How many naps for a 10 month old baby?

[lottytheladybird]

My 10 month old baby boy usually has a nap in the morning for 1-1.5 hours and then a nap in the afternoon for 1-1.25 hours. However, he sometimes won't go down for an afternoon nap these days and then gets very tired at around 5pm, when it's really a bit late for a nap. How many naps does a 10 month old baby usually have?

[RitaMorgan]

Two sounds normal to me. I have a similar issue in that ds likes to sleep for 2 hours in the morning, and then only about 45 minutes in the afternoon and gets tired and grouchy by dinner time. He's also started waking by 6am I'm hoping that limiting him to 45 minutes at around 10am and then having a longer nap from 1.30pm might solve both these problems!

[AngelDog]

Most children drop to 2 naps at between 6 and 9 months. Dropping to 1 nap is pretty rare before 12 months although a tiny minority do.

You could try shuffling the second nap later by about 10 mins every couple of days, and/or shortening the morning nap to 45 mins.

A common pattern is waking at 7ish, nap at 9ish for about 45 mins, then again at 1ish for about 2 hours, then bedtime around 7ish.

Rita, from all the sleep books I read, it sounds like your suggestion is likely to help - it sounds like he's overtired from too long a period between the end of the second nap and bedtime, which often results in early waking.

[NimpyWindowmash]

Wake him up after about 30 mins from the morning nap, then he will sleep properly later on.

[sunndydays]

Dd (now 11 months but hasn't changed in the last month) has 30 minutes in the morning then up to two hours in the afternoon, though usually an hour and a half. If she is having a tired day she will have another 30 mins at about half four, this is rare now though

[MissHonkover]

Angeldog and Rita, that's interesting, I didn't realise the gap between end of afternoon nap and bedtime could affect early morning waking. DD is 10.5 months and sleeps for about 1 hour 20 in the morning and about the same in the afternoon, waking at about 3. She goes to bed at 7. Is this gap too big?

She's waking at about 4.30 - 5, then catnapping until about 6.

[jordannarikki]

Hmmmm.

Mine naps for 90 mins in the morning then half an hour in afternoon and is an early waker.

Might wake her after 45 mins this morning!

[Octaviapink]

Mine used to nap twice, and waking her up from naps or changing the times of them never made an iota of difference to what time she woke up in the morning! She's still an early riser - 5-5.30 most mornings, and that applies even if she's only woken up from her after-lunch nap at 3 (she goes to bed at 6).

[RitaMorgan]

Well I woke him up after 45 minutes yesterday morning, and then he only slept for an hour in the afternoon 2pm-3pm - woke at 5.30am this morning but then went back to sleep til 7am. Not sure if that is a success or not, since he slept for about an hour less than usual.

I'll wake him after 45 minutes again today and see if I can get him to sleep a bit longer this afternoon.

[MissHonkover]

7am has become the holy grail in our house!

[InFlames]

I'd just like naps :-) my 5 month old has 15 min at 9, 30 at lunch at 15 at 3 ish... But he self settles at 7 and aleeps til 5am so very grateful for that! We figured he just didn't need much in the day. But any advice welcome :-)

[RitaMorgan]

InFlames my ds would only sleep 45 minutes at a time until 7 months, then suddenly started sleeping 2 hours straight! I used to have to feed him back to sleep in the middle of every nap so would just feel like I was waiting for him to wake up the whole time.

[InFlames]

Ah also not good for having any down time / housework time!

I am pretty ok with the non-naps, it'd be lovely but he's never been keen on them - suspect i need to say hey ho and accept it! I've posted in 'Sleep' today too, sorry for hijacking your thread Lottytheladybird!

It did used to make me chuckle in the early days when people would say 'Sleep when the baby sleeps....' erm....!

[lottytheladybird]

Really great to hear about all of your different routines. :)

After skipping his afternoon nap yesterday, my DS is having his afternoon nap as I'm typing! Yea!!! I didn't share any timings in my original message, so I thought I'd share them now:

7am: Wakes (sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later)
10:30am - 12pm: Nap
3pm - 4pm: Nap
7pm: Bed (usually falls asleep quite quickly, but since becoming mobile, he sometimes bounce around in his cot for a while before settling!)

[MissHonkover]

Bloomin heck lotty, that's good! My problem is the early waking, but I can see our routines differ in that your naps are later. DD's are at 9.15 and 1.30, but the morning one slides earlier if she's been up early. Today's morning nap was at 8.30 due to our day beginning at 5.

I'll try pushing them back and see if that helps.

