Nap Changes and Advice

JulzVerne

My daughter is 21 months old. She's up between 6-6:30am and goes down at 7:30pm with a nap in between from (typically) 11am-1:30pm. My husband works full time and I work 30 hours a week. So, we are very set in our schedule and making changes to it is pretty difficult. 

Lately, there are days she's wide awake before her nap, other times she's extremely tired. Unfortunately her naps have been around one hour!! Yikes! Then she's super tired and cranky in the late afternoon around 3-4pm. Obviously, it puts a strain on the rest of the day until bedtime at 7:30pm. She hasn't had two naps a day for at least 9 months. If she goes down for a second nap in the early afternoon, then she doesn't go down smoothly at night.

Would it be better if I fed her lunch before her nap and put her down at 1pm? Anyone else dealing with this? Any advice on changing nap times? I'm all ears! Thanks, in advance!

ashiscute

Yes I always do nap after lunch. My DS wakes around 630- 7 and naps around 1.

valeriegp

My son goes to day care and they have lunch between 11 and 11:30 with nap immediately afterwards, for about 2 hours. It's always easier to sleep on a full belly!

JulzVerne

Fabulous! Thank you for the advice! Guess it's time for another change!

Emren

I also agree with the other lovely ladies, its easier to sleep with a full tummy, plus this avoids them waking up early due to hunger. Hope this helps! 

((Hugs and Love))

Emren0316 

lana22

agree w/ pp. also if she does skip her nap, put her to bed earlier!

prof&mom

Hi there - 

We just transitioned to our 15 mo-old's nap coming right after his lunch, so at about 1pm.  He usually sleeps close to 2 hrs. doing it this way.  It sounds like it may be time for a change and I agree with PP that switching to a nap right after lunch seems to help him go to sleep and then wake up happy because he's not hungry.