Nap Times

[lazylazy]

Is it normal for a 17 month old to want to nap at 8:30 AM after getting up at 7:00 AM with full 12 hours of sleep at night? My DD gets cranky and wants to sleep just about an hour and a half of getting up in the morning. She is going to start school in sept and I am worried what is going to happen then? These days I am letting sleep for about 30-40 mins and then I wake her up so that she takes her afternoon nap. If I dont wake her up she wont take an afternoon nap and is very tired in the evening. I want her to take only one long afternoon nap because if she doenst get used to this now she will have trouble when school starts. Her school timings will be 9-12.
Please help me if you have had a similar experience!
Thanks,

[almostamom]

My son is the same way. I've found that if we're really busy in the morning (appointments, lots of errands to run, etc.) he can make it until lunchtime and then take a nap. If we're just home in the morning, he's down for a nap by 9 a.m. It makes for a very long afternoon as he won't nap again later in the day. He will start preschool in November. I'm hoping by then he'll be napping solely in the afternoon or the "busy in the morning" routine will still work.


~Linda~
http://lilypie.com/pic/060427/fDdc.jpg http://b2.lilypie.com/qW3mm7.png

[pampamz]

What happens if you put her to bed an hour later -- say 8.00pm instead of 7?

If she really needs a morning rest what about if you just put a big pillow on the family room floor and let her have 15min of *quiet time* before getting ready for school?

I think you can probably get her out of this habit but it will take some grumpy days. Worth it, IMO -- the afternoon nap is a sanity-saver!

[nfowife]

My 14 month old is somewhat similar in the past few weeks since we've moved to 1 nap. If we don't do something out of the house in the a.m., it is very hard to keep her up until noonish for her nap. One thing that I've found helps us tremendously is that when DD wakes around 7:15ish, is to not go get her right away. Most days she will fall back asleep after about 15-20 minutes of playing in her crib (she doesn't cry for me, just plays in her crib at this time. If she cries then I go get her). I can usually push her wake up time to about 8:15 or on very special lucky days, 8:30 or 8:45 a.m. It makes it much easier for her to last a little longer in until her nap this way! But this wouldn't work for every kid, I realize that!

[billysmommy]

Billy has always been a morning napper. He goes to school 2 days a week from 9-5 and on those days he has no problem with waiting until 12:30 but on the days we're home he usually naps around 10-10:30.

He still takes naps now, he is 3 and almost 2 months. If we put him down for a nap around 10:30 he goes right to sleep for about 1.5 hours. This morning my mom came to visit so he didn't go down for his nap until about 1:30 - he is still awake moving things around and playing in his room. It will make for a very tired boy come 5:00. The nice thing now is he can go a day or two without a nap but he does still nap 4-5 days a week.

We leave tomorrow for the IL's until Tuesday so very few opportunities for naps the next few days. We'll see how it goes :)

[writermama]

Well, it's normal in the sense that your child isn't the only one who does it, but it may not be optimal for either her or your schedule.

It's possible that she needs more sleep at night -- 13 hours is not uncommon at this age (alas, my child didn't sleep quite that much at night, but they're all different).

Is something waking her up in the morning before she's really ready to get up for the day? Is there a noise in the house at that time of day? Does the morning light come into her room and wake her (black-out or room darkening shades or curtains can help). Maybe her diaper is really soaked (try adding a doubler or sizing up) or she's hungry or thirsty (could try more feeding before bed).

If 7:00 is the optimal wake up time, maybe moving her bedtime earlier will let her get a big chunk of sleep so she doesn't need a nap so soon after waking.

On the other hand, it could also be, as PPs suggest, that you can try a morning "quiet time" and progressively shorter morning naps to encourage the afternoon nap, or just adopt the same schedule she'll have at school. And it's even possible that a combination of both starting bed time earlier and encouraging the afternoon nap might work for you. Sleep issues can be so baffling, and then once you think you've got it figured out, they change their patterns. It's all part of the parenting adventure.

Good luck and HTH,

[randomkid]

My DD is the same age as yours. I'm glad to know that we are not the only ones dealing with this issue, but sorry that you are going through it as well.

