Napping

[Itsahardknocklife18]

Ok so DD and I have come across a hurdle. She’s never been a brilliant sleeper so I’ve always had to be pretty regimental about nap and bed time.

She’s 15 months now, and I’m finding that if she’s naps too much in the day then she won’t sleep at night, she’s always been a night waker on and off and I’m tired of it now, I just want to sleep!

She’s been having around 2 hours solid nap in the day from around 7 months, this seem to help with bed time and this is how it’s been since then, however this isn’t working anymore. Instead now it’s too much and she’s not ready for sleep at usual bed time and wakes a lot in the night again.

The problem is her age. I don’t want to cut her naps down too much and make her tired in the day or even overtired. All the research I’ve done has given me the impression that nap times shouldn’t be cut back until around 2 yrs, some pages are even telling me that 5-7 yr olds are still napping (mind blown). I know she won’t be napping then, but I just can’t take the night wakes anymore- I’m the sort of person that needs sleep, I’ve found the last 2 yrs really hard with the lack of sleep (it started during my pregnancy). She is on 12 hrs for every 24, so by the time I get to bed after having some adult time, (say around 10.30-11pm) if she’s had 2 hrs in the day, she’s then up at 6, and that’s not enough sleep for me.

Will I be a bad mum for cutting down her naps? Or even cutting them out altogether?

Help xx

Personally I wouldn't drop the nap but I would try cutting it down to 1.5 hours which should be two sleep cycles.

Is she getting lots of exercise in the day and getting outside at least once a day? Daylight has been proven to help with night time sleep

I agree with above and not drop the naps but cut them down. My daughter was the same. I never let my dd nap past 3 because shed be awake most of the night if I did. From 3 in the afternoon I made sure we had lots of play time, fed belly l, bath and story then bed. I went with what my dd needed really and she did cut out her naps fairly quick to be honest compared to relatives young children who were still napping a fair bit. Also does she self soothe ok or does she rely on you? I ask because I made the mistake of sitting with dd until she fell asleep and went up to her everytime she cried. In the end I was with her alot and had to do some sleep training with her and since then she was really good at sleeping, except now we have the shouting and talking in the sleep

I read on Mumsnet constantly that posters kids didn't reliably sleep through until 2 and thought that was pure bad luck and prayed mine would be earlier. But it really wasn't! He didn't start sleeping through until about 20 months. If I had to predict, I think you'll find cutting down on naps is just going to cause her to get more overtired and irritable. My best advice would be to go to bed a bit earlier, although I appreciate the wanting a bit of adult time. DH and I would stay up a bit later on Friday and Saturday and alternate lie ins, and then go to bed earlier the rest of the week. Also, my little one with was BF so DH couldn't help at all overnight, but by about 14 months we persevered with DH settling him with cow's milk, and it only took about a week before he accepted it. Sharing the night wakes with DH made a massive difference. Good luck!