Does he still need 2 naps?

[Cafeaulait27]

Our 20 month old has always liked his sleep and generally sleeps through until 6.30-7am unless poorly or teething.

He used to have 2 naps, one 9.30-11 and another 2.30-3.30 ish. When he got to about 18 months I felt he should transition to 1 nap as that’s what everyone seems to do and also putting him back down at 9.30 felt really early and although he still slept he didn’t seem tired. So we started pushing it later and he now naps at around 11am but he’s usually awake by 12.30 so he’s then awake until his bedtime at 7.

Since we did this sleep has been a bit hit and miss, with him waking up early, but hard to tell as he was also teething for some of this time. Then we went to stay with family for a week (just in the uk) and he started waking at 5 (sometimes 4.45) every morning. We thought it might be the different environment but it didn’t improve and he’s still doing it at home, it’s been 3 weeks now.

His room is relatively dark with black out blinds but is still light in there in the morning, however this never used to bother him before. We keep an eye on the temperature and pretty sure he’s not too hot or cold. He doesn’t seem poorly or teething.

5am for weeks and weeks is really hard, he wakes up and screams for us and won’t go back down, and won’t sleep in our bed. He has also just started talking a lot more and having the odd tantrum.

just wondering if anyone has had anything similar, we thought it was just a phase and took it in turns to get up but it’s been going on a while now and we’re really tired and wondering if we’re doing something wrong!

I don’t think a later bedtime willl help as he’s been awake for like 6.5 hours in the afternoon, and we’ve tried doing an earlier bedtime which didn’t help.

Wondering if he is just one of those babies who does need 2 naps? Or is it because of his development with language it’s just affecting his sleep and we just need to continue to ride it out?

He has his dinner at 5 but we usually give him something else like yoghurt and banana at about 6 before starting bedtime.

Thanks 😵‍💫

I should also say with pushing the nap later to 11am, this didn’t seem to bother him, hes happy playing until 11 and then goes to sleep fine.

11 is still rather early and cuts straight across lunch time if he has a decent nap. Could you try shifting it to 1-3?

Or does he definitely still need a nap? One of mine dropped his nap by 22 months.

@FASDE1517 yeah maybe we should try that. I think because he’s been waking so early we haven’t wanted to push the nap later, but maybe we should give it a go!

I’m not sure if he would be ready for no naps, as he has always slept a little more than the average, so doesn’t seem like that would be right for him. But who knows?!

also really want to keep the nap so I get a break…

I should also mention that when he wakes at 5 he’s usually pretty ratty for the first half hour or so, even though we get him dressed quickly and give him food/milk, it’s like he’s still tired but can’t get back to sleep. He just sits up in the cot and screams for us, and then is quite grumpy until about 6ish.

I would agree re moving the nap later. I’ve got 4 kids and at that age we would do lunch at 11.30/12 and then straight down for a 2hr nap so they’d get up at 2/2.30. No problem lasting until
bedtime at 7 and they’d usually sleep through until 7. However the light in summer can also cause a bit of havoc with early wakings too!

My 15mo generally has 1 nap a day normally about 1-3. There will be days she drops off at 10-11:30 but then she normally ends up napping again about 4:30 which throws 7pm bedtime right out of the window 😂. I'd try pushing the nap to 1ish and does bedtime have to be 7pm? My DD is nearer to 8pm now and will sleep until 6:30/7 where it was 5:30 before. It's all trial and error isn't it! Although the heat in the last week might not be helping x

Mine was still having 2 naps at that age, there's no real one size fits all and the more he slept the better he slept. Try to find what works for you as others with different children will have different experiences. Mine did a wake at 6am, napped 9.30-10.30 then 2.30-3.30 until over 2 when he had one long one from 12.30 until 2.30 (sometimes 3.30) all the way up until he was 3.5.. really depends, some drop naps not long after 1, just fiddle about and see what works :)

As others have said, I’d probably push the single nap back and see what effect that has. Have an early lunch and get them straight off to bed. If there is no change then perhaps he does just need a lot of sleep and you could try two again. But that would be unusual for an 18 month old. Re the morning wakings, how long has it been now? My youngest had a stretch of 3 or 4 weeks of 5 am waking each time a tooth was coming through. It was awful each time but then one morning he’d just go back to his usual ways until the next bout. And this was when he was around 1 Yr + and his sleep and naps had settled enough for us to notice it.

