11month old bedtime

[SABDELLAHI]

Hi,

My now 11 month old was a angel slept through from 4 weeks old until we hit the 6 months old sleep regression. Since then he will not sleep before 9pm.

It’s been 5 months how do I put my little boy down by 8pm.

His daily routine

7am wake up
9:30 am Nap
11 am wakes up - sometime we only get an hour for nap
2pm Nap
3:30 pm wake up
6:30 getting ready for bed
7 pm in cot sleeping for 20 mins before screaming the house down until 9pm

He used to self sooth before 6 months old regression. Now we are finding it hard to help him sleep. We try rocking him but that overstimulates him gets more fussy.

You could try making the first nap later and the second nap a tiny cat nap of 20 minutes or work towards one two hour nap.

His second nap is quite late isn’t it? Do you think you could push the first nap forward and phasing the later one our? As he’s only awake for 2.5 hours before he has to nap again, and that’s not very long at his age.

That first nap is very long. Does he dedinitely need all that day sleep?

When mine was that age he was napped 10 min in the morning before I went to wake him up. Any longer and it caused discruption to sleep for the rest of the day.

I would maybe start by shortening it to half an hour. Then cut it by 10 min every few days if it seems to be making a difference

At that age both of mine both did:
7am Wake
9-9.45am Nap
1-2.30pm Nap
7pm Bed
So shorter morning nap, earlier afternoon nap. I used to wake them after 45 minutes in the morning otherwise they wouldn’t go down until later after lunch, which would throw off bedtime, pretty much exactly as you describe.

@Swishhh

Hi, I have tried to adjust the nap times and reduce the hours of sleep but it doesn't seem to work.

If he wakes up at 2pm he will want to sleep at 6pm but he doesn't go down for long before crying for 3 hours.

@DragonbornMum

Hi thanks for the advice. I have tried to shorten his naps but he ends up napping more. if he naps for 30 mins he will falls asleep 3 hours later.

If I put him down at 2 pm and he wakes up 30 mins later . He will get fussy at 5:30 pm and fall asleep playing . That would push bedtime further.

His wake windows are 2.5/3hours long

@FlounderingFruitcake

Thanks! I will wake him up after 45 mins morning and see how our day goes. How long is the afternoon nap?

7pm is ideal bedtime. My toddler sleeps at 7:30 pm everyday . I'm having troubling helping my youngest get to sleep by 8pm latest without crying for 2 hours.

Hour and a half, max 2 hours for PM nap. Then 4 hours from wake up to bedtime. It’s pretty much the classic 2,3,4 schedule (you can google it!) and works really well for a lot of babies his age.

Whatever you try though give it a few days. I wouldn’t expect instant results and would not be surprised if on the first night he wakes up his usual bedtime of 9 fussing. By way of comparison think about if you travel to a different different time zone- for most people it’s usually about 3 days before you’re fully adjusted and it’ll likely take him a similar stretch of time.

Good luck!

In my opinion you're trying to get him to sleep too much. Him crying until 9pm is his way of telling you he doesn't need that much sleep. You're aiming for 12 hours overnight and he's having around 3 hours for naps during the day - 15 hours sleep is probably too much for an 11 month old! I know you've said your toddler goes to bed earlier but if that doesn't work for baby at this time can you not aim for a slightly later bedtime? Aim for 8pm to go to sleep and see if that helps? Or try to shift the whole routine earlier - if he was getting up at 6-6:30 then you may be able to get him down for 7-7:30.