My DD is 14mo, she started nursery when she was 8mo. Prior to nursery she would sleep for 12 hours at night and 4 hours during the day across 2 naps. She is in nursery between 7:30am ? 4pm M-F. From day one at nursery she would only take 2 x 40 minute naps and due to leaving the house at 7am her night time sleep reduced to 11.5hours. She would still take her 4 hours & 12 hours at the weekends.
We and nursery have tried everything that we can think of but nothing makes a difference and on the car journey home there is a lot of eye rubbing and sometimes she?ll have a 20 minute power nap. Since starting nursery she has had a cold, that?s 6 months. She?s been to the doctors and she?s fine, it?s just a cold but because she doesn?t get the sleep she needs she can?t get over it. I took extra time off at Christmas (total of 3 weeks) in the hope to get some extra sleep into her and help her get over her cold. She however started a fussy phase of eating which resulted in her being overly hungry because she was refusing everything and thus refusing sleep because she was too hungry. Best laid plans are no such thing with babies and toddlers (or children and teenagers for that matter).
She?s obviously older now and her sleep at the weekends has reduced to about 2.5-3 hours of 2 x naps and 11.5-12 hours at night (but never the 2 longer amounts together). She still however only takes 40 mins x 2 at nursery. We have cracked the ?going to sleep? at home and can put her down and walk away and she?ll put herself to sleep but at nursery there?s so much going on she just jumps up and down in her cot and sometimes she?s on a mattress so someone needs to keep going back to her or she?ll crawl off! Yesterday nursery tried putting her down for her morning nap (@ 9:30) for 55 mins with no luck, despite the serious eye rubbing and yawning. They got her up, tried after lunch and she went straight to sleep and slept for 1hr 10 mins. She just had the 1 nap.
My personal feeling is that nursery is very different from home and we have to do what works for her and is best for her. I?m not happy with the 2 x 40 min naps, I would like them to be longer but there?s nothing I can do about that, but at least they?re spread out which gives her two energy boosts. The nap yesterday was shorter than the two combined, if she would sleep for longer and I thought this was better for her I?d switch her to the one nap at nursery without much worry (even though I thought but could be wrong they?re supposed to be having 2 naps for as long as possible in the run up to 18mo). However when I got DD home from nursery yesterday she was out of control. Normally a quiet little girl who is very happy and content she was screaming, hitting, throwing herself into the Christmas tree and walking round on the sofa resting her head and every now and then lying on the floor and closing her eyes and yawning?.at 5:30pm! We also had to wake her this morning which we?ve never had to do before.
I?ve told nursery to try the one nap for the rest of this week to see how it goes and then we can go from there, either go back to 2 naps or stick with one. She seems happier with 2 naps but is missing out on several hours of her day from being put to sleep (not even including the sleep bit), although this isn?t an issue at home. 1 nap and she?s fine at nursery and having a great time but she seemed so exhausted from it in the evening. I?d really appreciate some thoughts, I?ve talked to my mum and DH and got a few other people?s opinions but I still really don?t know what?s best.