Naptime & Daycare Issues w/ 9 month old

FarmingBride

My daughter has been napping from 9-11am and then 1-3pm roughly during the day. She has been doing this at daycare and at home as well. At daycare she has been sleeping upstairs in the gal's bedroom as I know other older children there do not take a morning nap obviously. So she is napping away from all the action and stimulation so she can go down for naps. She has been going to this daycare since 2 months old. My daycare provider and I were just discussing her sleeping this week as she is teething and has been a little cranky. Then my daycare provider told me that my daughters schedule is hard on her other daycare children because everyone else's quiet time is from 11:30 to 1:30pm. I suppose she means the part where 11:30-1:30 is the time that my daughter is typically up as she gets up at 11 and then doesn't go down until 1pm typically and the others are trying to rest during her awake time. I didn't realize that the older children's rest time was at that time. My son is older now and in school and when he was at daycare (a different daycare than the one my daughter is in currently) their older children rest time was after lunch like at 1pm. So that is the background. This is an in-home provider with quite a few kids.

Questions:

I just don't feel that my 9 month old can handle getting just 2 hrs of sleep during the daytime from 11:30 to 1:30pm Am I out in left field on this one? I just don't see how a 9 month old can function on the same amount of sleep that a 3/4 year old gets.

How does your daycare handle naps with younger ones and older ones? And I'm fine with many different perspectives...in home provider, centers.

What should I do?

I didn't realize it was an issue until now. I feel bad if I am being difficult for my provider, but I am trying to find something that will work for us all. I just want my daugher to be well rested. A cranky child from being overtired is not healthy for my daugher, my family or my daycare provider.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciate.

taraleanne

I think your daughter also needs to nap at what suits her and not the other children. It's unfortunate that it's an issue for your provider but she's too young and her sleep needs are much much different than the older children. If you don't feel that 2 hours mid day is enough for her, then it isn't. I completely agree that an overtired child is not going to work for anyone. I'm going through this issue right now as we speak.

FWIW, her nap times sound reasonable to me- check out the question I posted this morning on this board entitled "biological sleep windows". Your post answered my question! 

Do you mind if I ask what time she goes to sleep at night and wakes in the morning? 

FarmingBride

I will read your post right after I post this reply to you taraleanne.  Thank you for the info!

On a normal day here is what her sleep cycle looks like.

Wakes up at 7am--typically on her own.  Some days I have to wake her at 7:15

9am: morning nap.  Usually asleep until 11am (sometimes I have to wake her at 11:15)  on some morning she may be up at 10:30am at the earliest

1pm: afternoon nap.  Usually asleep until 3 pm.  Some days may be 2:30pm.

She has been taking a little nap later afternoon too.  But I am wondering if she is starting to drop this.  But with this going on at daycare I wonder if she was too tired/overtired to settle down and get that 3rd nap like she always does.  So I am continuing to offer it and we will see how she does this week with it.  Later afternoon nap depends on how long she napped for the afternoon nap.  But she will go do anywhere between 4:30 and 5 pm at the latest.  Just sometimes for a 30 min nap or 45 mins depending when she went down.

Bedtime: 7pm. 

A few days this week she didn't nap well for the afternoon nap at daycare and didn't take that 3rd nap later afternoon.  So when I had her after her attempted 3rd nap she was rubbing her eyes, was fussy, and I could tell she was tried.  So those days that she is screwed up and overtired she will go down as early as 6pm or 630pm and will still sleep until 7am the next morning.  Might wake at 6am occasional, will nurse, and go back to sleep until 7. 

taraleanne

Thanks @farmingbride for the info here and on my other post. It's very helpful to know all of this!  My LO is just a few weeks behind your baby girl. He dropped the 3rd cap nap too early I think, around 6.5 months and around that time he started waking in the night, I think he was overtired and I should have put him to bed earlier!  A few times he has slept from 630pm-8am with no wake ups, I think he's in a sleep deficit and I need to get him back on track. I agree waking him at 7am. He used to wake on his own at this time and we had no issues! Today is a different story and I need to fix it.

Thanks for the advice and good luck with the day care issue…I hope between you and your provider you can figure things out quickly  

awright1983

https://www.troublesometots.com/baby-sleep-what-is-normal/ I found the chart in the above link very helpful for giving a good idea of how much sleep babies need throughout the day

Robi1

FWIW, I am an in-home day care provider, and I think that 11:30-1:30 quiet time for older kids is really early! Every school and facility I've worked in as well as my own does a nap time more in the after lunch/1:30-3:30 sort of range. I wonder why she does it so early for those kids? 

I wouldn't change anything with your child - she definitely still needs two naps and the times of your naps sound well balanced. My daughter naps 10-11:30 and 2-4ish. She dropped her third nap about 2-3 weeks ago, between 6.5 and 7 months. 

ASmallWonder

I agree that seems early.  How do they even fit in a morning snack AND lunch before "quiet time?"

BelhurstBride

I agree that 11:30 is way too early for a quiet time. DD1 has quit naps, but on days when she needs a break it's definitely not until closer to 1 or later. 

The fact that your LO's naps are different from the older kids' naps is not your problem or your daughter's problem. It's part of life when dealing with children of different ages. When DD1 did still nap it was almost always opposite when DD2 was napping. 'Tis life. 

My guess is that the daycare provider made the complaint because your daughter's nap is inconvenient for her- she's not getting a chunk of downtime during the day. She should not be expecting you to change your daughter's schedule because of that. 

Lelo2006

I'm jealous of your daughter's amazing naps.