how little does your 14 month old sleep?

[elliott]

ds2's sleeping habits are forcing me to unlearn all the truisms I developed with ds1 - who always slept better the more he slept, and was/is very prone to overtiredness. So I was programmed to maximise sleep and never wake a sleeping babe...at 14 months he was sleeping just short of 12 hours at night and two naps of an hour+ during the day.

ds2 is confusing me. We struggle to get him to sleep more than 11 hours at night; recently he has been resisting sleep at bedtime until about 8pm; and only sleeps past 6.30 if he's had hardly any daytime sleep (about 1 hour total). Can this be as much as he needs? Should I cut back his daytime sleep (already wake him after 2 hours max) or put him to bed later, to try to encourage later waking (waking at 6 every morning is unbearable!)? normally I woudl always give the opposite advice as I've always thought most babies tend to get too little sleep. And at this rate he'll be dropping his daytime sleep before ds1 does!

So, does anyone else have a 14 month old who just doesn't sleep very much?
(please note: if yours does 12+ hours at night and sleeps a lot in the day, you need not reply )

[ghosty]

Elliott LOL at your last sentence so I WON'T tell you what DD (12 mths) does!!

DS (who is 5 years old) is/was a different kettle of fish altogether and I only recently accepted that he just needs less sleep than the expected 12 hours. He has never ever ever slept 12 hours ... and he always fought naps as a baby. TBH when he dropped daytime napping at 2 years old it was a relief as I couldn't handle the dramas anymore.
He is still a poor sleeper and an early waker (the only thing that works is a short term sticker chart) and I just live with it now ... sorry not to be more helpful!
The next person who says to me "Oh well, by the time he is 15 you won't be able to get him out of bed!" is going to get an earful from me!!!!!

Is your DS happy in himself during the day, ie, no signs of grumpiness and being tired???

[TracyK]

ds is 11mo and really only sleeps 7-6 am. Normally only he only has 2 hours nap in the day and sometimes only 1.5 hr nap. I'm hoping that this won't decrease as he gets older.

[elliott]

ghosty I know your dd is perfect
ds2 has occasional grumpy days but I think that is teething rather than tiredness. Sometimes a bit yawny in the morning but that's it really.

The thing is he is actually a much better sleeper than ds1, who I had big problems with - ds2 rarely wakes at night and sleeps more deeply - he conks out like clockwork for his nap between 11.30 and 12 and can be moved around while asleep without stirring. Its just the early mornings I can't deal with (none of us can, it disturbs ds1 too!)- and I know he has it in him to sleep later, because he sometimes does, I just need to work out why!
I worry a little about waking him early from his nap because I'm limiting his sleep - but it does seem to help.

I'm hoping that once he starts walking he will need more sleep....

[elliott]

anyone else with a 14 month old? Or are they all sleeping 14 hours a day??

[WideWebWitch]

Oh elliott, I wish I knew the answer, dd is also 14mos and driving us mad with lack of sleep. When dp was a sahd he used to only let her sleep an hour at lunchtime and maybe 5 mins on the school run (unavoidable, in the car) but she still has mostly woken at 6am or earlier. We had 5am/5.30 for a while. Having said that, yesterday I let her sleep for 1.5 hours at lunchtime and she slept til 7am this morning WOO HOO! BUT I was alone (dp and ds away) so I slept in ds's bedroom so maybe she woke in the night or earlier and I didn't hear her? It's certainly pssible, I sleep v deeply. But she was definitely asleep when I woke up at 7am. She goes to bed at 7.30pm so if it's usually until 6am that's 10.5 hours, which I feel sure isn't enough for 14mos too. But then an hour and a half at lunchtime would = 12 hours, which IIRC is about right for over ones isn't it? We are fairly strict about not letting her sleep until 12 or 12.30 at lunchtimes though since I read that Ferber thing here about their needing to reattach that morning sleep to the night time if you want later morning waking. Maybe it's teeth in your case and mine? Who knows? Sorry not to be more helpful but I'm fast coming to the conclusion that a) I do need to limit sleep in the day to 1.5 hours, no more and b) there's no f*ing logic to it. But since I've been tired for over a year now I really, really hope it's a phase which passes. We are going to try sleeping in the other room for the rest of the week to see what happens. Good luck, if you find anything that works please let me know. Sorry if this post turned into an extended whinge from me, you have all my sympathy.

