Need Help with Naps

Sometimes around this age children only need one nap. It may be worth with trying to get him down to one nap and maybe things will become more consitant. This is similar to what happened with my daughter around 11 monthes. Once we started giving her one nap she seemed to sleep better and the day was more predicatable and happy.
Hope this helps,
K.

I also agree with Colleen F. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weisbluth!!!! We have a happy napper and bedtime sleeper now but that was not always the case. My sister in law got it for me when my son was newborn (he was a night owl) slept all day and party all night! The book worked wonders and now he is 16 months old sleeping great but occasionally I need to refer back to the book. Like when he gets sick or something so he sleep habits change. Good luck!!

J. I hate to tell you that you might have to adjust you routine. He may be letting you know that 2 naps is too much. Try only putting him down for an after lunch nap and see what happens. This may also help the fact that he is getting up earlier than usual in the mornings. Good luck!

J.,
Your son is probably sleeping as long or as little as his body needs. Sleep is the way the body rejuvinates itself. If he has been very active he probably needs more sleep. Also, if his body is growing and a lot of biological changes are occurring (stuff going on in is little body that we can't see and don't know are happening) he will need more sleep. On days that not much is happening externally or internally he doesn't need that much sleep. He's not doing it on purpose to keep you from getting things done - it just seems that way. Right now when you feel like you can't get anything done just remember you are getting the most important job done - nuturing your son! If you are a stay at home mom then you have the most wonderful job you could have at this time in your life! Just remember that THAT IS YOUR JOB! Do it well, follow your instincts. It's o.k. if you don't get to the ironing, or dusting because he's awake.
I'm a program specialist at a childcare center that cares for 120 children a day. My greatest reward is when i can go into the infant room (6weeks-15months) and be recognized by the little ones and see them get excited to see me. Then to have them reach for me and want my love! When your little one wants your love give it to him!
SAS

I second EVERYTHING Colleen F wrote! My now 2 year old STILL is a great (sleeps more than the norm and loves his bed) but completely inconsistent sleeper, despite my best efforts to put him on a schedule. For instance, he woke up at 6AM yesterday, and is still asleep at 8AM today. Some kids just aren't easy to schedule for sleep. I went nuts with the naptime thing until I found that book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". I call it my sleep bible and follow every word of it, because it has never let me down. Earlier bedtimes do help with sleep, contrary to what might seem reasonable. To this day, I still look at how long he's been awake as more of a guideline to when his nap or bedtime should be. When he was 9 months old, it meant that naptimes varied significantly (but there were always 2 until he was 13 months old) based upon when he woke from the last nap. It was hard to get much done, but you have to learn to go with the flow, and it's important to remember that it's over soon--they go to one nap, which will make it easier for you. I found multiple naps to be very aggravating with an inconsistent sleeper, but it gets much easier when they move to one.

"Sleep begets sleep"--very true. Follow what Colleen wrote and get that book.

Hello - it may be time to go to one nap a day. My kids transitioned to one nap at about 12 months, but if he is being so inconsistent you might want to try it now. That way instead of getting two short inconsistent naps, you might get one nice long nap. I would say keep him up in the a.m., even if he gets crabby. Put him down right after lunch - aim for around 1:00 eventually. My kids did this with good results until they were about 3-4 years old, and they would sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, which is a really nice chunk of time. They were still able to go to bed by 7:30 or 8:00 and fall asleep, too. Good luck!

I went through a tough time with naps around 11 months. We finally tried cutting down to one nap and it was great. Now my son is almost 2 and he consistently sleeps 2.5-3 hours/day. If you're not ready for that - understandably - have you tried putting a sound machine in his room? It plays relaxing noise to prevent your child from eaking up to noises around the house.

you may not want to hear this - but he could be ready to drop to 1 nap already. my daughter is a very active little girl and always on the go - and found that she napped longer and better when we went down to one nap. during this transition i'd move his morning nap to like 1 hour later than what he's at now - it may be tough for a little bit and you will probably have to keep him very entertained to push him for that hour - but then he should be quite ready for a nap - and should be close to 2 hours.

and also - he may need another cat nap (like 30-45 minutes - later in the day - and not past 6 o'clock). until he gets used to 1 major nap a day.

my daughter (now 20 mos.) is down to 1 nap about 1 1/2 hours long - sometimes as long as 2 - but i can't let her go beyond 2 hours - b/c then it effects her night sleep. she's up between 7-8am depending on the day, naps around 12:30ish for 1.5 hours or so. tub at 7pm, on the couch w/ puppy, blanket and bink from 7:30 - 8. and 8PM she's in the crib. depending on the day she may be asleep in 15 minutes - other days she may babble/play for almost an hour - but as long as she's not crying i leave her in there.

