Awake windows when napping at nursery

[Carbis]

My little one will be starting nursery next month when he will be 12 months old. Their routine seems pretty rigid and the babies wake from their second nap at 2pm. My LO usually sleeps from 2pm - 3:30pm and goes to bed at 7pm.

I know I’m worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet but I can’t get my head around how this is going to work. If he wakes at 2pm (that’s assuming he sleeps for the whole nap time which is unlikely) he’ll be ready for bed by 5:30pm!! I suppose I’m going to have to bring his bedtime a bit but try to keep him up until 6:30pm. He already wakes at 5am so I’m dreading this being even earlier.

Has anyone been through this? What did you do?

I think from 12-18mths things will change again with naps anyway. Mine were always more tired after nursery and we had to adapt bedtimes to suit but it changes so much anyway.

What time is wake up in the morning?

A 2pm wake would need a 6pm asleep-by bedtime which would in-turn give a 5am wake up. All of these are estimates obviously, babies aren't robots, but to give you some ball-park ideas.

So start with thinking about what time you'll need your LO up by in the morning when you are at work. In order to fit in you getting ready, baby getting ready, everyone eating and then a commute, it might be that 5am is not an unreasonable wake up.

However if 5am is way too early to be waking - then a 2pm afternoon nap finish is unreasonable and you'll need to speak to nursery. They should surely be willing to accommodate a number of different routines?

Either look for a later wake from the afternoon nap. Or ask if they can accommodate a third catnap and then move bedtime much later - say 8.30pm.

@Nonamesavail I hoped someone would come along and say it would be fine! You’re right, everything changes so quickly.

@FATEdestiny they seemed very accommodating when I went to look round but now are being very rigid, which I’m a bit disappointed about because it seems a little dishonest. At the moment he goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at 5am but sleeps through most of the time. I’m a bit daunted as we seem to have only just got into a nice routine. I’ll bring bedtime earlier to 6:30pm and brace myself for an earlier waking until his wake windows lengthen.