Where to start? 12 month old shorts naps, short nights & early wakings

[_mumma_cole_]

I’m posting here because in honesty I have no idea where to start!

My little has never been a good sleeper-since 10 weeks has been a short Napper (30-45 mins) except a few weeks sporadically where he will do 1.5hr...then the next week it’s back to normal.

Yesterday for example he woke at 5.15am, napped for 30 mins in the car 9.10-9.40am, then again napped in the car 1.30-2pm. I couldn’t put him to bed until 7pm as I have 2 losers kiddies who need tea, homework etc. He was fine though-not grumpy. He went to bed at 7pm and had 5 wakings until he woke for the day at 5.33am.

Sleep is getting worse and shorter.

I ‘aim’ for a short nap in the car on the school run (a catnap of 10 mins) and then a longer nap after lunch before the school run again. But he won’t nap longer than 30-45mins and I just don’t know what to do. I’m totally lost.

Do I just give up and let him do whatever he wants to do or do I keep trying to encourage a routine that just isn’t working (except for those 2 wonderful weeks he did it!)?

Any help, advise or wise words appreciated.

[Katet]

I think the short nap in the morning school run is not long enough to get him through to lunch time esp after a 5ish wake up. At 12 months on 10 hours night sleep ideally he'd probably need 3 hours of naps, so 2 naps 1.5 hours or a 1 hour and a 2 hour.
But as it sounds like he could be low sleep needs, maybe 12 hours sleep is a more realistic total

At 12mo a realistic A time is 3 - 4 hour A time.. So if you get a first nap after 4 hours then the second would be at the 3hour mark or even earlier if it's only a 30 min nap.

[_mumma_cole_]

Thanks for replying. It’s not that I’m not trying to get him to sleep-or trying to resettle him...he just doesn’t or can’t! This morning he has woken at 4.45am. I did manage to give him a longer nap yesterday lunchtime by holding/feeding the whol length of the nap (not practical every day) & he had 1.5hrs....now he’s up at 4.45am!

I’m at breaking point.