Sleep/ nap times for 17mth old?

[popeye123]

Hi,
Having battles at bedtime, i think because dd just isn't tired enough. she can't stay up any later (for my sanity) so i need to take a look at when and how long she naps to see if i can tweek it.

at the moment,
wakes at 8 (sometimes later, sometimes i have to wake her)
lunch between 12 & 1ish
nap time 1-1.30ish
i try not to let her nap past 3 but this can sometime mean she sleeps for 2hours. is this too much, and i am waking her too late
bedtime 8ish. some toing and frowing, might zonk out 8.30-9ish
leaving me with a very short evening....

oh - and not a great sleeper during the night either!

what a merry-go-round

what do other peoples babies do..?

[Toothyboy]

Ds2 is 16 months. He wakes around 6am, goes back to bed about 8.30 - 9am for about an hour. Then another nap about 1.30 for 1.5 - 2.5 hrs depending on how active he's been. He shows signs of being tired by 6pm, so I take him up for his bath, which actually perks him up a bit! He's in bed by about 6.45pm and falls asleep sometime between then and 7.30pm - depending, again, on how active he's been and how noisy ds1 is when he goes up to bed at 6.50pm.

I think at this age, they still need a good amount of daytime sleep. 2 hours is about right - I would gladly trade ds2's morning nap for a 7am wake up! It's often said that good daytime sleep paves the way for good night time sleep, so I would still let her have 2 hours in the afternoon (this was the routine ds1 was in by this age).

Is it possible that she's over tired by 8pm which is why she finds it hard to get to sleep? 5 hours is still quite a long time for them to be awake for at this age, especially if she's very active.

[Egg]

Hello. My DS is 16 months. He wakes usually some time between 7 and 7:30 (only recently got this late, used to be before 7). Nap at 12:30, usually sleeps for at least 2.5 hrs, if he is still asleep I wake him by 3:15pm. He goes to bed between 7 and 7:15pm and sometimes goes straight to sleep, sometimes "sings" to himself for a while.

He usually sleeps through the night, although has a cough at the mo so I sometimes have to go in and give him some water if he is coughing a LOT.

Hope this helps!

[popeye123]

hi,
she used to go to bed earlier (6.30- 7) but was even worse. i thought that because she goes for 5hrs in the morning and then goes down for a nap without any problems, then another 5hrs before bedtime was about right.
she does look tired at teatime (6ish) but then perks up as soon as she's down from her highchair. i try not to do anything too crazy with her after that. we do the usual book, bathtime and bottle.
we do tend to do more in the mornings though so she probably does get more tired then.
i just don't have any evening and she goes to bed so late and is so unpredictable i don't feel happy to leave her with a babysitter.

[Toothyboy]

I see what you mean about the 5 hours, popeye123, but the way I look at it that's 5 hours awake after a full night's sleep. In the afternoon, it's 5 hours after a busy day, with just a 2 hour nap to break it up!

Could you try bringing her tea and bedtime earlier? Do it gradually, by say 15 minutes a day. She won't know any different and if it works, in a week or so she could be going to sleep an hour or more earlier

[Egg]

I used to try and keep bath and bedtime nice and calm and quiet, getting DS nice and ready for bed. Now he charges around, plays chasing games with me and DH, and generally lets off a lot of steam. It seems to help. As soon as we dim the lights etc he starts rubbing his eyes and sometimes even tries to climb into his cot.

I also get him to have as active a day as possible. Making sure he walks / runs about a lot and we go to the park or softplay etc every day.