how much sleep at 18mths?

[hermykne]

after a bad week last week of early rising anywhere from 5.00 to 6am, i nearly flipped!
I am curious to know what other mums of similar age toddlers allow their darlings to sleep in the day and what time bed is at?

my dd is up, atm, at 7, sleeps again at 11 for 1hr 15/30mins, and then an hour in afternoon between 3-4pm. have made her bedtime later this week, 8.15/30 as opposed to 7.30 (which she practically asked for as she would be bog-eyed by this stage)howeve hard i try to push the morn nap up to noon it doesnt work, if shes been up at 7.

i suppose i need to reduce day naps, but am very afraid as she gets horribly cranky/clingy if tired.

any advice or links much appreciate

ds is 20 months now....
he wakes on a normal day between 6:45 and 6:30
If he wakes really early he may have a short 30 minute sleep before lunch. If I can though, I make him wait until just after his lunch and then he has between 1 and 2 hours. I wake him after that. HE goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30...usually around 7
hth

btw - he has only just recently since christmas managed to wait for his nap until after lunch. occassionally he still can't manage it

Up until Christmas when DD was 20 months she was really bad at sleeping at night - waking often and coming into our bed. But she used to get perhaps 10 hours at night and then one afternoon nap of 1-2 hours.

At Christmas we sorted her night sleeping out and since then (she is now 23 months) she sleeps from 7:30pm to 6:45am (woken up for nursery 3 days a week; 7am if left). She then has about 1 hours nap after lunch.

Oh i sympathise i really do. My dd2 was a terrible sleeper.
One thing i would say is that maybe she is having too much sleep in the day, and my h.v advised me not to let my kids sleep any later then 3pm as it would disrupt their night time sleep. I try to stick to that where poss and it does seem to make a difference.
My ds is 15 mths and at the mo he has one sleep in the day, from about 12:30pm - 1:30/2pm. He is then usually ready for his bed at 7pm and will then sleep through until about 6:30.
If you think that she still needs to naps a day then perhaps try a very short nap in the morning 1/2 hour or there abouts, and then an hour at about 2pm.
HTH

Another possible! My DS1 slept for about 2 hours before lunch at this age i.e. from around 10.30 or so, woke up because he was hungry and then I could get him to up to bath by about 7. He never used to sleep in the afternoons. (mind you - 10 months later and he now has lunch about 11.30 and sleeps in the afternoon so I guess it's all a bit of trial and error really - like all of it)

ok thank you v much
i will reduce the morn nap tomorrow and bring back the afternoon one so she is up before 3/3.30pm. and really wear her out for ed at 7.30!

thanks aain

DS (19months) gets up between 5am - 6am so really sympathise. He just has one nap - usually at about 10am. Then I keep him very busy until about 6.30pm when he goes to bed.

I know that if I push his morning nap he may well get up later. But I like him going to bed at 6.30pm for now. Enjoy evenings with dh. My dh gets up with ds in the morning - so they spend some time togther before dh goes to work (and I get layin yepppieee!!!)
He doesnt get cranky with 1 nap. Do what suits your routine. You may well find one nap will be better

Hermykne, my dd is 18 months and is a good sleeper. She goes to bed usually around 8pm, is up any time between 7.30am and 9am. She doesn't have a morning nap (hasn't for ages) but often sleeps for between 2 and 3 hours after lunch. The longer she sleeps in the day the longer she sleeps in the following morning IME.

Eg this weekend she went down late on sat and sun in the afternoon, slept from 3pm until 5.30 but went to bed later than normal

Usually goes for afternoon nap at 1 or 1.30 pm and wakes between 3 and 4.

HTH

my ds 18 months also,sleeps around 12 hrs at night ,ususally goes down around 7-7:30.
He has a nap after lunch from about 12:30 until 2:30 (3pm if I'm lucky)
unfortunately at the moment he has a terrible cough/cold/teething so only napped for one hour today and was anightmare all afternoon.

Hi hermykne, as you may remember dd is almost the same age as yours. I actually went through this exact thing a while ago and had a thread about it (with some really useful advice), think it was called 'dropped morning nap ...' Basically dd was doing the same as yours and also her afternoon nap was getting later and later, thus bedtime later and later (though never later than 8.30). Previously I had a routine almost identical to yours and she really needed those 2 naps. But I decided to cut the morning one and give her an afternoon one much earlier. It's been tough and still is and is v. variable in terms of how it works. She's basically incredibly tired by about 10.30 am so I've ended up giving her lunch at 11am (you may also remember she's a terrible eater so has usually not had much breakfast beforehand) and putting her down between 11.30-12.00. She's then slept for anything between 1.5 - 3.5 hours. If the former then she's exhausted again by teatime. If the latter it's bliss. I just keep hoping it'll regulate into a pattern soon. The thing is, they have to go to 1 nap a day sometime so I'm just hoping she'll adjust. I don't know about your dd, but mine isn't great at coping with tiredness. She literally lies down on the floor and gives up!

we had a phase of early waking at 18 months (but seeing as dd's day is usually 9am to 9pm no-one had any sympathy).

