Please can anyone help me with my 11 month old 's nap routine? I'm clearly doing something wrong!

[LalaLeona]

Hi all. I am really confused about my baby's sleep routine. I've got something wrong I fear and don't know how to fix it. He wakes up at 4.30/5am ish every day regardless of whether i keep him up later. In fact I've started putting him.to bed earlier in case he's overtired. His aprox routine for the last few days is
6pm bedtime
4.30/5am wake up
Nap 8am for 1.5-2 hours
Then...refuses at all to nap in afternoon and is absolutely exhausted and grumpy by bed time. I literally cannot get him to nap in the afternoon in his cot. He would in the car I think but I don't know when is the best time anymore, plus I have a school run to fit in. Completely lost!! Any help or advice gratefully received.

He sleeps from 6-5am? No wake ups at all? You've found the holy grail.

Lots of sleep consultants may say to put him in his cot for a nap and leave him in cot until sufficient nap time has passed. Eventually they figure out to sleep.

However I would have killed for a baby who slept at night like yours. Mine would nap well in the day but wouldn't sleep til10pm and then wake 45-60minutes ALL night every night. I think we should take our blessings where we have them x

Have you tried only letting the 8am nap be really short? E.g. 20mins. Sounds like he's only doing that because he's up too early.
Then should be tired enough for a nap at 1 or 2pm?
Pick the time you want and set yourself a week where you focus on that nap - car maybe to start with to get the habit and then pram or cot once you've got the timing established. Eventually you may be able to push bedtime to 7 - then 11 hours of sleep will get you to 6!
Treat 4.30am as a night time waking - no milk, no getting out of cot, no light etc...

Thanks for your reply i forgot to say he does wake up a couple of times but it doesnt take long to settle him unless hes teething. I'm sorry I sound really ungrateful I know that's great hours but it's just he seems so unhappy and over tired in the afternoon.

Thank you nano I haven't really tried shortening the morning nap he's so exhausted I let him sleep. Once I did and he refused to sleep in the afternoon and screamed as over tired..that was a while ago now though. It would be better for him to have a long afternoon nap. Like you said I think I'll try in the car first. I think he only sleeps well at night because of the early mornings and one nap. He's basically exhausted. I literally try everything to get him back to sleep at 4.30..keep lights off etc..Once he's awake he's awake!

You don't sound ungrateful! X

11h sleep is about average for this age. It would be in the range of 10-12h overnight, so your 6pm bedtime is the reason for early mornings.

I appreciate though that bedtime needs to be early if afternoon nap is refused.

As nano mentioned above, I'd limit this morning nap. I'd probably allow for 40 minutes nap. Then do something go actively force the afternoon nap. Like a long drive at 1pm.

You just need a week or two of afternoon naps happening (anyhow) to then allow for a later bedtime, which can then move the wake up time. You may need to give it a month of being consistant to get it there though.

Thanks fate, and everyone for your help..that's really helpful how many hours would you say to put him to bed for the night, after the afternoon nap?

An aporoximation many people use is 234 - first nap 2 hours after waking, second nap 3 hours after waking from first nap and bedtime 4 hours after waking from second nap. This assumes around 3-4 hours of daytime naps in total, so might need jiggling around.

My youngest used to do an approximate 225. Follow your baby's lead really.