Napping at daycare / Exhausted after daycare

spinsoffresonance

Hi all,

DD is 5 months old and she just started daycare this week when I went back to work. At home we had a pretty consistent nap schedule. She would wake up for the day between 7-8am, stay up an hour then nap. For the rest of the day I would put her down for naps after she's been awake 1.5-2hours. She only naps for 45min at a time. My daycare center, however, schedules nap time at 10am and 2pm in the infant room.

By the time I drop DD off in the morning she's been up for an hour and is due for a nap. I can tell she needs it too as she always almost falls asleep on the way to daycare and yawns a lot when we get there. But once she's around the other babies there is too much excitement for her to sleep so she has to stay up an extra 2 hours before nap time. She's also awake 3-3.5 hours in the afternoon in between naps. Her naps at daycare are only about 30min. I'm worried she's awake too long at a time for a 5 month old, everything I've read suggests they shouldn't be up more than 2 hours.

When we get home from daycare she is exhausted, she launches herself at my breast, comfort nurses for 10min and falls asleep at the breast for an hour or so. I've been letting her nap on me this week as I figured it's a tough transition. I guess she will adapt to the daycare schedule eventually. How did it go for your LO when they first started daycare?

(sorry this came out so long!) 

Wild_flower25

a scheduled nap time in an infant room is insane.  They should let her sleep when she is tired and not make her wait.  I would say something.  Even up to a year they need naps within 2 hours of getting up.

But, maybe she will adjust. Its just going to take time.  DD takes a nap after daycare, but she's less than 4 mos old still.

spinsoffresonance

Wild_flower25:

a scheduled nap time in an infant room is insane.  They should let her sleep when she is tired and not make her wait.  I would say something.  Even up to a year they need naps within 2 hours of getting up.

But, maybe she will adjust. Its just going to take time.  DD takes a nap after daycare, but she's less than 4 mos old still.

 

They do let them sleep whenever they want. The problem is DD is too distracted to sleep when all the other babies are up making noise even though she is obviously tired.  The scheduled naps at 10am and 2pm is when they dim the lights and turn soothing music on to encourage the babies to nap then, and most of them do. 

Wild_flower25

oh, then I wouldn't worry about it.  She'll get over the newness and start sleeping better.  I think the first week was all over the place for DD as far as naps. Now she takes a 45 min snooze everyday about a half hour after I drop her off. And its only her 3rd week.

kjsmith9

My LO naps terribly at daycare, and she's been there for 3 months. We have days where she sleeps 10 minutes the whole time she's there. We do naps every 2 hours at home, but she just can't stand to miss a second of excitement there I guess...

g8trkim

She'll get used to changes in her schedule. Babies are pretty adaptable in that way. After all she just started this week. DS went to daycare part time and his schedule there was different than his schedule at home just because there was more stimulation there. I will say the days he went to daycare he slept much better at night. And don't live and die by books saying baby shouldn't be up for more than 2 hours (that seems more for a newborn than a 5 month old). Plus, if they never stay up more than 2 hours you would be doing like 5 naps a day. Your LO will be just fine. Try not to worry so much.

linjmurx

I was very stressed about napping (lack of it) when my son started daycare at 4 months. That's great that your daycare has a quiet time.. ours doesn't.  At first there were days when he would nap 1/2 hour to 45 min total and I was worried about his well-being. Now he is more used to the noise and sleeps a lot better. He also had trouble sleeping in a crib (rock n play at home) so I got him a magic sleep suit and that helped. Anyway, your LO will likely adapt and do very well. GIve it a few weeks. I really wish our daycare had quiet times.