Low sleep needs but grumpy on waking!? am I missing something?

[Honeymonster]

I think I've finally settled on the fact that my almost 13month DD has low sleep needs!!. sorry if this is a long post! but if you cant be bothered reading just skip to the last 2 sentences :-)

At around 5 months I was posting on here about dropping the 3rd nap.. we always struggled to get long naps and she always seemed to need a huge first A time for her age and then we struggled to get her down for a second nap.


Then at 9 months we dropped the second nap consistently after a few weeks of awful bedtimes- but had an early bedtime for a while. bedtime became really good again and we FINALLY started getting a consistent 2 her nap after lunch. I kept doubting myself sometimes and occasionally tried to put her down early if she seemed to be really tired but she's gone mad and not been for sleeping at all. She used to just chat in the cot for an hour if she was undertired  (at 6-8months) now if she is still hungry or she's under-tired she screams bloody murder and stands up in her cot screaming until you come and get her.

we've had about 2-3 months of pretty much a consistent 2hr nap and 12-12.5 hr night (awesome I know) - although on nursery days (2 days a week) she usually just sleeps for 30-45 mins- occasionally 1 hr and 10. She always wakes crying and grupmy from her 2 hr naps and seems really sleepy and clingy for about 30-45mins after her nap but then perks up again.  occasionally if she's had a looong first A time she'll try and sleep for 2.5 hrs but we started getting EW at 4-5am so we always wake her after 2 hrs.

SO She finally started STTN the past couple of weeks!! Yipeeeeeee! she's been going down about 7.30 and then sleeping until 6-6.30am! she wakes up slowly giving wee cries and moans then it progresses to a big cry when she's actually woken up. I give her her bottle and try and resettle her but its hit or miss whether she'll go back to sleep. Sometimes she will (only after a 10oz bottle.. anything less and she def wont.) So when she first started this sttn and waking around 6 for the day instead of her usual 7.30am wake up, she was verrrryy tired in the mornings and I felt she was stedily getting more and more OT. THEN the past two weeks she's not napped AT ALL at nursery on the second day and only 30mins on the first day. So twice shes done a full 8am-5.30 at nursery with noo sleep, but by the time we pick her up she's ready for a meltdown and then wakes OT at 10pm after bed screaming. We ended up having about 3 days of going back to 2 naps a day (one I woke after 20mins and the other 1.45) but i had to AP the second one as i just felt she was so OT! but now she's caught up again on her sleep and i'm trying to get a bit stricter with her one nap again.. and now bedtime is getting later and later again!!!? WHATS going on??

am I really to believe that at just under 13months an 11hr night (ish) and 2 hr nap is too much sleep? If she really doesnt need all this sleep then why is she so sleepy / grumpy on waking from her nap?

Anyone else with low sleep needs children who can comment?

Thanks

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, I've moved your post to the toddler sleep board as your LO is over one year old, I hope that's ok. You're more likely to see some responses from parents of LSN LOs here too.

I donMg have an LSN Dd but it is entirely possible that your DD is ready to start dropping that nap. It is a log process and doesn't happen overnight so it could be the beginnings. You'll see in the link there are several ways of going about the process depending on how your LO presents wth the symptoms of you see what I mena:

The 1-0 transition...Advice and Tips to help you through.

Another thing to think of is that teething and developmental change can play quite a part in NWs at this age. Are there any signs ofeither of those issues?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I have a lsn toddler...it is definitely possible that 11 hrs at night and a two hour nap is too much. I think we were down to 1-1.5 hr naps and 11 hr nights by that age, now we are down to 45 min naps. I hope to keep at least a 30 min nap until spring/summer and then hopefully do a quiet time in her crib once she is done napping. For my sanity if nothing else! She actually naps a bit longer at daycare than at home as she gets way more activity there.

Oh and some kids just wake grumpy! DD1 has always been that way (and frankly so am I, the kids steer clear until they see coffee in my hand!).

[Honeymonster]

Thanks for the replies folks.
I'll have a look at that link buttonbob thanks.

MSE I'm not sure the grumpiness is just her as she always used to wake happy. This week I tried cutting nap to 1.5/1.45 hrs and we had much better bedtimes but she's stedily got more and more OT as the week has gone on as has still been waking at 6ish. So I'm thinking maybe if she wakes at 7 and does a 7-7 then cut the nap but if she wakes at 6 leave the nap 1hr but bed at 7 like usual. Interestingly one day she didn't nap until 1pm (usually 12/12.30) and the next morning she woke at 7am but completley happy and chatting in the cot.. So maybe she needs her nap pushed back a bit later? Or could be a coincidence. She wouldn't nap at nursery again even although she's consistently been down at 12/12.30 most of the week no bother. They ended up taking her out in the buggy and got an hour between 2-3 so we'll see how tonight goes.. She was shattered but hoping cos it was quite late we won't get OT waking early on!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

We have done naptime around 12:45/1:00 for quite some time, so that could definitely be part of it. Hope she had a good night!