DD gets up between 8:00 and 8:30. By 10:00 or so , she is yawning and getting sleepy. I started pushing her later a few months ago in anticipation of her starting school in August, but we didn't get a spot (I'm still working on it because I hope to have her there in Jan). I would give her a snack and keep her busy in some way. I found that if I could get her through that sleepy time, I could push her nap until 10:45 or 11:00. By doing this she would sleep longer. If I let her go to sleep too early, she wouldn't sleep long, then wanted an afternoon nap as well which was too late in the day. I kept pushing her later in 10-15 minute increments, so now we are getting her down anywhere from 11:30 to 12:15. That's a pretty wide range, but I just have to go with it. If she is just too sleepy at 11:30, I just have to put her down. Most days, she will still act sleepy around 10:00, but she doesn't get too cranky. She seems to get through that sleepy time much easier now and is fine until nap time. Even if we are in the car, she won't go to sleep at 10:00, but will at 11:00, so I have to make sure we are not traveling at that time. Otherwise, she will sleep 15 or 20 minutes in the car and that's it!

I found that by pushing her nap later, she would get really tired in the late pm (4 or 5). I started letting her nap then, but she wouldn't go to bed until way past her bedtime. I just cut out that late nap recently and if she was really tired, I would give her quiet time as some PPs suggested for the am. It usually would work. If she does fall asleep now, I only let her sleep about 30 minutes. There have been days that she seems really tired and cranky in the late afternoon, so I put her down to rest and she won't do it now. She seems to be adjusting to one nap a day, but we have had some really cranky days in the process.

My biggest problem now is that she usually won't eat lunch before her nap. She wants to eat after, so sometimes her lunch isn't until 2:30. We do try and somedays she will eat before her nap, so I am hoping that we are on our way.

It seems that getting them down to one nap takes a lot of work. I have just had to try different things and if one thing doesn't work, I change it. Keep in mind that this has been going on for us for several months now (at least 3-4), so it's not an overnight process. BTW, DD started doing this on her own, so I knew she was ready for only one nap. It's just getting the timing down so everyone is rested and happy! :-)

Sorry if this is confusing, but that is kind of how this whole process has been. It's really been difficult for me to explain this in an understandable way.

HTH and Good Luck!

[lmwbasye]

Liam has been like this since we switched to one nap a day. Basically, if he is at daycare or we are out running errands in the morning, he makes it past lunch without as much of the crankiness. I usually try to get out of the house everyday (even just literally outside) around this time to help him make it until the afternoon. He will sleep 2 - 3 hours for his afternoon nap...sometimes more. He sleeps from 6:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. (put him to bed later and he wakes up earlier...ugh!)

[manda7_23]

Well i don't know if it's normal but my DD is 19 mon. old and still does this. If we are out and about doing stuff or if i keep her busy she can skip it. But, i am a SAHM so i just count my blessings and let her sleep when she gets tired! lol...

For your situation, i like the other persons idea of putting her to bed earlier. Good Luck!

Amanda

[cbm]

Is it possible she isn't sleeping well at night? Maybe she is awake during the night, but she doesn't call you. It may also be restless sleep. In my experience those have been the problems with wanting to go to bed an hour after waking up.
Putting her to bed an hour earlier or doing things with her early in the morning, such as going outside to play or run errance, may do the trick. Also if she isn't having a protein breakfast, you may want to switch to that (some slices of chicken, egg, cheese, etc,). Carbohydrates alone such as cereal and toast can cause sleepiness in some people (I am one of those people).
Good luck.

Claudia
DS 12/18/04

[randomkid]

I like the protein breakfast idea. Now only if I could get DD to eat those things!

[lazylazy]

Thnaks so much everyone for all the suggestions! For the past few days I am letting her catnap from about 8:30 to 9:00 AM and then she is okay till avout 12:30 and then takes a 2 hour nap. I am hoping by sept she wont need the catnap anymore. I like the protien bfast idea - Im gonna try that for sure.
thanks again!