My kids moved to 1 nap at 1 and none by 2. At nearly 2 he is unlikely to need 2 naps.

Thanks all, will start by shifting the one nap later and see how he does.

it’s been going on about 3 weeks, and he’s always been a baby that’s needed more sleep on average than other babies his age, not an abnormal amount but he’s always been a good napper and overnight sleeper, and stayed on 3 naps a bit longer than other babies I know.

maybe we just weren’t confident enough to move the nap later than 11am, and now with him waking so early we figured by 11 he probably needs to go down, but maybe we need to break the cycle!

thanks

Well, tried doing an early lunch at 12 then a nap after, he was v tired at lunch and his eyes were closing a bit (he had woken at 5.30 that morning). He went down easily for a nap from 12.30-3pm.

we had a pretty chilled day around the house and garden, he was helping his dad with some gardening and playing.

we started bedtime at 6.15, he’d eaten loads for his dinner. Slept through until 5.20am and has now been sitting up screaming since then.

we’ve been going back in and resettling but it isn’t working, he just gets hysterical.

any suggestions? 🥹

I think it's just a developmental stage unfortunately. My eldest has just turned 3 (last week) and has been waking between 5am - 5.30am for about 5/6 weeks now. He'd previously sleep until 7/7.30. Makes no difference whether he goes to bed at 7pm or 9pm, he's still up at 5/5.30.

He still has a nap during the day but not at set times as he's fighting it now. Some days he'll go down at 1pm and others not until 3pm. He's also gone from having 1.5hrs to 2.5hrs. I'm reluctant to drop his nap has he is clearly tired and will ask to go to bed. He starts nursery in August and I'm hoping that gets him into a better routine.

Ok so nothing has worked. For a few days he managed to not wake up until 6 but now he’s back to 4.30 or 5am. He used to be such a good sleeper.

he literally just wakes up, sits up and cries. If we go in there he thinks it’s definitely time to get up and no matter how hard we try - giving milk, calpol, cuddles and lying him back down (which always used to work) he now just won’t accept it and screams if we try to leave.

He won’t lie down! he just sits up and cries for us and that’s it.

I don’t know what to do. Currently we’re ignoring him. He’s 3 hours too early every day! He used to wake up at 7! This has been going on for so long I can’t remember what it used to be like to have slept more than 5 hours and to get up at a normal time between 6-7am.

can you tell I’m at my wits end?!

Bringing him into our bed doesn’t work either, he just thinks it’s play time.

as he’s getting up at 4.30-5am, he’s grumpy all day and yawning by 10am!

We have a naturally early riser. Always wakes between 4:30 and 5:30am. We’ve also tried everything and doesn’t matter what time bedtimes is, he’s up before 6am. We even tried bedtime between 8:30-9pm for ages and that was blooming awful!
we had a health visitor appointment recently and she said for a lot of babies, their body clock is set to wake early. She said she knows it’s horrible but the only thing you can really do is go to bed early yourself and ride it out. It’s not great going to bed 8:30pm but it’s the only way me and his Dad get enough sleep.
The hot weather will also not be helping right now.
I would also try sticking to one nap. My 15 month old has a big snack at 10:30 (sometimes even a super early lunch) and is down for a nap at 11am. Wakes up at 1-1:30 and is in bed for 6:30-7pm. With the early wakings, we can’t get him past 12pm (although he does at nursery) but that will extend with time.

We had an early riser too. Didn't matter what we did they thought it was morning around 5, 5.30.

If they otherwise sleep through I think the only thing is to go with it. We went downstairs and watched TV but half heartedly and didn't do breakfast /getting dressed immediately - did those at the "right" time. Earlier night for adults due to the early wake! Tbh now they leave for school at 8 We still wake up at 6 30 to get everything done...