The other day we had a family event - church 10am and brunch afterward - she was totaly exhausted from running around with her 3 older cousins - we go home about 12:30 and she went right into her crib - i'm preg w/ our second so i went to take a nap too - my husband ended up napping on the couch to the sox game - next thing we knew we all were asleep and she was on a 3 hour nap! - and we still had to wake her up...

that night we let her stay up an extra 1/2 hour b/c of the nap... but sometime about 2 am she woke up - she wasn't crying or anything - just babbling away in her crib - talking to her stuffed puppy dog, jumping etc.... so i just left her there - and at some point she went back to sleep - but she was probably up for a good hour in the middle of the night.

so as much as it's nice to let a sleeping baby sleep - i'd much rather drop to 1 nap a day to ensure 1 have a solid sleeper through the night. During the week we have to wake her up about 7am to get to work/daycare - but the weekends she goes to 8 - 8:30 - sometimes i know she's up, and i can hear her rustling around, again playing with puppy etc. - but until she yells for mommy or daddy - we stay in bed.

Hi J.,
Im a 43 yr young mom of a 22 yr old daughter and a 15 yr old son. They are like night and day. Danielle didnt sleep through the night. My thoughts are because she ate like a bird and woke up hungry. Jake slept through the night but was up all day. He loved to be where the action is. They were little mysteries.
I have two suggestions. The first is to see how much stimulation he is getting before his nap. My son had to have down time. I could see that he was tired but willing to stay up to play til the bitter end. So we sat quietly for about 10 minutes and i did things like talk gently and softly. I would touch him on the cheek to relax him. He would show more willingness to sleep. Then I would put him in his room and play classical music.(a friend had suggested that)Anyway I found that those few minutes of time with him made a difference in the length of his sleep. He loves classical music 'til this day!
The second thing is to go with the flow. Im a very analytical person and I drove myself crazy trying to "figure it out." A friend once told me... it is what it is.
Its so hard to balance everything. I made a choice to not let the cleaning and all become a bigger issue than it needed to be. Both my children had severe asthma and Jake had severe food and environmental allergies. There were many things I had to let go of because their needs came first. What others thought of my house was not important. If my husband needed a clean shirt, well... he knew where the washing machine was!
Good luck!

Hi,J.
I think your son is done taking two naps a day. Try having him just take an afternoon nap. He may nap longer too if you hold him off until just after lunch. Good luck!

You could try eliminating the morning nap. Maybe he's ready to give it up. My son gave up his morning nap at around 10 months, but then took a nice long afternoon nap around 3-4 hours. He often slept from 1:00 til 4:30. Then he would be up until around 7:30 p.m. and would sleep through the night until 7:00 in the morning.

Hi J.
Is he teething. Maybe some orajel will work???-K.

At 9 months babies are going through all types of developmental milestones. Whether its teething or crawling or cruising...its a whirlwind of a time for babes. Our daughter who is nearly 12 months went thru a period of inconsistent napping as well. But it was just a phase. I wouldn't worry about it, especially if your baby is pretty consistent otherwise. Stick with it and go with the flow. Big changes for your little one are on the horizon! Enjoy them!

I feel your pain! My daughter was 18 months when she just stopped napping all together and I had just found out I was pregnant with my son! Perfect timing! They are older now, my daughter is 5 and my son is almost 3. Both of them no longer nap, but when they were about 9 months I stopped having them take that second nap and did one big nap and it worked out great, they even slept better during the night. I hope things work out for you and you can fund a solution to the napping dilemma!!!

Hi. I have a 22 month old (along with a 2 month old) and I totally understand your frustration about not getting anything done because you don't think he's going to nap long or getting interrupted because he doesn't nap long enough. I am a big fan of the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. At six months our son turned into a pretty good napper and a great sleeper at night because of this book. The naps were definitely tougher and not as predictable though.

Another suggestion I have for you is to go to the website www.flylady.net. She provides daily emails and tips about how to keep your house clean as well as other things, and she provides a lot of motivation to go along with it. The biggest thing that might help you is that she says you can do anything for 15 minutes...and you can break tasks down into 15 min intervals. You really can get a lot done even if your son doesn't nap for very long.

The book, "Good Night, Sleep Tight...The Sleep Lady's gentle guide to healping your child go to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up happy," by Kim West changed my life for the better. I've been doing her sleep training for the past two weeks. Before that my 5 1/2 month old wouldn't nap well nor would he sleep well at night (getting up 4 times for feedings). I literally fell asleep while walking to feed him one night. Now he's napping 3 times a day 2 naps of 90-120 min & 1 45-60min nap. I'm also a SAHM. If my son wakes up 45 min into his longer nap I leave him to fall back asleep for another 45 min. It's amazing how much more control I have over my days & nights now. With the help of this book it's amazing how quickly the little ones can improve (2 days into the program for me). Good luck!