We found that it's a kind of knock-on effect from over-tiredness in the day, so cutting naps or making bedtime later didn't work. What did work was an earlier lunchtime nap (she'd already dropped the morning one) and a couple of mornings of laying her back down in her cot rather than getting her up at first shout.

hope something works for you!

evita, cd , polly & senora
thanks for your advice
i took her out all morning so her nap wasnt until 2pm today for 1hr 25mins, (i woke her)it was 3.30. how ever i wont be taking her out tomorrow! lots of house activites!
and she was looking for bed at 8.05pm, so we'll see how tonight goes.
last night she was awake for awhile around 2am and couldnt really settle for about an hr but i think she has a big tooth coming thru. she woke this morn at 7.05 - bearable.

thanks for your advice, will keep you posted for further advice.

hi evita
she woke at 7.10 today, and one brief wakening in the night at 5. so much more "normal"
i have curtailed her sleeps, and today she got one hr this morn at 10am and then this afternoon she was wrecked, eye rubbing etc, at 2pm, so i let her have 1hr25. how awful i felt waking her as she looked wrecked for most of the day.

she does get very clingy when tired not as much cranky.
i do remember u from the no food threads! and thankfully my dd will now eat a good dinner so i can rule an empty stomach out for bad sleep, no lunch though and picky about breakfast depending on the day!

anyway i am like you know trying to get to the one nap but god its hard work occupying them!.

Hi Hermykne! Ds is 18 mths. We dropped the morning nap at about 14 mths and had early lunches at about 11-11:30am, getting later v gradually. He was a little bit grumpy as he adjusted over a week or so but settled into it pretty quickly. I've found if he slept for too long, too late in the day he could be a little unsettled at night.

Similarly, if he misses a nap altogether then he's up earlier in the morning cos he's overtired and restless when he goes to bed - therefore rubbish quality sleep. Ditto with a later bedtime - just too knackered

If he ever sleeps after 3pm I count this as too late for a settled sleep at 7pm.

For us he's happiest with a sleep of no longer than 2 hours at 12:30 immediately after lunch with no chance to get wound up again with toys etc. He sleeps from 7pm - 8:30 most mornings. Tiring him out in the mornings with mums and toddlers group etc also really helps

All the best!

hermykne - try not waking her at her afternoon nap (though I would try to stick to just an hour or less in the mornings). Like CD says, I sometimes find that the more dd sleeps, the more she sleeps! You never know.

bobsmum that 7pm to 8.30 sounds bliss, lucky you!
today the afternoon sleep went from 2 til 3.40 but she didnt nod of til 2.20 and woke herself.

40 mins after 3pm eek, i'll keep trying to get earlier.
thanks
senora
there was a period where she slpet loads in the day, well 3hrs max, and then from 7.30 til 8, but it stopped. hopefully we'll get back to that but i am so afraid of letting her have too much in the day that she'll go back to 6am.

came on here about to ask same thing!
dd has been ill and now better but sleep goen haywire!
She pre illness slept a LOT 2 hrs at 9am til 11 then 2 hrs 1-3pm then bed by 6.30pm til 7am.
Lucky know but she is small etc
Now she has dropped monring nap entirely
Sleeps 2hrs at 12-2pm and is crashing in bed by 6.30 begging to be allowed to sleep.
She's 17 mths is this a normal age to go down to one afternoon nap a day?
Just curious!

Ds1 (who generally needs quite a lot of sleep, though not quite as much as your dd!) dropped his morning nap at around 15-16 months, so it sounds about right. Can you help her through the transition with an earlier bed time for a while?

Hi again hermykne, glad your dd's eating a good dinner. Mine's decided pasta is the only food in the world worth putting in her mouth.

It's such a tricky moment this morning-nap transition. We've been struggling with it for well over a month now. Current schedule seems to have settled at: bed 7.30, awake 6.30-7, lunch 11am (I know it's ridiculously early but she's asleep in the high chair if I do it later), sleep 11.45-1.30 and that's it. I think it's not quite enough. Sometimes she naps for longer at lunchtime, occasionally even for 3 hours. I'm hoping to make her lunch later and later and that she'll gradually have a longer afternoon sleep.

But generally, do you think that 12-13 hours sleep out of the 24 is enough for an 18 month old? What does your dd get now?

Just logged on after struggling with morning nap for ages. Finally settled into a GF type routine about a month ago with 11hrs at night, 15mins am, 2hrs pm, but suddenly we are back with 5am wakings, 1hr30 pm naps and screaming when I try to put him down for an am nap. Today he woke at 6 so I am going to be brave!! I pushed him through quite easily 'til 11.30 when he went down after an early lunch. I'm hoping he'll go through 'til 1.30 and settle at 7 for bed. However my little one's only 15mths old, a little younger than most of yours. Do you think I am trying this a bit too early??