Author Topic: 16 month old naps for just half an hour once or twice a day, please help  (Read 1442 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Mistymoon

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 1
  • Location:
My lg has gone through phases of fighting naps since she was about 8 months old but as she has got older it's got harder and harder to get her to nap and its now got to the point where she is impossible. I normally put her down for a nap after she has been awake for 3 hours. It can and frequently does take 45 minutes to an hour for her to go to sleep and then she just sleeps for 30 minutes. Sometimes she refuses her afternoon nap even if she has slept just 30 mins in the morning! Other times she refuses her morning nap so I put her down at about lunch time (after an early lunch) and then she just naps for half an hour. I'm pretty sure that she needs two naps a day as she gets tired in the mornings but she fights them with all her might. I have tried putting her down earlier, putting her down later, nothing makes any difference. I've tried to follow her cues but I often don't realise she's tired until she's rubbing her eyes at which point it's too late (for her this means she's overtired) I have tried keeping a sleep diary to see if there is a better time to put her down for a nap. I've been keeping it for three months and I'm still totally confused. I'm just driving myself nutty. I really want to help her because I know she needs more sleep. Every time she wakes up after half an hour she cries and needs to be held for ages, but there is absolutely nothing I can do to help her back to sleep, she just gets more and more worked up.
Recently she has been rubbing her eyes after being awake one and a half hours in the morning, regardless of how well she slept at night. So I'm completely confused by that, surely she can't be over tired after one and a half hours at 16 months! When I have tried putting her down for a nap that early she just screams and screams and I end up taking her out of her cot.
She is averaging about 12 hours in a 24 hour period which I know is pretty rubbish and not enough.
I'm so desperate for a solution, I just don't know what to do.

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 249
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 16048
  • Location: Canada
Re: 16 month old naps for just half an hour once or twice a day, please help
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2015, 15:33:57 pm »
What time is her bedtime and wake up? By this age most kids are on one nap and if she is sleeping well at night (no nw's?) then she may be lower on the sleep needs scale. Personally I would think about just doing a set naptime for a few weeks to see how things even out.
Heidi




Offline Emami

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 41
  • Posts: 2066
  • Location: UK
Re: 16 month old naps for just half an hour once or twice a day, please help
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2015, 11:26:03 am »
Hope things have been better the last couple of days! I've just moved your post over to Sleeping for Toddlers as LO is over a year
Emma