1 year old fighting naps

[bethan2]

Hi all,

I posted on here a couple of months ago about my then 10 month old being rocked to sleep for his naps. Apologies for not giving an update on that - thanks for all your support and advice. We were able to stop rocking him to sleep and he fell asleep in my arms without rocking.

However, 2 months on, he's now turned one and everything has gone haywire! 😣

Until recently, my son had 2 naps - about 90 minutes in the morning and about 40 minutes in the afternoon (roughly 10:30-12 noon and 15:00-15:40).

However he seems to be transitioning to one nap - the last 10 days or so have been horrendous... he was fighting his afternoon nap and taking ages to fall asleep or skipping it entirely and also not tired at all when I took him up for his usual nap time in the morning. There's been a lot of teary phone calls to poor Daddy 😔...

So yesterday and today I have kept him up doing stuff until he's tired and then he's sleeping around 12:30 to 2pm.

I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and whether I am doing the right thing... I don't think 90 minutes is enough nap time for a 1 year old but he was fighting the afternoon one so much (and only slept for about 40 minutes then). Already it feels a lot less stressful because I am battling to get him to nap but I am worried that he is not getting enough rest time.

He is very tired come dinner time (17:30) and we take him up for bed around 18:45 and he is asleep by 19:30. He falls asleep quickly once he's had his milk, so is obviously tired.

I would love to take him up to bed earlier, but then I am worried he would wake even earlier - currently wakes at 06:30 which will be even earlier once the clocks change!

Also an earlier dinner would make the gap between lunch and dinner even smaller, as today and yesterday I gave him lunch around 14:15 when he woke up.

So sorry for the essay 😣. Would love to hear from anyone about their experiences and what they found helpful!

Thanks for reading! X

Not sure if you're worrying too much tbh. Most modern child sleep experts now say the main thing people worry about is whether or not their child is getting enough sleep and the reality is people have a very outdated view on what that should be. 13 hours sleep in a day for a 1 year old is plenty (I'm assuming that's correct - 7.30pm-6.30am 11 hrs and then a 2 hr nap in the day). Can you somehow split the naps? So an hour in the morning and then and hour in the afternoon? X

I used to have to start an hour earlier than I wanted DD to go to sleep, she'd chuck all toys and bedding out, then after an hour crash out! Putting her down for a nap an hour later wouldn't work, she'd still do it!

Sounds like he's ready for 1-nap days, but I think you may have your timings out. You need to give lunch before nap time and i think youll get more sleep by making both earlier.

Generally speaking, baby's awake times should lengthen over the day - so 1st awake time shortest, 2nd awake time longer and (if on 2 nap days) 3rd awake time longer still. So the longest awake time being the one before bedtime.

Your day is:
6.30am wake
6 hours awake time
12.30pm nap
2pm wake
5h30m awake time
7.30 asleep for the night

I'd suggest an 11am lunch, then an 11.30am nap.

I have a 2 year old and he done the exact same and still tries to fight sleep until this day he used to have two naps and now lucky if he has one but I've noticed if he does t nap during the day he is very grumpy but then has a brilliant nights sleep and sleeps for about 12 hours if not more. I know your pain it is stressful but I suppose you can't make them sleep if they don't want to I hope it works out for yous both

Hi all, thank you so much for your help and support. I had toyed with an earlier lunch (before nap) but then it's a big gap before dinner at 5:30...

In the 'old' schedule, he had lunch at noon after his nap and then a bottle around 2:30/3 before his second nap.

In the 'new' schedule (last couple of days), I have given him a bottle at 12 before his nap and then lunch on waking (2:15ish).

We have been pondering how to cut out his only milk feed during the day but not sure how to do it! He still has feeds on waking and before bed.

Hmmmmm...

I did 11/11.30am dinner, substantial snack and milk around 3pm and 5.30pm dinner.

Hunger will affect the quality of sleep in the lunchtime nap. Given the nap may well remain for 2 years or more, it will ultimately need to be after lunch in the long term. I'd start that from the introduction of the lunchtime nap.

Mine were on 2 small snacks a day from 10 months, maybe some fruit or bread and butter. That would solve the big gap between lunch and dinner.

Also, DS1 dropped the afternoon nap before he dropped the morning nap.

Hi all. Thanks so much for your support and advice. I gave him lunch before his nap today and a snack after it, so he only had 2 milk feeds today! Great ☺️

He's still very tired at bedtime so will push to make that earlier and then try and figure out what to do about the clocks changing so he's not waking up at 05:30!! 😣X

Re the clocks going back, put him to bed 10 minutes later every night until it's an hour later. 😆

Thanks Ballerina! Love the username! 😁
He used to sleep 8pm-7am but it's now 7:30pm-6:30am and we say nooooooooo! Dude! Wrong way around! X

I can't take credit for my user name apart from Keidis, which I added after everyone was adding Reeves (as in Keanu), the rest was something that DD saw in our rag rolling! 😂

At that age my dc1 slept 19.30-500 and 45 min
Dc2 was 6-430 and two short naps

Thanks nosy! That's really helpful! How on earth did you avoid going bananas over the early morning wake-ups? 😮

We normally get up at 5am so it was mostly OK, just hard when I was preg with DC2.

If you find out let me know.... my son is currently wailing in his cot after being barely able to keep his eyes open, falling over and coming for cuddles every 8 seconds. Put him in his cot and he becomes a banshee.

Then you get undermined by your DH who hasn't dealt with the nap battles and just prefers to get him back out of his cot and play - thus exacerbating the tired child screaming issue.

When the day comes he no longer needs naps I will be fucking ecstatic. He is the grumpiest git ever as he woke up an hour earlier than normal and wouldn't go back to sleep.

Sorry I needed to vent. He's downstairs now with DH still crying like a lost child in the rain. He's one. He's always been a terrible napper but a fab night sleeper. I just wish DH had let me leave him in his cot as he was so close to giving in. He won't sleep on you these days and is strong enough to fight you off, but DH still forgets this.

I now have a grumpy screaming exhausted child who won't stop crying now. Wicked.

Sorry about that I needed an outlet and found this one 😊 He actually is fast asleep on my DH right now and it turns out he had a dirty nappy: bad mum points.

Sleep is a ridiculous obsession of mine and I hate it. My son has slept through since he was five weeks old - I think I'm terrified it'll stop one day.

Hi all!

Just wanted to update... he's now gone back to 2 naps! :O Was maybe a phase, I guess! We do have odd days when he just has 1 nap and then take him to bed earlier.

We managed to push his nighttime sleep until gone 8, so now he wakes up at gone 7am, yay! His awake times have now gone to just under 4 hours, so he naps around 11:15am and again around 3:30 / 4pm with the times varying between 40 minutes and 1 hour 20 for each nap. Dinner at 6, up for bed around 19:15 depending on whether it's a bath night and then asleep around 20:30.

We wanted to change his waking time to make it later in time for the clock change. Seems to be working ok so far.

Thanks for all your advice and support. This forum is extremely useful, especially for realising that you are not alone! Sometimes I do turn into Napzilla :D

B x