Surely this little sleep can't be normal for a toddler? Please help.

[RubyGoat]

DD is 18 months, she's always been difficult to settle. She apparently decided to drop her daytime naps around the age of 12m, she does nap sometimes for 45 minutes, but not usually more than 2-3 times a week, sometimes not at all for several days. (If we try she has an absolute meltdown, she's always been like this.) She wakes spontaneously around 6-8am & won't go to sleep until 9.30pm (if no nap), or if she's napped that day, it can be 10.30-11pm. So that's around 9-11 hours a day - is that normal?

She's otherwise a healthy, energetic, happy toddler. Once she is asleep, she will often sleep through, unless she's ill or teething (thankful for this at least!)

DH is at college & I work part-time round his classes, we can't afford nursery so we get no respite. DH is great & doesn't shirk his fair share of childcare duties BTW.

Please help, we are exhausted & not sure what to do / who to turn to for help in RL. TIA.

Hm. IIRC my DD did something similar around the same time. She phased out the daytime nap over 3 months or so, from every other day to every 3 days, to once or twice a week... She was about 22m when we finally gave up trying and accepted she had lost the nap. She went through a similar phase of short nights at that time, too - different times, she'd be up around 5am but go to bed earlier than your DD, so would also get around 9-11 hours overall.

Then she started nursery... And after a while things settled down and her regular pattern was 7pm till 6am. Now she's at school, it's more like 6pm to 7am .

OTOH, DS is 21m, goes to sleep sometime between 8 and 9 and wakes around 5-5.30 (8-9.5hrs) with a daytime nap of 30mins to 1.5hrs (sometimes none at all) - so total sleep of between 8.5 and 11hrs.

Thanks for asking, you've reminded me of what we went through with DD and just given me hope that one day in the not too distant future DS will also sleep 11-13hrs and not wake up so bloody early!

DD (21 months) gets between 9.5 and 11 hours in total (she still naps) - nights are short. Its really far from great but I don't think its that unusual - just on the low end of the scale.

Wingdingdong - you are giving me hope...

Thankyou! Am somewhat relieved, have felt we've been failing her & I'm glad to know that we're not the only ones with a sleep refusing toddler!