Do I wake my 1yo?

[Sunrise888]

We are trying to stick to a schedule of naps but they can become very irregular, resulting in longer than usual naps.

When this happens, should I wake DS to minimise interference with his bedtime?

For example, last night DS didn't go to bed until 10:30pm, had a suspected night terror which we unfortunately woke him up from (I didn't know what it was until I looked it up) so he was up for another hour between 1:30 and 2:30am.

He woke up this morning at 8:30, and went for his first settling in session at nursery, which he found upsetting.

I brought him home at 11am and he fed to sleep, and is still going at 1:30pm, right about the time when he should be starting his second nap! I'm hoping he'll get away with just 1 nap today, but I suspect editing is just to get pushed back by several hours. It's going to mess up his sleep tonight and he'll probably still wake up himself tomorrow at 8ish but overtired. He then has another settling in session, a half day.

Should I have woken him at 12? Should I wake him now? I want him to rest, but feel bad that he had to go through all this again tomorrow, probably worse.

I'd probably wake him up now for lunch.

How many naps does nursery do?

At one he might be transitioning to one nap a day.

Personally I'd let him sleep and try to get him ready for bed early, incase he struggles without an afternoon nap.

Nursery do 1 nap after lunch at 12 pm, but babies can have a morning nap too if they want. I only saw 1 baby having one this morning.

I think 2 naps are still working for us. DS gets very hyper/upset if they aren't timely.

Having said that he dropped his 3rd nap overnight and without warning.

Nursery did warn me that his sleep would be a bit messed up in the first few weeks, maybe I should lower my expectations and just go with the flow?

Personally I would go with the flow and let him rest when he needs and then try and establish a pattern once he’s settled at nursery. I am very much child-led rather than routine led tho!

Thanks. I was child led too, but he used to go to bed at midnight (and after) and sleep until midday! We missed all our winter classes, week after week! I'm trying to find a better balance now.

I would let him sleep now then plan in a nice relaxing afternoon, pottering in the garden in the shade, playing toys, early tea, bath then aim for early bed tonight. It sounds like he is shattered and getting stuck in a bit of a late routine. If he needs to be up reasonably early tomorrow anyway it might help him reset and he'll be well ready for his nap when he comes home from nursery tomorrow.

Thanks all for the advice. He did go to bed at 6pm but woke up an hour later 😥. I managed to get him back to sleep with lots of breastfeeding at 9:30pm.

Today we are faced with the same situation. He woke at 8am, went to nursery (slightly better day, 9-12, didn't nap). We went to see the HV, came back home at 1 and he finally went down for a nap at 2pm (and still going), about the time he'd be starting his second nap. Should I let him keep going, then try to get him ready for bed when he next starts to look tired?

He had his third settling in session tomorrow, 9-1.

The thing is that we are trying to move him to an earlier bedtime so he can wake at 6am, and hopefully squeeze in his first nap before nursery at 9ish. I'm worried he will find nursery too stimulating to nap in (everything is too stimulating apart from carrier/pram/carseat/boob). We may try this on his off-days before his next session next week.

I would wake him now, my rule has always been no sleeping after 3pm, I generally do 5 hours between second wake up and bedtime so this would mean an 8pm bedtime

Personally I think he sounds ready to move to 1 nap a day

Sounds like my son at the moment, we have made the transition to 1 nap a day over the last month and are pretty much there now but at the start we would have him have a normal 1 hour first nap and then have him going for 2-3 hours the second time and then not be able to get him into bed till 10pm.

Now he is having one nap a day but sometimes will go for 3 hours if left. I've started waking him after 2 hours max as otherwise he just is not ready for bed till really late.

I think its because we previously were lucky if he napped for 45 mins a time. Now he is sleeping so much better (started sleeping through the night too finally) if we leave him to have 3 hours during the day he completely throws his routine.

Agree it’s probably time to move to one nap, particularly with starting nursery. At this age DS was up around 6.30, lunch at Nursery 11.30, nap 12-2, then bed around 6.30-7pm. Nursery will tire him out so if you can keep him going til bedtime then hopefully he’ll sleep well during the night.

I meant to say that I want to get his first nap in before nursery so that he is happy and rested, make it to lunch and get some food in him and hopefully want a snooze afterwards.

I guess we could try one nap today/tomorrow and see how it goes. We then have 4 days until the next session so we could see if we can keep it up. I'm just worried that instead of trying to move to 1 nap, we are just pushing his naps back so he ends up with a 9-10pm bedtime.

Up until now he seemed good with the two nap routine, showing tiredness signs at 10am, 1pm and 7-8pm. If we wait too late he gets very cranky.

So hard to know what to do.

We'll he's up now anyway 😊

Understand completely, we had the same thing, one day it would be just the one nap and then the next he would end up having 2 and not sleeping till 10pm. Unfortunately the transition didn't happen over night.

Also agree with nursery tiring him out, our nursery doesn't have a separate nap room so we would be lucky if he had 45 mins all day, he would be exhausted when he got home and in bed by 6pm. Then on the days I am home with him he would have his 2 naps and be up for hours!

All I can say is its all finally settled down now so it does get better!

@LivingDeadGirlUK thanks! I guess because going from 3 to 2 naps did happen overnight, I expected the next step to be the same! Ok, we'll be flexible for the next few weeks and go with the flow.

Dd ended up doing 2 naps at home and 1 at nursery. They can be flexible

Thanks Di11y, good to know what works for others.