WWYD? - naptime

mcvgal

So my LO usually sleeps from 9pm-7/730am the next morning. He still gets 2 naps as well. These past two days he has napped from 430-7pm. Therefore he is totally not ready for bed at 9 and hasn't slept until 10/1030pm.

Would you wake your LO up at 6?

Chan4dra04

I had this same problem except when DD was taking her nap from like 345-6 and her bedtime was at 8.  I chose not wake her and she was still ready for bed at 8.  At least, I chose not to deviate from bedtime and went with it.  I hoped that she would correct her sleeping in accordance with what will always remain: her bedtime.  And she did.

Ultimately, I keep with a consistent bedtime, nmw.  If I start fluctuating with her, then I think she could easily end up calling the shots and I don't want that.  Consistency is key. 

Also, when I posed on here about whether or not to wake DD up from those long naps right before bed, a lot of people who took the clicky poll of mine said to wake her up.  I guess that is always an option for you.  Wake LO up after you think he's slept long enough but will still be able to go to bed.

HTH!

smilelari

No.  Do not wake your baby in the morning. 

This sounds like a pretty crazy schedule for a baby to me.  I'd start gradually moving bed time earlier (slowly).  Latest bed time should be at this age is probably 7:30, maybe 8.

If you are still doing 2 naps, I'd shoot for a 2-3-4 schedule.  So, if baby wakes at 7, first nap will be at 9.  Second nap is 3 hours after the end of the first and bed time is 4 hours after the end of the second nap.  It would look something like this:

7:00 - wakeup

9:00-11:00 - nap

2:00-3:30 - nap

7:30 - bed 

smilelari

Oh, and if that second nap is pretty long, I'd keep the bed time consistent anyways.  So, wakeup at 4:30, then straight to dinner, bath, bed

gracefulruby33

I would go with your gut. A couple of days ago, DD's morning nap was 2.5 ours long. Her afternoon nap was also 2.5 hours long and would have been longer had I not woken her up. Her bedtime is around 7:30ish and it was 5pm when I woke her up. I figured that she had five hours of sleep that day already and she would be fine to wake since she was going back to bed soon after anyway. So... It would just depend on timing if I would wake her. I agree with smilelari about bedtime being late... But every baby is different. :-) We are also on a rough 2-3-4 schedule... But it is really more like 2.5-3-3 these days. Good luck!

mcvgal

Thanks, we've been working our way to an earlier bedtime bit by bit. I pick him up from my mom's (she watches him during the day) at 7pm when I get off of work so that's why he has a later bed time but this 1030pm is not cutting it at all. hopefully the immediate bedtime routine will work. Thanks!

smilelari

e_cruiz:

Thanks, we've been working our way to an earlier bedtime bit by bit. I pick him up from my mom's (she watches him during the day) at 7pm when I get off of work so that's why he has a later bed time but this 1030pm is not cutting it at all. hopefully the immediate bedtime routine will work. Thanks!

Does he eat dinner before you pick him up?  If not, that's the first change I would make and I'd go straight into bed time when you get home.  I know that lifestyle plays into this, but a baby that does well with a late bed time is pretty rare.  I'd start shooting for something more like 8 or 8:30.  8-7 would be pretty darn ideal (11-12 hours at night is what a baby should be getting for sleep) 

Tink112011

If I were you, I'd start transitioning to one nap a day.  Skip the 4:30pm nap and put him down for bed at 6ish.  Maybe push the first nap a little later to make the longer afternoon easier on him.

 My DS naps from 12pm - 1:30pm and goes to bed at 7pm.  He needs that long stretch to be tired for bed.  There is no way he'd be ready for bed only 2 or 3 hours after a 2+ hour nap.

Tink112011

smilelari:

No.  Do not wake your baby in the morning. 

This sounds like a pretty crazy schedule for a baby to me.  I'd start gradually moving bed time earlier (slowly).  Latest bed time should be at this age is probably 7:30, maybe 8.

If you are still doing 2 naps, I'd shoot for a 2-3-4 schedule.  So, if baby wakes at 7, first nap will be at 9.  Second nap is 3 hours after the end of the first and bed time is 4 hours after the end of the second nap.  It would look something like this:

7:00 - wakeup

9:00-11:00 - nap

2:00-3:30 - nap

7:30 - bed 

Smilelari, you always have excellent advice, but I have found that you promote more sleep than my DS ever needed.  I had it stuck in my head that DS needed hours upon hours of napping in a day, and so naptimes were a battle.  In reality, he does NOT need two naps of two hours each and he definitely doesn't want them.  For us, limiting daytime napping has created a better bedtime routing and more solid nighttime sleepling.

smilelari

Tink112011:

smilelari:

No.  Do not wake your baby in the morning. 

This sounds like a pretty crazy schedule for a baby to me.  I'd start gradually moving bed time earlier (slowly).  Latest bed time should be at this age is probably 7:30, maybe 8.

If you are still doing 2 naps, I'd shoot for a 2-3-4 schedule.  So, if baby wakes at 7, first nap will be at 9.  Second nap is 3 hours after the end of the first and bed time is 4 hours after the end of the second nap.  It would look something like this:

7:00 - wakeup

9:00-11:00 - nap

2:00-3:30 - nap

7:30 - bed 

Smilelari, you always have excellent advice, but I have found that you promote more sleep than my DS ever needed.  I had it stuck in my head that DS needed hours upon hours of napping in a day, and so naptimes were a battle.  In reality, he does NOT need two naps of two hours each and he definitely doesn't want them.  For us, limiting daytime napping has created a better bedtime routing and more solid nighttime sleepling.

There you go. Do what works for you, of course.  

We battled sleep a lot with DS.  He didn't STTN for a long time and woke earlier and earlier and earlier.  In the end, it turned out to be that we were underestimating his sleep needs.  Moved his bedtime earlier and took naps more seriously, and poof! the problems disappeared. I take most of the general sleep advice from Weisbluth.  Followed Weisbluth's guidance from the beginning with DD, and we've never had any serious sleep issues.

I'm sure needs vary a little from kid to kid (although Weisbluth claims that the variations are much smaller than most people think), but every time I hear about horrible toddler tantrums, I have to think that the reason DS is so easy going is because he's well rested.  We had a stage at around 2.5 where he was refusing naps and people kept telling me that he was ready to give them up.  We muscled through and he's back to sleeping 11-ish hours of sleep at night and 2-3 hours during most days. We don't really have any major tantrums unless we skimp on sleep.

Honestly, we have bigger nap battles when our kids are getting too little sleep than when they are on a routine and getting enough.  When I try to put DD down at 7:15 p.m. and she fights me, my first guess is always that it's because she's overtired

DD isn't actually getting the amount of sleep above either, but she's also transitioned to 1 nap.  Nap consolidation tends to cut things back a bit. 

smilelari

Adding one more thought. These answers are always geared towards people that are having sleep issues.