15 month old sleep schedule?

[Green007]

Anyone else have a 15 ish month old that wakes at 6-6:30??? Wondering what time you do nap? She's on one nap a day. Refuses 2. I'm trying so hard to figure her out. Her sleep and naps cause me so much anxiety and worry. It's truly the center of my universe and needs to stop. Any suggestions, idea or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Haribo2012]

My DS is older now but at that age would've napped 11.30-1.30pm ish and had a 13 hour day.
How long does your LO nap for?

[Green007]

1h20 now. And I keep her day short...11.5 hours usually if she doesn't pull off the 2 hour nap.

[Haribo2012]

Are you getting any NW?

[HenaV]

Hi!

What does her day look like in EAS format?

Any sign of teeth?

Hena

[Green007]

Yes, some nights we get NW's but she also has a cold so maybe that's why??
Typical day

Awake @ 6:30
Asleep at 12:00 for nap
Bedtime 6-6:30 depending on nap.

But this is just typical. She has no consistent wake time. It ranges from 6:15-6:45 usually...so her nap also ranges from 12-12:30. And BT ranges from 6-7. I'm
Back to work. She goes to a dayhome with her brother from 10-4. She dropped her second nap around 11 months and down right refuses if I try to do a cat nap around 5.

[Bababoo]

Could have been me starting this thread!

15 mo DD is exactly the same...from 6 months to around 13 months she woke at 5am..couldn't get anything later...then out of the blue @ 12/13 months she started sleeping later...until 7/7.30 and sometimes 8am - one theory was that as she had started walking she was just a bit more wrecked - and she walks around all day long - is a really active girl! She also dropped the second nap at this stage (and would usually only sleep for 1 hour, maybe 1.5 on a good day for that one nap). But because she was sleeping later I got her into a 12 hour day so it was a good 7-7 schedule.

But....the last two weeks she has reverted to 6am starts - again, no idea at all why the change. She got some new teeth during the 'good sleep' stage so it's not that (I think!)  - and her eating habits have declined the last few weeks aswell. She has always been a great eater -  great appetite and would eat all types of fruit, veg and meat but not only is she now eating less but is much fussier about food - refusing things she used to love.

So I'm wrecked again every day and dealing with her flinging alot of the food I cook on the floor - frustrating due to the stress about the amount of food she is consuming, the cost of the waste and the time spent planning and preparing her meals!

After that big rant (sorry - someone doing loud housework outside their house woke her early from her nap this morning so she is wrecked and I know she won't go to sleep now until bedtime) I can't offer any help except sympathy!

[Green007]

Bababoo. Sorry to hear about your food struggles lately. My DD is super fussy so I can sympathize! I'm wondering if I should keep her day at 12 hours regardless if she sleeps 1h15 mins or 2hours? I've been putting her to bed earlier if her nap is less than 2 hours. Maybe I should stop doing this? I don't know. She is cutting teeth and just started walking within the last month. Does her schedule seem ok as is? Or am I in need of tweaking it?

[Bababoo]

Because she dropped that second nap I've been trying to get it in the middle of the day @ 12ish so that she has a roughly equal period of awake time in the morning and afternoon - so for instance if she is up at 6 I'll try get her to 11.30 at least and then she might sleep for 1.5 hrs and then asleep by 7. Since she's been on one nap I've found it easier to make the day a 12 or 13 hr one but sometimes it can be tricky to fit meals and and activity time into a 12 hr day!

Today she only had a 40 min nap due to all the noise outside and as she has been awake since 6 I'm trying to get her to bed and asleep by 6...6.30 at the very latest.

For my DD it seems that she wakes at 6 regardless of her bedtime - so I'm trying to get her to bed earlier again now to try get close to 12 hours if possible - the difference in her mood between 10 and 12 hours sleep is incredible!

Teeth and walking are two big events - would you think that when the teeth are through the extra energy used by all the walking might help her sleep settle - that seems to be what happened here - which is why I'm at a loss as to the sudden reversal!

And out of nowhere she ate really well today - better than she has all week - I can only hope that a full belly might get me an extra hours sleep tonight!

Finally - an issue for me is the amount of wake-time she needs between naps - does that need tweaking at your end? DD needs 4-5 hours A time to really get a decent sleep...do you need to look at how long she is awake either side of the nap?

[HenaV]

Hi!

I wonder given your anxiety around A times whether you might try set time. It does mean your LO gets it in the short term but you have the long term gain of a set routine. Have a look atbthis link and see what you think:

 Set naps for toddlers: Why, How and When

In terms of your current routine, I'd be tempted to bring the nap forward so your day looks something like this:

WU: 6.30
Nap: 11.30
BT: 6.30-7pm depending on lenght of nap.

Re: your nights currently , is your LO sleeping through

? And re: the naps what's your lo's mood on WU?

Has your LO always been a short napper?

Hena

[Green007]

Thank you for the replies. She can't nap at 11:30. Earliest she can go is 12 as she is at a dayhome and 11:30 isn't possible. With a 5.5h A time in the morning she did 1h15 min naps these last few days. I moved her to a 6H A time today and she did 2h nap. We'll see what happens tmw. I am trying to do set naps but don't know how to really. If I set her nap at 12:30 everyday, what happens if she wakes at 6? She'd be OT by 12:30. That's why I was looking for other 15 month schedules that are on one nap. Just so u could see what this should or could potentially look like.

How short would her nap have to be to warrant an earlier BT?

[Bababoo]

For BT I'm inclined to think more about the WU time than how long she has been asleep for the nap - today for instance things are a bit of a disaster sleep-wise - awake at 5.45am (was asleep last night at 7.15pm) - went for her nap at 11.40 (trying to keep her occupied as much as possible this morning to avoid an early nap) and she is just waking now - an hour later...so I'll be aiming to have her asleep by 6.30 tonight....it's as early as I can manage with meals etc....so that way her day is just over 12 hours....if she had slept another hour for her nap I'd still be thinking of the same bedtime...I tend to try and manage bedtime to get as close to 12 hours at night....so if I get her down by 6.30 and she wakes tomorrow morning around 6 it's at least a decent night's sleep....does that make sense....tying as she is starting her wake-up murmuring!

[Green007]

Yes. I pretty much do the same thing. I'm just not sure what to do now as her wake time before was 5h20 mins and then her naps started to shorten, earlier wake times and NW's so I just assumed she needed a push forward with that A time. So maybe I'll try 5h30/5:35 H Atime for a few days and see what happens. And then shorten A time before bed by 10-15 mins. I guess!!? Ugh.

[Bababoo]

With unreliable sleepers/nappers I think all you can do is keep tweaking things until you find the optimum mix...I thought I had it sorted and was basking in the glow of 7/8am starts to my day and now it's all gone down the pan so I'm back to obsessive clock-watching and hour counting! Not to mention getting up when it's pitch black outside! Sigh!

[Green007]

It's the worst hey? My 3 year old was such an amazing sleeper...but this little miss is just beating to her own drum. She's waking for 5-10 mins at 10:30-11:00 now...she just yells for some attention and goes back to sleep. I don't go in but I'd like it to stop none the less.