to the crib and security there. He will most likely now sleep the time he is now and not 2 hours. As long as he's not too tired he's fine. I don't think you should/could make him sleep longer if he's slept over an hour or hour and a half. Be glad he takes a nap as well as he does in the bigger bed.
Cuddle! At this age, my son cut back on his naps, too, and when he would wake up early, I would as him if he wanted to stay in bed, or cuddle with me on the couch without the tv on. He chose cuddle every time! And 90% of the time, he went back to sleep, and I could put him back in his bed.
Is he only getting one nap or is he getting more? If he is getting more than one nap, it may be that he's just ready to transition to just one nap time.
If he's only getting one nap and wakes after an hour, I would give him a few minutes and see if he goes back to sleep. My daughter would sleep 11 hrs straight at night, but she still needed a 2 hr nap in the day once we switched her to just one nap time.
I've found that when a toddler wakes from a nap, you can't make one go back to sleep. He's probable up for the day. When this would happen to my twins, I'd put them to bed earlier that evening.
I've heard that if your child wakes up from a nap crying it's usually a sign he needs more sleep. And if you can get him to fall back asleep (I don't know that crying it out at that age works - never did for mine) then I guess that's a good thing. My kids never took long naps. And sometimes they woke up grumpy but some kids just do and need a little time to wake up. And like yours they slept about 12 hours a night. I think at that age if they're sleeping about 14 hrs total (and it sounds like that's the case for you) then it's not necessarily something you need to be concerned about. At 21 months old taking a two hour nap is pretty common in my opinion.
