How long does your 15/16m old nap?

[ecossegirl91]

Ive posted before but im having a horrid time with my 15.5m old night sleep (split nights since 11 months old - but he’s not a happy bunny!). He’s has a lunch nap and fell asleep today at 11.45 and is still asleep now so approaching 2 hours. How long would you let sleep? When would you do bed?

we’ve tried everything (except sleep training which might need to be next on my list) to alleviate the split nights - 2 naps, 1 nap, shorter / longer naps, later / earlier bed time but to no avail.

internet seems to suggest split nights are due to too much sleep but that these babies are happy in the night - he is not, which makes me think he wants to be asleep.

he’s currently averaging 9/10 hours overnight because of the wakening and then around 2 hours during the day. He can be grumpy as he’s tired so I think he probably needs 11 at night, and 2 in the day which is 13 total. Which doesn’t sound excessive to me? Yet here we are 😂

hubby and I work full time so we are beyond tired!

My child is 16months, he has dropped from two naps, one in morning and one in afternoon to one long nap (2hrs to 2hrs30) in the middle of the day

Between 2-3hrs. Either 2 x 90mins naps or 1 2hr nap usually. Bed between 7-8pm and up at 7am in the morning

At that age my youngest (low sleep needs) was having 45 min - 1.5 hours nap, bed 8-8.30, up 6-6.30. She's been low sleep needs since birth, though.

Any chance it's some sort of discomfort? My youngest still has reflux, so we get unhappy split nights when that flares up. Teething also does it for her. Hunger? Or too hot/too cold, as it must have started about when the weather started to get colder?

I have a lot of empathy as my daughter did split nights (approx up for two hours pretty much every single night) from age 10 months to roughy 17/18 months.
We did tell her that we needed to sleep and wouldn't pick her up after a while and she screamed but quickly understood that there was no point. She would then still wake and chat in her bed / make random noises for 2 hours.
It literally stopped as it came. I also tried everything with her. Good luck

I do childcare and all my toddlers have taken one 2.5-3 hour nap every day once they go down to 1 nap.

My last little guy did minimum 3 hours.

We’ve cut out dairy and using milk alternatives etc in case it was that - no change. He wears a vest pjs and 2.5 bag and his room is quite warm (heating on 7-10) then comes on at 6. We thought cold so tried a long sleeve vest but didn’t help. Room also has black out blinds and we use white noise.

also thought hunger and offered milk initially when they kicked off at 11m but doesn’t shorten the 2 hour wake in the night and he he eats lots during the day plus a big protein filled dinner with pudding. And then 200mls milk before bed. So we stopped offering night milk quite quickly.

teeth were also a possibility as he cut 3 out of 4 first molars at 12m but all 4 are now through and calpol / nurofen didn’t help 🤪

Thanks for the support! And also glad to hear yours stopped around 17-18m - if we follow a similar trajectory we are nearly there 😂👏

so hard to know what to do in the night - like I said we tried milk to no avail, he cries if we hold him, he cries in the cot with us in the room with a hand on him, he cries in our bed - I’m like pick one son you need to be somewhere 😂

Yes hang in there it will stop.
I would save yourself the second guessing of what could be the cause.
The most likely is that it is developmental and you'll never know what caused it.
I would focus my efforts on forcing him to entertain himself in his cot. She would still wake me but at least I didn't get up.

@ecossegirl91 we are having this exact problem. Awake same time every night for about 2 hours. Did you find a solution? X

@Itsmeitscathyivecomehome hoping I don’t Jynx it but since the clock change he’s slept through 7.30-6.30am. I’m not sure it’s related 😂 we have trimmed the nap to 1.5hours but not done anything else different.
im just taking it each day, hoping he keeps sleeping! 🙏🏻 fingers crossed for you guys too as it’s so brutal!

Wow, until what age ? DS ( low sleep needs) was down to 45 mins by 2. Anymore and bedtime was rorally messed up ( he went 7:30-6:30 overnight).

@ecossegirl91 thank you for replying! Did you change his bedtime when the clocks went forward?
so he’s settled on 12.5 hours total sleep. I’m wondering if my girl needs less total sleep. I think I’m expecting a lot.

@Itsmeitscathyivecomehome no we didn’t change his bedtime when the clocks changed, kept it at 7.30 and he awoke at 6.39 (so technically 5.30 but given it was the first night in ages he hadn’t woke I was pleased!) and then it’s been okay since then. Yeah it seems be around 12.5 hours total day sleep which does seem low but then I think the range is 11-14 hours at 18m so at least he is in it!