I think he might be ready to drop his 2nd nap. I'd try to gradually push his morning back later - 15 minutes every day...and eventually move him to 1 afternoon nap. I remember my son started to get all funky with his naps and for the longest time I refused to see that he was ready to move to 1 nap. Once I accepted it, though, I got a consistent 2+ hours out of him every day (and still do...he's 2 1/2).

Best of luck!

I had a similar issue with my oldest son. I tried this and it seemed to work. When I would put down my son for his first nap, usually around 10AM I would only let him sleep until noon-time. If he didn't wake up on his own, then I would wake him up. I would feed him his lunch and let him play until his next scheduled naptime at 2PM. Usually by then he would give me hints that he was tired.
Hopefully this works for you. Good luck

Hello J.
Did you ever taught by giving him music so he won't hear the noise your making, he must be a light sleeper,this way he'll get use to noise like T V I know where I was raise my parents use to get up early because been on the farm, but they were in bed a 8:00 so when I got married I couldn't sleep because the T V was going on any little noise kept me awake so when my kids were raise I would give them music and got them use to noise,I said you won't be suffering from light sleepers.
GOOD LUCK

Hi J.,

I had similar issues with my son (in addition to night waking) when he was around your son's age. I ended up consulting with a specialist at the Children's Hospital Sleep Disorders Clinic and it made a big different. Here's what I learned. On average, kids at this age need 10-12 hours of sleep daily (night and day sleep combined). Obviously, we want most of the sleep to take place at night and the naps to help rejuvenate them throughout the day. At this age, babies need a morning nap about 3 hours after they wake up in the morning. And, an afternoon nap in early afternoon: 2ish. What was recommended to us, and has worked well, is a sleeping schedule like this:

Night Sleep: 8 pm - 6:30 am
AM Nap: 9:30 am - 11:00 am
PM Nap: 2:15 pm - 3:00 pm

If my son wakes up from night sleep earlier, I sometimes need to put him down for his am nap earlier but I try hard to keep him as close to schedule as I can. At times, he starts his am nap at 10 am and sleeps until 11:30 am. I always wake him at 11:30 am (at the latest) to ensure I preserve the afternoon nap. The doctor told me the pm nap should be 45 minutes maximum and should always end by 3 pm. So, we try our hardest to stick to this. Sometimes I end up taking him for rides in the car to ensure we stick to our schedule. The doctor told me we can expect the baby to shift to 1 daily nap (11 am - 1 pm) between 18 and 24 months of age.

If my son wakes up earlier than I would expect from the am nap - say he has only slept for an hour - I usually let him wimper until he falls back to sleep. If he sounds really awake, I just go get him and assume we'll have an earlier afternoon nap (although I always limit this nap to 45-60 minutes even if the am nap is short). If he takes a short pm nap, I don't worry about it and assume he'll make up for it at night.

Hope this is helpful!
S.

Still taking 2 naps at this age is more than mine did. They were on 1 nap a day by this time, and it was an after lunch nap. How about keeping him up until after lunch, and maybe he'd take a nice 2-hour nap for you. Good luck!

Dear J., I now have a 13 year old, so that's only to say--it's been awhile! What I remember from those days is that meal time/snack time and activity level were directly related to naps and night time sleeping. I kept sugar and carbs at a minimum which you probably already do, however, it's nice to mention all aspects of this. As your child gets older, eventually the morning and afternoon naps will lessen and the duration of night time sleeping will be reduced. I was firm with my daughter about "it's time to rest, it's time to eat, it's time to play, etc." At nap time I would say that I will come in and get you when naptime is over. So if you wake up just lay in your crib and rest/play. Mommy is close by but will come in when naptime is over. I was sure to do that. I set a specific time. I would even wake up my daughter when naptime was over. Eventually, I didn't have to, but if I let her sleep too long that affected the afternoon nap and then bedtime was also affected. I had a routine of a story and then sleep, whether or not it was at night or during the day. The lights were kept low, I had soothing music playing in her room. I only read certain stories at those times....she associated a certain CD and stories with bedtime. I made it "special". I would prepare her room by drawing the blinds, putting on a CD, and choosing a storybook. Then I would get her and say: "It's our special time together! I would gather her up on my lap, play the soothing music, I played Michael Card, read a Max Lucado story book, held her close and spoke softly, and the blinds were drawn. I made sure I was claim and ready for our special time, trying very hard not to think about how much I wanted to get down while she was sleeping. Some days you will get your "to do list done" and other days it's more important that your child feels that you are there for him and him alone. Build margins into your day by lower your expectations of being productive and allowing yourself to bask in the time you have with your nine month old. Mine is 13 and I would give my eye teeth to have those days back. Trust me, it goes by too quickly. Bask in the time you have now! I hope this helps. K..

