confused about naps????

[pugsmum]

my ds is 10months and he is sleeping well at night he sleeps from 7.30pm til 6/7am
he used to have very structured routine naps as we were sleep trainig him but now he doesnt seem to need as much sleep anymore i am not sure when he should be napping and how long for each time?

when he wakes he seenms to get tired very quiickly and sometimes too tired for his breakfast at 7.30
so i have to put him down for a nap and give breakfast wen he wakes up!
but i am struggling to get h im to nap in the afternoon and then is getting very tired before bed time .

i find that even if i put him to bed earlier he will either wake in the middle of the night of resist going to sleep no matter how tired .. 7:30 pm bedtime seems to be what he is programmed to!

so i need to arrange his naps in the day so that he gets the right rejuv at the right time so he does not end up tired and grouchy !!

any ideas ??

A baby that age (same as my DS) should be awake for 2.5-3 hours before going back for a morning nap, usually that nap is 30-60 mins. Then they should be awake for at least 3 hours before going for an afternoon nap, which ideally should be 1-2 hours. If my DS wakes crying from his afternoon nap after 30 mins i know he's woken prematurely, so i settle him back to sleep.

Our loose routine (of course it changes if he has a bad night's sleep, is teething or ill or whatever) is:

6.30/7.30am wake
8am breakfast
9.30/10am nap (30-60 mins)
noon - lunch
1.30/2pm - nap for usually at least 1.5 hours
3.30/4pm - awake
5/6pm - dinner
7/8pm - bed

I find there is only a window of about an hour at bedtime and if we leave it later than 8pm to put him to bed he's overtired.

When your DS wakes in the morning do you give him a chance to chatter to himself for a while? Sometimes ours falls back asleep if he wakes at 6am, and then re-wakes at 7.30ish. What sort of mood is your LO in when he wakes up in the morning?

By the way, i didn't do sleep training and instead followed his cues - this was the routine he most naturally fell into. But it could be that yours needs a more structured approach to encourage him into more of a reliable sleep pattern. At that age they should still be getting 14/15 hours of sleep per day.