How to schedule our day...

[1sttimemamma]

My 16 month old doesn't seem to fall into a regular routine of sleep because he wakes at different times and he doesn't always take good naps. For instance - today, he took a short 2nd nap, therefore his bedtime was earlier. I would like to do a 7am to 7pm with two naps in between, but today we put him down at 6pm because he took such a short afternoon nap.

Should I keep to a regular nap time and bedtime, or change it depending on how well he sleeps during the day.

Here was our schedule today:
7am - wake
10:15 - nap until 10:55 ------ I accidently woke him up later than the planned 30 minutes.
2:15 - nap only until 3pm
6:05pm - put to bed - still awake - talking, etc.

 

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

16 months is a common time to be dropping to one nap - do you think he might be ready, and that's why the 2 naps aren't going well?

Here's a good link for support http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=137441.0

And here's one full of information on the best way to do it http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0

From that last link:
In Tracy's problem solving book she gives an explanation. You basically start by pushing the morning nap back by 15-30 minutes every 3 days. So the 9.30 nap is at 9.45 or 10 for 3 days and then you push it to 10.15-10.30 for 3 days etc. Obviously you need to be a little bit creative in terms of snacks and lunch times to make it work. The plan is to gradually push the morning nap back until they can stay up until 12, have some lunch, and then have a "deliciously long afternoon nap" of 2-3 hours.

Tracy admits that this is often a difficult process and can take months for some kids to master. she also says that on some days you lo might still need a morning nap and that you need to be flexible

[1sttimemamma]

He's starting the switch - but so not ready. He is easily too excited to take a nap and he's easily overtired. Like today - he had his 30 min morning nap and we had a doc appointment. It was waaayyy too much activity before his afternoon nap - so he didn't fall asleep until 3:30 - and he only slept 30 min. He went to bed a little before 6pm...I have to time his afternoon perfectly - otherwise, it's short and he's cranky in the evening. Even now with getting 12 to 12.5 hours at night and 2.5 hours of sleep during the day - he still gets really tired at night. I just wondered if I should say bedtime is 6:30pm and keep it  no matter what - but the more I type the more I realize I probably need to be flexible depending on his naps...

[tan-and-izzy]

Hi,

I just wanted to send some support. I probably can't be much help as I am in a similar position and not sure what I am doing (see my thread 2 to 1 am I doing the right thing?).

My LO is also 16 months and I have just started having real trouble with her afternoon nap, she is the same as your LO and won't go down at all now unless I time it perfectly. She also gets OT very easily. We just tried the switch and it did not go well so we have gone back to two naps by putting her down much earlier again. In two weeks we had only managed to push her morning nap forward to 10.15 and then she would only do an hour all day and be a nightmare by bed time at 6pm.

All the advice I would give is consider trying for the morning nap and maybe shortening it instead of pushing it forward at first. They give similar advice in one of the other threads, and that is what we will try next when LO is caught up on sleep, if she is still struggling in the afternoons.

Be wary of pusing forward the morning nap if you LO gets overtired easily because a short nap in late morning makes for a very hard afternoon and may very quickly disturb night time sleep.

Tan