I'd probably accept 4.30/5 is wake up time, be in bed 8.30 to be asleep by 9. Little one is sleeping well by sleeping 6.15-5am and there's 11 hours in there to give parents a good nights sleep, try to adjust your thinking on it and roll with it how it is, as summer fades away it may go

5.30 is a very usual time for a lot of babies/ toddlers. Mine only started to wake later when starting school! Many memories of dozing on the sofa with peppa pig in the background. Sheer hell at the time but you get through

I just cant accept going to sleep at 9pm 😭 especially if we’ve been with him all day, we need a little chill time as a couple before it starts all over again the next day. even though I know what you’re saying is true!! We will try for 9.30.

this morning when he woke at 4.30 we actually just ignored him. He was crying but not like screaming crying, it was more of a whingy cry. We decided to ignore him until a more reasonable hour, and I’ve just checked and he’s now back asleep!

neither of us got back to sleep of course, I just lay there waiting for the next cry. He went quiet pretty quick and I could see on the monitor he was sitting up still but he must’ve eventually laid down again.

it feels harsh but I was literally like NO I’m not getting up for the day at 4.30, and we decided to just ignore and see what happens.

Unfortunately I agree with others - my DC1 was an early riser and I never found anything that worked. Take turns to get up with him and go to bed early until this phase is over!

My child is a similar age and I don't know any other babies (NCT friends, baby class acquaintances etc) that age who have two naps.

We shifted to one nap around the 1 year mark and just gradually pushed the morning nap back. Initially it was around 11-1, then 11.30-1.30 etc. He's now on 1-3pm (but can be as early as 12 depending on the day) and that seems to be standard among others that age.

We’ve done taking it in turns, and it’s been about 7 weeks now, and this morning we were just like ‘what if we just leave him’ because 4.30 is NOT an acceptable time to get up and start parenting for however long this lasts. We know he isn’t teething, and wasn’t crying in a way that would suggest he was hungry or thirsty. It was just ‘I’m awake and I’d like to get up and play now’ and knowing that we always come in.

I’ve checked back on the monitors recording and he was quiet after 10 mins, then laid down after half an hour, then slept (albeit quite lightly with some murmurs) until 7am.

we didn’t sleep but it was so good to not start parenting at that hour, and we were able to get up at 6.30 like we used to anc get all ready for work before getting him up.

when I went in at 7 he was awake but smiling andhappy to see me, I think the extra sleep did him good.

fingers crossed this starts to work but who knows…

Sorry, didn't realise how old the original post was and that you'd moved onto a different question.

6.15pm seems early to start the bedtime routine, unless it's a very long routine. What time is he actually falling asleep? I don't think you can necessarily expect 12 hours of nighttime sleep at this age. If he's asleep by 7, getting up at 5 sounds reasonable. Our bedtime routine starts at 7 and he's asleep around 7.45ish. Then he's awake around 6-6.30am.

I think waking up early is just the reality of having small children. If they're in bed by 7-8pm, you could easily have 2-3 hours of adult time and still be in bed for a reasonable nights sleep with a 5am wake up. Small children are famously early risers so I'm not sure why you expect otherwise really.

@RecklessBlackberries how old is your child?

ours has always been on the longer end of hours of sleep so this is quite out of character (or it was!) and waking up at 4-5am he is exhausted by mid morning. Im not going to accept a 5am wake time long term, when previously it was 6-7.

he was still doing two naps and sleeping 12 hours ish at night until he was 17 months, then dropped to 1 nap and still slept through until this palava began.

It all started when we went on holiday (just uk) and we figured he woke at 5 and got confused about where he was so we would get him up and bring him in our room or put the tv on downstairs and try to not do too much. We also thought it could be teething or illness at first. But now he’s back home I guess he’s just in a bad habit now and knows we’ll go in and get him and he can start play time.

we can definitely try starting bedtime later, as pushing the nap back to 12 has helped him do a longer nap. We’ve definitely been putting him to sleep for bang on 7 because we’re so tired and done by then!! 🥹

My little one has just turned two and sleeps touchwood 8pm/8.30pm-7am.
She goes in her cot at 8pm and is often asleep by 8.30pm.
She naps 30-40 minutes on the afternoon school run at 2pm

12.30-3pm is a long nap and then if he is in bed early to 5am would unfortunately be expected in my opinion. Even if he is crying he could just be done sleeping

I think its a bit naiive to expect them to just "shut off" because you want them out the way dlfor 12 hours straight. It's kind of part and parcel of parenting.