14 Month old 10 hour nights

[LizPNI]

My almost 14 month old son has had sleep problems from the start. I've gotten a lot of great help from this site. He now sleeps through the night (with the occasional can't find his pacifier issue) and goes down for naps no problem. We are currently in the 2 to 1 nap limbo stage. Some day we got two short naps (45min-1 hour each) and some days we got one mini nap in the morning (15-20 minutes, usually in the car) and then one long nap 2 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon. So I recognize things are a little messy.  My concern is that he never sleeps for more than 10 hours at night and some nights it's more like 9.  I wondering if there is anyway to get him to sleep longer nights? He goes to sleep around 8:30 and he wakes up anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30.  Or  will I just have to deal with this until his naps sort out?

His schedule the past few days was

5:45am wake up
6:30 milk
8:30 breakfast
10:00 20 minute nap while out walking
12:30 lunch
2:30 nap (2.5 hours)
4:30 wake up
7:00dinner
8:00 milk, bath bed routine
8:45 asleep (usally he goes right to sleep by 8:30 but had a little trouble so up later)

Following that schedule he was up the next day at 5:50 this morning

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I think that you will probably need to be on one nap fully to see a longer night...well at least that is how it is for us! We get 11 hrs usually with a 45-60 min nap (low sleep needs though) otherwise with longer or two naps we get 10 hr nights.

[KookyK]

What MSE said. Altho we get a handful of shorter nights here and there for no reason I think as we are new to 1 nap and still transitioning .

[LizPNI]

Thanks.... I guess we'll just have to ride this out until he is ready for one nap.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Have you ever tried one nap just to see?

[LizPNI]

So things got worse.  One issues is that during the week he's with the babysitter so I give her guidlines on the nap, but she not so good with adapting if  things don't go well. Anyway  he has been walking up around 4:50  for the past few days. Finally I explained to the babysitter that he should  not have more than two hours of sleep during the day and things have gotten a littl better. 

We tried one nap, but he was so tiered from waking up so early. I also think I let him sleep too long. Can I cap the nap even if he only has one. Today I'm home so trying 20 minute nap at 11:45 and the. Longer nap around 2:30 . We will see how that goes.

[HenaV]

I too agree with MES. I would try one nap and give it a chance for 3-5days. Yes you can cap the nap but I would consider not doing that in the first instance to allow your LO the best chance of adjusting. You can always move BT if you think he'd be UT. Re: him being really tired because of the ew, you could push him as late as you think he'll go in the morning and give I
Him a slightly earlier BT if you think he needs it.

It may be things haven't worked as well on one nap in the past because you've not been able to adjust the day to help him through the transition. Some it is inevitable  ime but you can make allowances in the day/routine which helps with managing the OT.

What do you think?

Hena

[KookyK]

ATM we have a similar schedule

Morning is 6am out of cot but he's awake anytime from 5 (today 5,40)
Nap as close as poss to 11, no earlier than 10.45
Sometimes it lasts 50 mins sometimes 2 hours
BT around 6.30, no earlier or EWs worse

Once or twice a week ill do a capped nap and a second one but he doesn't get much more sleep overall but perhaps it slightly pushed his times forward.

My DS is 14 months next week btw

[HenaV]

With an 11am (10.45) nap I would go to one nap and keep the day at 12h max

H

[LizPNI]

So we tried one nap this weekend. He is still waking up before 6am. I think at this point he is overtired. The issues is that he doesn't sleep till 8:30pm, so he is beyond a 12 hour day.  We don't get home from work till 5:30-6, so an early bedtime just isn't going to work for us.  I don't think he will ever sleep 12 hours at night, so an I deal day would be if he slept from 8pm to 7am. Up until recently he was doing 8:30 to 6:30.

this morning he was up before 5:30 and very unhappy. Usually when he wakes up he is not like this. He  kept pointing at the stairs and wouldn't stop crying till we went downstairs and said good morning to the dogs. Usually when he wakes up he is happy to hang out in our bed/ or his crib for awhile. So, again I think this is overtired behavior.


We will keep sticking to the 1 nap a day this week and see how it

thanks

[KookyK]

Aw poor little fella that's tricky. I couldn't keep two naps as my day wouldve been super long but I think possibly in your circumstances maybe two naps could be the answer. But as others have said give the 1 nap routine a bit of time to see its effects first.

I was starting to despair as DS had a lot of wakings from 4 and is awake somewhere between 5-6am and the past 4 days his nap went all short. But today he woke at nearly 6am and had a 2 hour nap after sticking with it. I wonder for us about the odd two nap days where needed.

[LizPNI]

Hi everyone,

so we have been sticking to the 1 nap and he is an OT mess.  The issues is that his wake ups are still all over the place. Somewhere between 5 and 6:30.
I keep trying to push his nap later because other he will need to go to sleep earlier at night and I fear we will have even earlier mornings.

Our ideal schedule is

wake up 6:30 (or later,  I can dream right?)
Nap 1pm for 1.30 hours
Sleep at 8pm

Right now if he wakes up at 5am he is ready for a nap at 11. If I let him nap at 11, by 6:30 he is an OT mess.  Do you think I should do two naps on the days when he was really early (5am or before)?