short night?

[Evita]

My daughter's 15 months old. She goes to bed at 8pm and wakes around 6-6.30 am, so a 10 - 10.5 hour night. She sleeps 2 naps in the day around an hour each. Total then 12-13 hours a day.

Firstly, is this enough for her age? In the morning all she does is flop around and rub her eyes and yawn until she goes for her morning nap, so I just feel she's not sleeping long enough at night, but she insists on getting up. I do leave her for as long as I can and v.v.v. occasionally she nods off again til 7-ish and is much better rested. She's also often very tired by bedtime. If I put her to bed earlier though she'll wake at 5-ish and I can't handle that. Occasionally she misses a daytime nap and her night gets even shorter.

Furthermore, how on earth can you get them to sleep for longer? Or is it just not possible?

Evita, try putting her to bed a bit earlier. I know you say you've tried this and she wakes at 5, but it can take 4 nights to kick in. We were having similar problems with my ds (a bit younger than your dd)and his naps were getting shorter and shorter. We tried this for a few days and it worked.

Got the idea from Marc Weissbluth's book, "Healthy sleep habits, happy child". Excellent, practical advice on lots of sleep "problems". Hope you find a solution.

Dmum, I'll check that book out. And I'll try putting her down for 7.30 for a few nights to see what happens. I've been so exhausted the last few mornings I've left her 'chatting' in her cot for half an hour after she wakes. She never goes back to sleep, neither do I, but at least I'm still horizontal for a while!

Do you think the amount of sleep she's getting is too little for her age?

What is a good reference guide to tell one how much a child should sleep at a given age?

That's about how much DS was sleeping at that age, Evita. DD slept about 1 hour less!

Any idea when amounts of sleep change?

Hi Evita, my dd 16.5 months is champion sleeper but wasn't always the case. Now she sleeps 7.30 or 8pm to anything between 8am and 9.30am and has done for 3 months! I think as dh and I are so bad in the mornings we tried everything to get her to sleep in and it seems to have worked. So, my suggestions (if you haven't tried them already)

Blackout curtains esp in summer
Leave books etc in cot so she can play with them
Try just leaving her in the morning for a few morning a la controlled crying and it seems to work - dd went through an early waking phase and after 3 mornings of ignoring her she woke up much later.
Try cutting out 2 naps in the day. My dd only naps after lunch, usually around 1pm to 3 or 3.30 pm. You could try before lunch if she is extra sleepy, but if you could just keep her awake a bit longer during the day then she may sleep longer at night.
Make sure she has a full bottle just before going to bed.
I find if she eats her dinner early she sometimes wakes earlier, she never has dinner before 6pm, sometimes later.

So there we go, hope some of that is of help.

DD sleeps from 8pm til 5.45 or 6 (if I am lucky!) and has 1.5 hours during the day. I just don't think she needs that much sleep. Sometimes she will wake in the night at around 1am and just be awake! Like she is up for the day!

Evita - perhaps she is blearly eyed in the morning but insists on being awake becuse she is hungry? Does she go straight back off after breakfast?

Mum2Ela, she's bleary for the first hour or so, then perks up a bit if there's stuff going on. As soon as she's in her high chair for breakfast she's dozing off and she's out like a light as soon as her head hits the cot. Usually 2 hours after she originally woke up.

Countess, I envy you!! Many of your suggestions are already in place like blackout curtains etc. She also has a relatively late tea and a good milk feed before bed. I do leave her in the morning when she wakes before 7am and sometimes she goes back to sleep and sometimes she gets increasingly fed up and awake until I go to get her. She never really does the sort of crying that I could do controlled crying with, she just chats and shouts. She's just literally awake. But she's also knackered. I think it may be time to drop a daytime nap. It's confusing though as when she sleeps well in the day she seems to sleep better in the morning whereas when she has crap daytime sleep she wakes v. early next morning.

Evita ditto with the daytime nap. The longer she sleeps in the day the longer she sleeps at night.

Is she in a gro-bag? They seem to promote good sleep as the baby stays warm and snug for longer.

You could try not giving her the morning bottle until 8am, then she may sleep later once she realises she isn't going to get a bottle at 6am (if indeed you give her one upon waking)

Hi CD, yes she is in a grobag. What would we do without them ...

As for the morning feed, she refuses to have a drink or eat until an hour or so after she's up. She's got quite strong 'morning breath' in fact and I'm convinced she should have a drink!