Hello,
I'm a bit unsure what to do with my 19 month old's nap schedule. It seemed for a while that she was trying to drop to one nap. She wakes at 6am. She took a good morning nap for 1.5 hrs around 9/9:30am. then another one at 3pm. She started refusing the aft. nap but then was too cranky and overtired by bedtime. I started slowly moving am nap out to have her take just one nap per day and putting her to bed btwn 6:30/7pm. When she was taking one nap per day it was only one hour and she was super cranky by 5pm! Then she started waking up at 5/5:30 am because I'm sure she was not getting enough sleep. I ended up going back to two naps which are now both 1 hr each. Now the afternoon nap is later around 3:15-3:30 and sometimes as late as 4pm. She ends up going to sleep at 7:45 and wakes up at 6/6:30 am. I am having a tough time trying to figure out what in the heck she wants to do. I am concerned that she is still not getting enough sleep. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Thank you CoMoMom. My daughter would only nap 1 hr when she was taking 1 nap per day on her own. She just woke up after 1 hr whether I tired her out before nap or not. It was like she was still on her two nap schedule. She now just takes two one hour naps. It has only been 4 days that she is back to 2 naps, so it's hard to tell what she is going to do.
It takes them time to adjust to one nap.
I can tell you this. I have a 21 month old that has only had 1 nap since month 13. In fact, all three of my kids dropped to one longer nap around 12-13 months. It takes them a good month. You put the one nap half-way between the others two and gradually move it later by 5-10 minutes a day until an afternoon nap time. And do move bedtime up a bit. Then they will naturally shift everything later.
If she was in child care she would have started working towards one nap at age 10 months. Kids that go into the toddler room at their first birthday have 1 nap, period.
In the baby room the infants pretty much eat, sleep, wake up and play, eat, go to sleep, etc...on their own schedule. Once they get older though the go down to one nap and sleep on a cot so they will sleep in the next room up.
In the toddler room they have circle time, play time, outdoor play time, art, crafts, table work time, lunch, nap time (11:30am-2:30), wake up have snacks and then go play some more. They can get into serious trouble with the state in their licensing worker comes in and sees a child sleeping on a cot when they come in to do their monthly inspection.
I'd say at this age a toddler is able to take that one long nap after lunch then stay up. IF they need another nap it should be a short nap around dinner time. Then our kids stayed up until 9pm. They went down and stayed down until 7:30-8am.
You are trying to micro manage her sleep. She doesn't need to sleep 13 hours per night. She's a toddler and should be waking up during the night starving with that many hours without food....
Once the kids in child care turn 2 they go into a pre-school classroom and they take a shorter nap and often don't nap around dinner time.
Most kids drop to one nap between 12-18 months of age. Howeve,r this nap is usually around 11 a.m. or so for awhile, and can gradually be moved later (usually no later than 1 or 1:30). Try putting her down somewhere between 11:00 - 12:00 and see how she does. I hope you're able to figure out a schedule that works.
I would opt for an early lunch and a long nap after that.
My boys never slept more than 7 or 8 hours at night until they dropped their naps altogether. They were always on the low end of the range of recommended sleep. When my oldest was a baby I googled signs of being overtired. I can't remember them right now, but I do know that my son didn't have any of them. I had to accept the fact that he simply did not need as much sleep as most babies/kids his age.
Follow her cues as much as you can. Look for signs that she is tired, and work towards putting her down for a nap. Don't look at the clock! Don't worry about hours and minutes. Maybe make a note of when she went down and what time she woke up, but don't use the clock to tell you what she needs. Her body will tell her what she needs. Follow her cues. After a few days you can look at the numbers and see if you have learned anything about what she really needs.
The books are great! I learned a lot by reading baby and toddler books. But it's important to know when to not be concerned about what the book says and trust your daughter.
Two naps would be good so you can spend time with your older child. If she is ready for one nap, make an early lunch. Then down for hopefully a long nap.
By that age, all of my children were down to one nap a day, which happened around 1:30 pm.
I only checked BabyCenter..... They say a "typical'' 18 month old needs 13 1/2 hours of sleep per day - typically 11 hours/15 minutes during the night and then 2 hours/15 minutes in 1 nap during the day.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil...
So - it sounds like your daughter is getting a bit more than that, so I wouldn't be concerned.
When you moved her to 1 nap and it was still only an hour.... why was that? Was she naturally waking up after an hour? Or was it a scheduling issue that was waking her up (ie - somewhere to go, hungry etc)?
Can you play around with the schedule of that nap to try and move her to one nap, but ensure that it's 2 hours? Also - at my son's daycare they do quite a bit of physical exercise in the morning, then have lunch at 11:30 and put them down for nap from 12-2:30. This way they are super "tired" when they get to nap.
