10 month old naps - when and how long please?

[Snarfle]

Morning,

My 10 month old naps approx from 10.30am-12pm and 2.30pm-4pm but I am now finding he is not tired for bed at 7pm. I am going to try and change his naps to approx 10am-11am and then 1.30pm-3pm but wanted to know what other people think? Does this sound about right - does this work for you?

He has never slept through and wakes up pretty much every 1.5-2 hours for his dummy or a quick cuddle and then back in his cot or in our bed. We are shattered and I am hoping that chnaging his day naps will help his night sleep [hopefull]

Thanks for your advice.

It sounds like he has a self-settling problem, TBH, rather than that his daytime sleep is affecting his night-time sleep. Have a look at The No-Cry Sleep Solution. It's not a cure-all, but has some fantastic tips.

FWIW, all of mine at that age had a shorter nap in the morning, 45m-1h somewhere between 9.30 and 11.30, and a longer nap in the afternoon, 1.5h-2h, somewhere between 1.30 and 3.30. I rarely let them sleep after 11.30am or 3.30pm if i wanted them asleep by 6.30/7 that night, as a later sleep in the morning pushed the afternoon sleep later, too, which often had a knock-on effect on their evening bed-time.

While it's not for everyone, I found Gina Ford's nap timings worked really well.

10mo Dd has 40 minutes at midday-ish, and another 40 mins at 4pm.

She goes to bed between 6 and 7 and generally sleeps through til 530/6 in her room, then comes in with me and sometimes goes back to sleep for an hour.

My 10mo DS has 1.5-2hr in the morning and about 1hr in the afternoon. If he wakes at 7, his naps will be 9.30-11.30ish and 2.30-3.30. Tbh if DS isn't tired, he won't nap, so I've never messed with his naps! I second PrettyCandles' advice - NCSS has some really good gentle tips for ditching dummy reliance etc.

When my DD was 10mo she had around 40mins at 9am then 2hrs at 1pm. She sleeps 7-7 and usually self settles with her dummy in the night.

I found that when she had longer than an hour in the morning then she wouldn't have long enough in the afternoon and then would be terribly overtired at bedtime.

If I were you I would definitely shorten the morning nap and put him down a bit earlier in the afternoon.