[elliott]

www at least I'm not the only one struggling with it! Sometimes feel a bit pathetic since he does almost always sleep through, so its not like I'm up through the night...
12 hours in 24 just seems so little to me - ds1 still needs more than that at 3.2! That's another reason we need to sort it as they are supposed to be sharing a room - but no way am I undoing all ds1''s training and having them both up at 6!
I think we will try moving bedtime to 7.30 and limiting his nap to 1-1.5 hours.
Unfortunately I don't sleep deeply at all (yesterday got woken by the neighbour's new baby ffs!) so every wail wakes me even through ear plugs!

[Gwenick]

My DS2 is 14 1/2months. On an 'average' day he has about 40 minutes in the morning, and 1 1/2hrs in the afternoon. But often this is 'reduced' to just 1hr after lunch as frequently he won't go down in the morning.

At night he goes down about 8.30pm and sleeps for about 12hrs. So usually gets around 13hrs a day (and has done since about 9 months old)

[elliott]

thanks gwenick. Your ds2 must be almost the same age as mine - birthday on 2 Dec?
It was close to this age that ds1 dropped his morning nap - maybe around 14-15 months is a common age to reduce sleep requirements?

[Gwenick]

Elliot - mine was 27th November - so very close.

I know DS1 (now 4yrs) had dropped ALL His daytime naps by the time he hit 18 months so I'm expecting the same with DS2 as he alrady sleeps so little during the day (having said that having a 'good' day today - he went down for his morning sleep and has had 30 minutes so far - so may get another nap later this afternoon )

[PiccadillyCircus]

Elliott, I have a 14 month old, but having read your last sentence I won't reply .

(Apart from last night where he was awake between 1 and 2:30 but I think that is due to his nasty molars coming through poor baby)

[elliott]

oh crumbs...no naps by 18 months...hope we're not heading the same way. Ds2 would sleep more in the day if I let him - but then he will wake early. If your ds2 has a 'good' day napping does he sleep any different? And is he a regular 12 hour a night boy? Guess I could resign myself to no naps if he slept till 7...
This is so alien to me as ds1 is 3.2 and still struggles without a sleep in the day.

I'm not speaking to you pc

[Gwenick]

Thankfully it doesn't seem to affect his sleep too much if he does nap during the day

[PiccadillyCircus]

Sorry .

But it did mean last night was particularly horrible - think I jinxed things by saying when I dropped him off at nursery yesterday that he loves sleeping.

Although he was cross he wasn't asleep last night; must be horrible being a baby and getting teeth.

And I am 8 weeks pregnant with number 2 who will probably not love cot the way DS does and so in a while from now I will be moaning about 2nd children's sleeping habits being nothing like first ones.

[Gwenick]

there we go - I knew it - DS2 went down at just gone 25 past 11 - and has just woken up

[lilybubble]

dd is 18 months, but now, as at 14 months, also needs very little sleep. she usually has 9 - 10 or occasionally 11 hours at night, and anything from 45 mins to 3 hours nap in the day. she goes to bed late at night too.

sometimes the "sleep begets sleep" theory works really really well for her, and at other times not at all. i agreee www about there being absolutely no logic to it.

this has not been any help, has it!?! but just wanted you to know there are other little nightowls out here!

[Grommit]

Hi Elliott. Ds (14 mo) goes to bed between 7-7:30 and wakes between 6-6:30. He often wakes around 5am but I ignore his chattering and he usually goes back to sleep. He will sleep during the day anything from 1-2.5 hrs. I found putting him to bed later did not seem to affect his early wakings. I also found he seems to sleep better at night if he has a longer sleep during the day. At this age i don't think you should cut his daytime sleep - you may just have to put up with the early starts! My dd is 5 and she still gets up from 6-7am. I just try to go to bed early to cope.

[elliott]

Hi grommit. I know really that I have to put up with it, but I like to maintain the illusion of control!! Ds1 always obeyed the rule of better daytime sleep=better night time sleep, but it really doesn't seem to work that way for ds2.

The thing is when people talk about waking between 6 and 7, that disguises such a range of experiences from the unbearable (6am) to the almost acceptable (6.30am) to the luxurious lie-in (7am!) And I really can't put him in with ds1 if he is going to wake him up before 6.30 on a regular basis.

Anyway today was a good day (10 to 7!) so we shall see if it lasts....

[WideWebWitch]

Elliott, dd slept 7.30-7.30am last night too. I think not sharing the room with her might be making the difference in our case. Plus we have been limiting day time sleeps to an hour, plus she's walking so maybe using more energy during the day. Who knows?

[Bozza]

Elliott - LOL - I know what you mean about the difference between 6 and 7 being huge. Sorry no help because DS was like your DS1 and DD only 9 months.