Should I be waking my toddler?

[Bellyrub1980]

My 21mo daughter is currently sleeping A LOT. Should I wake her at the 'normal' time?

Since about 9 months old I've always put her to bed between 7 and 7.30pm. She usually wakes between 6am and 8am.

However.... She's now sleeping in till 10am and has done for the last few weeks. Sometimes I'm crashing around trying to wake her even then so we can go out and make appointments!! She's still napping once a day for 3 hours. However the nap is quite late in the day now, about 2/3pm. This means she's going to bed slightly later, around 8pm.

So, she's generally sleeping for 17hrs out of 24 every day.

2 days a week I have to wake her at 7.30 as I have to take her to child care before I go to work. She still naps for 3 hours those days but is a bit crabby in the evenings.

She is perfectly healthy, normal weight, normal diet, I've got no reason to be concerned but this seems so unusual. And I'm certainly not complaining. But why is she sleeping so much?

And should I wake her from her nap at a certain time to ensure she goes to bed at 7? Is that important?

I've never forced routine onto her, she just fell into a good pattern naturally. Should I continue to let her work her own sleep pattern out at this age? Or should I now be forcing a more conventional routine?

[FATEdestiny]

17h out of 24h sounds a lot for a lot of an almost 2 year old.

She might be "banking" her sleep in some way, making up for being tired while at the childminder on days she's home.

If it was me id aim for a more routined morning wake up and nap time.

[Bellyrub1980]

So pleased you saw my post FATE! Was hoping you'd reply :)

On her days at the child care (her grandparents, so home from home) she is very active (swimming, walking, lots of play) but still gets her 3 hour nap. But, yes, is being woken a good 3 hours before she naturally wakes on any other day. So I guess on those days she's sleeping 14hrs out of 24. But maybe she naturally needs 15.5hrs which is why she over compensates with 17 hours on the other days.

The mornings I've got her up 'early' on a day in at home (say, around 8.30am) she's ended up napping for 4.5 hours. So she's making up for it then.

Must admit that part of me was worried whether all this sleep was a red flag for something more worrying going on.

But if it isn't then, for now, I'll not look a gift horse in the mouth and maybe try and normalise her pattern a bit.

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

I also suspect she is 'banking' the sleep and is just tired from the busy days. She may be due a growth spurt. However, if she remains really tired I would take her to the GP / HV just to be on the safe side. It's more than likely that she is just grabbing extra sleep when she can - sounds bliss! - but it would be sensible to check it out.

[Bellyrub1980]

Ok thank you. I can ask a HV at the weigh clinic so that's sorted!

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

Sounds like a plan

[MsDinosaur]

My toddler is very similar. I could have written your post!

[FATEdestiny]

But maybe she naturally needs 15.5hrs...

That sounds more reasonable. My 23mo usually sleeps 12h + 3h, but on days she is tired she may have a 13h night or 4h nap (or both!)

The 17h sleep days would be more of a worry if they were all the time.