[ThePippy]

It seems there is massive variation in the sleep needs of children. At 10 months my DD would (if we were at home) be up at 7am, sleep for 1-2hrs at 9am (it was a struggle even keeping her going until 9am at times) then another 1-2hrs at 1pm, the some days a 45min nap at 5pm, and she was still well ready for bed at 7pm. She has always seemed to have a high sleep need though and I am of the school of thought that sleep begets sleep - with her night time sleeps were always better if she had slept more during the day. She is now 21 months and hasn't changed - sleeps 7pm to anywhere between 8 and 9am (yes you can hate me, I know I am lucky) and has now 1 daytime nap of anywhere between 2 and 3 hours. I have no.2 on the way and am praying for the same with this one :-)

[lottytheladybird]

The Pippy - Wow! That's really good! I don't know how your DD still manages to fall asleep at 7pm if she naps at 5pm!

I also think naps are good, so I would really like it if my DS kept to 2 naps a day.

All the best with baby No.2! :)

[ThePippy]

Lotty I know, I don't think DD is the norm and I have friends who had rules about no napping after 3pm, which worked for them, but for us DD was just screaming from tiredness by bathtime if we didn't let her have the later nap.

One thing I would say is that DD did go through phases of distrupted sleeping around certain mielstones like sitting, crawling, walking and most recently talking, so you might actually find your DS improves as he gets older and gets better at getting himself off to sleep or back to sleep.

Hope he gives you a break with better sleep soon.

[RitaMorgan]

My ds needs to sleep after being awake for 3 hours - he generally falls asleep on the dot of 3 hours, yet despite telling my mother this many times she still believes he needs to go to bed after being up for 2 hours (hasn't dawned on her that she spends an hours rocking and singing to him before he drops off!). He's been like this since 4 or 5 months old.

He can go 3.5/4 hours from waking up from his last nap til bedtime (which is around 7.30pm/8pm) - so really needs to sleep til 3.30pm/4pm in the afternoon.

[diggingintheribs]

DD (10 months) is sleeping 13 hours overnight (wakes for milk at 5am then goes straight down again) and then sleeps 30mins-1 hour after lunch.

I'm not unhappy about this convenience wise but I am concerned that this may be bad for her. What do you think?

Should I wake her after 12 hours sleep then let her nap once before lunch and then a longer nap about 3? Not sure it would work...

[RitaMorgan]

If she's happy I wouldn't mess with it.

[MissHonkover]

Well now. DD didn't sleep at all yesterday afternoon, then fell asleep in the car for 20 mins on the way home from the childminder at 5.30. She then went to bed at normal time and slept through til 6!

Wonder if we're on to something...

[AnonymousBird]

I think we dropped from 2 naps to 1 with DD around a year old... it's always a struggle when you drop from 2 to 1 and 1 to none, as really they still need the sleep but their bodies are trying hard to work through it... so they won't sleep but they get shockingly tired (and stroppy in DD's case!)

DD dropped her main nap at home before she was TWO because she shared a room with her brother, who is a year older, and he dropped his main nap at nearly three so she decided she wouldn't sleep at home either when she was nearly two. It was a nightmare and far too soon. She always napped at nursery or if we went in the car or whatever, just would not for love nor money get in her bed at home unless her brother was also going to bed!

if you possibly can, stick with the two naps for now, he is young still and I suspect has a few more months of really needing those two naps (even if the naps are a bit shorter?).

[mousesma]

My 10 month DD has between 2-3 naps a day but never naps voluntarily or spontaneously falls asleep even if obviously very tired.

Fortunately she can self settle at night and goes to bed awake and sleeps from 7.30pm-5.30am most nights. We've tried to get her to sleep later but it doesn't seem to matter how late we put her to bed or how long she naps for she always wakes early.

Like other posters she is ready for a nap within 2 hours of getting up and then sleeps for 45mins-1 hour. Nap 2 is usually around 11 and she'll sleep for another hour then nap 3 is at 3pm for 45 mins to 1.5 hours.

I would prefer her to be having just 2 long naps instead of 3 short ones but because she gets up so early she needs the early morning nap and if I skip the late morning nap she'll have to have the afternoon nap too early and will be overtired by bedtime.

[lottytheladybird]

After a good day for naps yesterday, my DS has again skipped his afternoon nap today!

Will he get upset easily? Yes.
Will he try and fall asleep at dinner? Yes!

He woke from his morning nap at 12:15pm, so he'll have been awake for almost 7 hours by 7pm! Good job I did all my chores while he had his morning nap!