Aim for 2yr 2 months?

[clairew11]

I have always been really lucky, Alfie has always gone to bed and slept through the night and napped well since about 12 weeks. I'm not sure if now we are transitioning to 1-0 or not. I have tried lots of different bedtimes but he always seems to wake at 6.30am. I have tried bedtime at 7pm, 7.30 and as late as 8pm, sometimes he will sleep until 6.45 but rarely. His naps are starting to be affected to, sometimes I can try and put him down at 1 and he is exhausted and I have to wait him at three and he's grumpy for a while, over times I can hear him playing in his room for up for an hour before he falls asleep at 2ish. Yesterday he refused to go to bed, we were a mums and we ha a late lunch so it was 1.45 but he then fell asleep on the sofa for 30mins around three, woke up reasonably happy, went to bed no problem at 7.30pm and I didn't hear until 7.30 this morning, could be a fluke but just wondered at his age what are the realistic expectations for total amount of sleep, other night sleep with a nap or just night sleep in hours? X

[*Becky*]

bump x

[cath~]

Hi there,

total sleep can vary a lot between LOs at this age.  Could be anything from 11hrs/day to 13 or even 14 hrs/day, really.  Has your LO been average/low/high sleep needs up to now?

yes, it sounds like you are at the start of the 1-0 - although it can still be many months until the nap goes completely

with L we had to cap her nap to keep BT reasonable and nights (and hence total sleep) as long as possible.  a longer nap just stole more from her night sleep than she gained from the longer nap.

have you read this?
The 1-0 transition...Advice and Tips to help you through.

if your LO doesn't mind you capping his naps, you could try shaving 15 mins say off his normal nap length and see if that helps.

every few months we kept capping L's nap a bit more (whenever BTs got rocky again) until it was gone completely (about a month ago)

However, others do things like mixing nap and no-nap days, or keeping longer nap and putting up with later BT/shorter nights for a bit.

You will prob have to experiment and see what works best for your LO and you.

There is a great support thread here with lots of others in the same predicament
Support for dropping the nap part 9.

[clairew11]

Thanks for the reply, on Monday he refused a nap at nursery so for the rest of the week I have waited for his cues. H usually asks to go to bed if tired. He hasn't asked and been happy enough, every other day he has curled up on the sofa around 3pm and napped for about 25mins, he has stayed reasonably happy until bedtime, gone to bed at 7.30pm without a peep and has slept until 7 sometimes slightly after which has been unheard of lately x

[cath~]

that's great that is working for you so well

one thing to watch out for is OT, esp if he starts refusing nap completely but still needs it.  EBT can help if you suspect OT to be creeping in (e.g. if nights are shortening)

but sounds like what you are doing is working fine ATM