Quick poll for parents of 5 month - 1 year old babies...

[frannykenstein]

Would you mind telling me when your child has their morning nap? I want to get a baby activity class started and was thinking about having it from 11 am - 12 noon. Would that interfere with your sleep and / or food times? Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm in Essex. CAT me if you would like more details please Kama (I don't want to give too many personal details out on the net).

Hi, my daughter (11m) generally gets fed at about 11.30/11.45 and then down for an lunchtime nap, so this would clash a bit for us. Hope this helps.

DS always slept in the morning at that age for a good couple of hours, sometimes three - he's 18mo now and 11-12 would just about be manageable now!

I clicked because I run a class for this age group. I run from 2-2.30 and apart from having to sometimes be woken from a nap the mums seem pretty happy about the time.

DS is 8 1/2 months and is fab time for him sleeps from 9-10ish then has lunch at 12.30 and another nap. we always go to things that are at 11.00 or 2ish lots of things start at 10 and just cant make them - or only with tired grumpy baby which = no fun!

I think it is probably one of those situations where you can't suit everyone, but it is heartening to hear not everybody is napping at that time. 11 - 12 is best for me as I run a toddler class just beforehand, so I was dreading a consensus of sleeping babies in that slot.

my ds is 6mths and sleeps from 9am for an hour and then eats at 11.30.

Would say that you could do morning nap, class, lunch and then afternoon nap fairly reasonably. I think mine used to start morning nap about 9 - 9.30 ish.

My dd is 6 months old and takes a nap at 9am for roughly 45mins. Then she has a feed at 11.30am. When we go to our parent group I usually have to wake her at 9.30am to get dressed etc. Don't mind this as it's not everyday.

Ds (8mo) need a minimum of 30 minutes in the morning; if I'm organised I can be somewhere with him by 10:15. Can't start his nap till 9:30 cos thats when we get back from dropping dd off at nursery.

Have to pick dd up at 11:45 so an 11-12 class would be no good. You might want to check out the times of the local playgroups / nursery school because plenty of the babies will have older siblings that need collecting won't they?

My 6.5mth dd usually sleeps from 10-11ish. We go to a signing class which is 11.30-12.15-ish which is ideal.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and information. I think I will go with the 11 am time, (or possibly 10.45 if I can get people out fast enought from the first class) as there is really no other time I can do it to fit in with my own son's schedule. Yes, some people will need to get to nursery around midday. I don't think it's possible to suit everyone, but it sounds like a decent proportion of people could in theory come if they wanted to. I think it will work out ok, I currently run one toddler class at 3pm, so no-one with school age children can come to that, but it is my busiest group!

Varies but my 8 month old usually sleeps for an hour or and hour and a half sometime between 9 and 11.30. I often wake him early though.

Hi franny, the 11am time would be great if you were local to me. Ds is 11mths and naps 9-10 or sometimes 10.30 this means we miss M&b groups all the time and coffe mornings etc.

my 8 month old has a nap around 10.30 til 11.30, then lunch at 12

mine (9mnths) naps between 9 and 11am - so your timing seems great (they always seem at their best after their first nap

Sounds a good time to me - both of mine have napped around 9.30 ish for an hour (in theory) at this age. And I've always been prepared to juggle any routine in favour of nice baby activities like swimming class or music. As long as they're not too exhausted to enjoy it, and can catch up on any missed naptime later in the day.

havent read the whole thread, just wanted to add my bit

my 11 and a half month old wakens about 7am and has a nap for an hour about 10, BUT if we are out and about, doing something, she sometimes doesnt have a nap till 1 or 2 (she normally has 2 naps, so just misses out the 1st one, but doesnt have a longer 2nd one IYSWIM)

so it doesnt do any harm to chop and change

routine is good for babies, yes, but then variation is too, especially if its something cool its being varied for!

AND if she does miss out her morning nap she doesnt get girny, she just is caught up in what shes doing and realises shes tired when she goes home and has lunch

hope this all makes sense!

This is all very encouraging. I had this vague memory that everyone in my antenatal class were doing rigid, identical nap times at this age, except me and ds. I think there was maybe a lot of Gina Ford going down.

Anyone know what Gina does recommend for this age? (then I can arrange the class bang in the middle to really p*ss people off - only joking of course [smiles sweetly])

My DS (almost 7 months) has just started sleeping for an hour and a half in the morning (used to be 45 minutes) starting somewhere between 9-9.30am. He then feeds at 11.30am.

I checked my Gina Ford book (which I wanted to bin but kept in a moment of madness) says they should nap for no more than 45 minutes and be awake by 10.00am at the latest. She then says to push feeding times from 11.00am so that eventually your baby is feeding at midday followed by a 2 hour nap.

HTH

My Ds is 9 months and he naps from 9am til 10.30am, so would be good time for us. Alot of groups where we are start at 10am - so no good as he would just be grumpy! Live in Norfolk btw.

DS 13 months about 9.30-10.00

My DS is 7 months and naps from about 9 to 9.45. I usually feed him lunch at 11.45, but he'd hold out until 12 I think so would be fine for me. Otherwise, an afternoon group from about 3 til 4 would be good - although younger babies might be ratty and ready for a nap at 4ish.