16 months old- geting shorter nap...what to do!

[lilianaortiz]

Hi!.
My 16 months old DS has been in the following schedule for quite a while (with only ONE nap of TWO hours). But for the past two weeks his waking up very early of this nap (sleeping just 1hr or 1hr 15 min).

8:00-8:30am WAKE and Bottle
10:00 Breakfast (solid)
12:00 Bottle and Nap (bottle probably using as Prop...but I will post that issue later on!)
2:00 Wake (Now he is waking at 1:00 or 1:20)
3:00 Lunch (solid)
7:00 Bath
7:30 Dinner and Bottle
8:00 Bed




Of course by 4:30 or 5 he is very tired...so heīs been taking another nap but this one will last longer; 2 or 3 hrs. and by bed time obviously he is not tired at all!. And will stay up until 9 or 9:30...

How can I extend his morning nap?. Or should I allow him to take a second nap?
Thanks

[Layla]

He might have started getting overtired from the long A time before bed. If he is on just 1 nap then it really needs to be in the middle of the day, approx 5-5.5hrs from the time he wakes with bedtime being about 5-5.5hrs from the time he ends his nap

So now that he is back to 2 naps, what I would try & do is shorten the 12pm nap down to about 45mins (so wake him up) & bump up the late afternoon nap to around 3.5hrs A time... so something like this:

8am - wakes
12-12:45 - nap1
4-5.30/6 - nap2 (don't let him sleep more than 2hrs)
9pm - bedtime

Then over a few days you shorten the morning nap again to 30mins & have something like this:

8am - wakes
12-12:30 - nap1
3.30-5pm - nap2
8.30 - bedtime

Over a few more days try pushing the the 12pm nap until its closer to 1pm so that his day looks like this:
8am - wake
1-3pm - nap
8pm - bedtime

hth & let me know what you think
Layla

[tracynben]

hi i would guess one of two things.
Obviously as he gets older he can stay awake longer, so maybe hes not as tired and could stay awake a bit longer until his nap, watch for his cues, at 12pm if you dont think hes tired let him stay up a little longer before you put him down. OR you could try an earlier bedtime, i would say 6.5 hours A time before bed is a litlle too much, but i would more say it may be that hes not as tired at 12pm.
My lo is the same age as yours, and has just gone to one nap, his rountine looks like this
6.30am awake and bottle
8am at childcare, brekfast
11am lunch
11.30am nap (about 90 mins)
5.30 home and dinner
6.30 bed

I wouldnt try and get him back to 2 naps a day, he shouldnt really need two now, but your his mum and you know best, you just need some advice, think about it and really watch his cues, he can kinda tell you what he wants, i find now that when my lo is gettin tired, he follows me around and keeps grabbin me.
good luck
tracy xxxxxxxxx

[lilianaortiz]

Thanks for your advice!.
Maybe your right and he is not tired enough by 12:00...today he woke at 7:30 and by 11:00 he was really tired and slept for 3hrs....but thatīs not usuall.

I also think that he should not be going back to two naps by his age. Maybe I will try to extend his A time till 1:00 (so there is 5 hrs of A), and see if his nap goes longer till 3:00. And then to bed at 8:00.
Hopefully it will work. I will let you know what happens!
Thanks a lot for the advice!
Liliana

[Layla]

Good luck Liliana... when I said to go back to 2 naps, I didn't mean perminantly .. it was just to get him to settle into 1 nap smoother. But if you think he can handle 4.5-5hrs A time then just go with it & down to 1 nap. He might still show you tired signs around his previous morning nap time so usually what I used to do is quiet time... like read a book or something to get her through the crabbiness & then go for 1 nap around 4.5hrs A time

Let us know how you go

[lilianaortiz]

HI!
Today the routine was like this:
7:30 wake
12:10-1:30  nap 1 (1hr 20 min, he woke up by himself)
4:30-6:30 nap 2 (he went to grab his blanket and he wanted milk!)
8:30 Bed time...

Is it bad? When he went to grab his blanket, he seemed bored...should I have taken him out for a walk or something to ease him and then start bed routine at 7:00pm? Or was it OK to put him for a nap?
I thought it because from 1:20 that he woke till 8:00 it was too much A time...isnīt?

What do you think?

[Peek-a-boo]

Wow, did he actually fall asleep at 8:30 after taking such a long nap so late?

Hmmm . . . in that case I would probably have let him have the second nap, but woken him after 45-1 hour to protect bed time/night sleep.