Naps - 11 mnths

[Cluelessfirstimer]

11 month old sleeps wonderfully at the moment. 7-6. Naps are a bit crazy though.

He is ready for a nap at 9.30ish. Now this can be 30 minutes or 2 hrs. If its 2 hrs, I cannot get him down for a second nap!

Yesterday he was up from 12 (he went for a nap at 9.45) until 6.30pm. I tried a few times to get him to nap before this but it wasn't happening. At all!

He was happy this whole time I may add. Only at 6.30 did he crawl up to me and put his head on my lap (his sign he's had enough) until then he was perfectly happy.

He is with a CM 3 days a week and generally has a cat nap in the morning there and a longer lunch nap.

Do I
Continue with 2 naps and shorten one (I HATE waking him up)
Try and move him to one nap (this could be hard as he does get tired early ish after first waking)
Just let him nap whenever (not ideal as I would like to keep bedtime to 7ish and he needs a good 4 hrs in the afternoon at least to be tired enough)

So 1 or 2 really? Any other advice ?

When he does sleep he sleeps amazingly (right now...) but if he doesn't want to sleep he will not. I know being awake from 12 -6.30 isn't great for his age but he was honestly perfectly happy. Probs not a long term solution though I guess

I would probably try waking him from the first nap after 1 hour and see if that helps with getting him down in the afternoon. If that doesn't work maybe just carry on as you are as his night sleep sounds fantastic and as you said he isn't overly tired in the evenings.

I think my daughter moved to 1 nap at around 14 months ish x

Thank you! Think it's a good idea. Although he was absolutely fine, long term I'm not sure he will always be that happy staying awake so long. I just HATE waking him up - but its probably the best option to give a try.

We have been lucky - his night time sleep has always been really good (sure it will change at some point!) so at least it hasn't impacted that yet

Yeah I used to hate waking my daughter to. Felt cruel and it's hard when you have loads of jobs you need to do as well! X

11 months is relatively little for one nap and it would need to start much later than 9:30, or you’ll risk 6am becoming more like 5am or 4am. As painful as it is I’d cut the first nap off at 30 mins and have a longer one after lunch at this age. Only when he starts refusing the first nap of the morning or it gets so late there is no time for a second, drop to 1.

We had this for ages at that age, sometimes 1 nap and sometimes two, often with an afternoon with no nap. I didn't do anything as I also hate waking them, and eventually the morning nap got later and later until it became a longer lunchtime nap.