Hello,
So you should definitely just be happy that your little guy is napping. It is kind of on his terms of when he'll wake and if it's not according to your time, that is OK. If you get upset at his short naps or try to force him to nap longer, he may become resistent to naps all together. As frustrating as it may be because you've just started doing something, just put down whatevr it is you are doing and enjoy the time with your son because it is true, they grow up so quickly and in a blink of an eye he'll be 1, 2, 3 and you'll enjoy the "fun" time you had with him. :)

It sounds like your little sweetie is shifting from 2 naps to one. It was a sad day for me, too! My daughter started to switch to one np around 10-months, but it was a mega nap. She started to take a 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap each day around 11 AM. It was a challenge getting lunch into her everyday, but they'll always eat when they're hungry! Now she's 3 years old and goes down for a nap between 1-2 PM, and will sleep for about 2 hours.
You might be able to keep your son on the two nap schedule if you get up early with him and keep him busy for the next few hours. I also remember "napping" at that age was after every 3-4 hours of activity. Sorry to say it, but you may need to say goodbye to housework for a while!! (Never thought you'd be sad to hear that, huh?)
Hope this helps. Good Luck!
D.

Hi J.,

I had similar issues, and I COMPLETELY agree with Colleen F's response. I can't say it better than that, so why try? :-) She's on the money. I believe 9 months is too early to go to one nap, and that book she recommends helped us through some sleep issues with both of our kids. I recommend getting it from the library asap, and until then, follow her tips. It works!!

Take care and Happy Sleeping!
S.

J.,
It seems that if your son is sleeping through the night than maybe he is just getting enough sleep. I know it can be frustrating. I'm going through it for the second time around. Sometimes my daughter will sleep 2.5 hours in the morning and other times it's 45 minutes. I don't know if there really is a solution to your problem. The biggest bit of advice is that it gets better as they get older. Once they are toddling around, they will want to "help". For instance, when I needed to sweep, I gave my son his own "little" hand broom so that he could do one part of the floor while I did the rest.
For now, if your little boy would stay in his high chair for a few minutes after meals so that you can clean up or sweep, that may help. I know this may not help the sleeping issues but I hope it helps with that feeling of helplessness (the never-ending housework). Good luck!

Hi J.,
There is HOPE! I highly recommend that you get the book "Healthy SLeep Habits, Happy Child," by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. In fact, I have recommended it so many times that the publisher should start paying me royalties! Seriously, I'm a mom of 6, and if it weren't for that book, I'd probably be insane by now, because we've run the gamut of sleep issues. But this book has worked for me every time, with every issue, at every age. He walks you step by step through establishing, or re-establishing a good sleep schedule. For a 9 month old, he says the schedule should look someting like this: Wake-up 6 or 7am, nap around 9am, nap around 1pm (and always before 3pm), and bedtime between 6 and 8. If your son is waking up earlier that that in the morning, try putting him to bed earlier. I know it's not what common sense would tell you, but it works. It's really common for a 9-month-old to start taking sporadic naps, because they're at that age where it's more exciting to be awake, but they really do still need two naps a day, and have to be retrained. I can't explain it without writing the book myself, but start with the earlier bedtime, and then when you put him down for naps, leave him for an hour whether he sleeps or not. If he doesn't, make the next nap earlier. If he does, use the same process for the second nap. If he sleeps for that one, stick with the regular earlier bedtime, but if not, put him to bed for the night even earlier. With one of my kids, I had to put him to bed at 5:30 for the first couple of nights, but after that, he got back on track. Nighttime was the hardest, because once they were put down, you didn't get them until wake-up time in the morning. But again, the first couple of nights were rough, and then we were good. Anyway, the book explains it much better than I can. Good luck. This is completely normal, and it will get better.

Maybe your 9 mth old is getting out of his two naps and only needs one long nap. My now 18 mth old went throught the same antics and it worked itself out when I would feed my daughter around 11 or 11:30 and then get her to a nap by noon time. She sleeps for one long stretch now of 2-3 hours in the afternoon and you can accomplish things! Try out the one nap and see what happens.

J.

Hi J.,

I know it can be frustrating not to be able to count on consistent time for yourself to finish things that need to be done but this is a time to enjoy your baby. You will not get everything done, accepting this will take the pressure off yourself. My son was exactly the same until he was about 14 months and now gives me one nap a day for over 2 hrs. I never forced more nap time in the earlier months and he did great. Granted, the laundry, dishes, housework, etc. never was accomplished until later in the evening.
Enjoy every moment, they grow up so fast!
Take care.