If you have a 15 month old (or thereabouts)

[Someonehelpmeplease]

How long after waking from their last nap is bedtime...?

My son recently transitioned from two naps to one. I “forced” this relatively early because he was taking ages to fall asleep at bedtime. The latest he woke from his second nap was 4 pm. That was late, I know - but earlier naps couldn’t happen at the time because of school run for older siblings. Bedtime was at 8; he’d finally asleep by 9/9:30.

Since he’s transitioned to one nap, I usually start bedtime 4.5 hours after he wakes from his nap (between 1-2 pm), at which point he is showing tired signs. But he’s still taking up to two hours to fall asleep! So his awake time after his nap is usually 6.5 - 7 hours, which seems really long for his age.

Anyone else experienced this?

I have an 18 month old. I start feeding her to sleep at 7.30 and it takes until 8.10 for her to fall asleep. For the last few months I have to wake her at 1.45 at the latest otherwise she won’t sleep at bedtime.

@Thatwentbadly

Thanks for the reply. I have thought about capping naps but on the days where he only sleeps 1.5 hours, he’s no easier to get to sleep.

Might have to bite the bullet and try it 😩

My 16 month old is generally awake 6 hours before bedtime, sometimes its longer but he's a bit of an overtired mess by then.
I've stopped counting awake times and just trying to make sure he gets one decent block of sleep in the day for an hour or two (he very rarely sleeps for 2 hours in the day though).
He isn't too hard to get to sleep though, usually breastfed or cuddled to sleep within 10 mins, not sure if thats because he's not sleeping too long in the day though.

@BumpLoading

Thank you - that’s really helpful to know.

when my son hasn’t had enough sleep, he’s clearly tired, rubbing his eyes during/after dinner. Sometimes he’s even crying to go upstairs.

When we get upstairs and I start feeding him - he seems tired and relaxed, then wants to be put down on the bed, and is suddenly wide awake for another two hours 😩

I don’t know where I am going wrong.

DS is 22 months but has been the same since 15 months. Wakes 6.30am or sometimes a bit earlier, naps 11.30 until 1.30 latest - although usually 1 unless he’s gone down closer to 12 for his nap. I wake him by 2 if I need to, rarely.
He goes in the bath at 6.15 and is in bed asleep by 7. I usually put him in his cot about 6.45 and it takes him about 10 mins to drift off.
So generally awake time of between 5-5.5 hours in the morning and usually a little longer in the afternoon 5.5-6 hours.

My LO is 15 months and has just dropped to one nap this past week. I follow the little ones app and it says they should nap around 12:15-2:30 with a 7pm bedtime. If they wake before two then bedtime more like 6:30-6:45 (which is what we’ve ended up doing at the mo)

Mine was up by 2.30pm for a 7-7.30pm bedtime at that age.

My son is nearly 15 months, he transitioned to one nap about 13 months. He wakes around 6.30/7, I take him up for a nap around 11ish he will have a bottle and fall asleep and be up and awake by 1. He goes to bed at 6.45, normally asleep my 7.30.

So nap, around 1.5-2 hours and then 6/6.5 hours awake time before bed.

Anything out of this routine works normally but only for the odd day otherwise he’s waking up early and going to bed late - as soon as he’s overtired he sleep WAY less.

DD is 15m, has been a one nap baby since 1ish.

Wakes any time between 5.30-7.30.
Nap starts between 12-1.30, lasts anywhere from 30mins to 2.5 hours, depending on fucking nothing.
May have a 5min catnap on her way home from nursery at 5ish, depending.
Bedtime at bang on 7pm, out like a light in her cot by herself after a story, regardless of how much sleep she's had in the day.

Nap 12-2
Sleep by 7pm

DS2 is 16 months, he usually naps 10:30-12 and bedtime is at 6:30. We try later but he just throws himself around or sits by the door waiting to go to bed.

This last week he's reliably starting to sleep through the night from 6:30pm until 6-7am. This has made his nap later, he now naps after lunch from 12-1:30. He's worked on one nap a day since he was about 6 months old - exhausting!!!

DD is 13 months and our routine looks a bit like:

7am wake up
10am nap
4/5pm nap
7/7:30 bedtime.

Usually put her down awake with white noise, say goodnight and she might get up and mess around for half hour before falling asleep. But most of the time she just lies there and goes to sleep.

Thanks all.

It seems quite variable, but interesting to see some of you have toddlers who can stay awake for up to 6 hours. My older two could wake from their nap at 3, and still be asleep by 7, but my youngest seems to be made of different (stronger?! More willful?!) stuff.

The most frustrating part of it is the variability - I take him up to bed at around 5 hours after waking from his nap. Some days he’ll be asleep within 15 minutes. Other days it can take two hours 😩

Gosh it's really trial and error and just take each day as it comes. Our son it's often falling asleep at the lunch table then naps for an hour and a half, up by 3, and we start his bed time routine at 8.15 or 8.30 and he's clearly tired and feed to sleep by about 9.15.
Sounds perfect but honestly only about half the days go that way, the usual problem is night wakings and he always ends up in our bed.
Some toddlers seems to sleep perfectly or so people say but i think a good number are all over the place.
I think keeping things consistent and also being flexible at the same time is the key. In the old days you just chucked them in the cot and closed the door (kind of!) But now we don't do that, but just aim for the most sleep overall for the whole family.
Good luck!

And forgot to say he's up for the day between 7.30 and 8.15 in the morning which is a small consolation for the broken sleep!

@Someonehelpmeplease do you remember how this worked out for you? I’m having the exact same issue with my daughter of the same age. Seems tired (and must be as it’s been 5 hours ish), take her upstairs and can then take 2 hours to fall asleep!

Only really since going to one nap, she took an hour over bedtime routine before but not 2!

Anyone else that happens to see this thread with toddlers that are being put down awake and the toddler is ok with it - how did you do that? Did you do sleep training or did they just become ok with it at a certain age?

Ha ha oh reading back this thread is a memory!
Let's just say in hindsight all the sleep advice is utter tripe unless you have a typical child. You feel like it is all down to you doing it wrong as a parent but actually it's 95% down to the child, and even if you did do something wrong as a parent it would only take a few days to get back to normal.
It's really quite depressing when you read all the advice and nothing works and your child is also upset.
In the end he started mostly sleeping through the night at around 2 years old, I did giving him lots of books to read and a dim lamp to read by, to help with bed time. And I also got him one of those yoto music players to listen to.
Even now he's nearly 5 and often wakes in the night crying, but now I'm more in the feeling of "parent the child you have" so I just go in and settle him back again.
Crucially, he's been picked up for special needs, potential for neurodiversity by the nursery when he was 4 years old.
Hope this helps and I hope things get better for you! It's not you, it's just life!