Thirteen month old taking short naps.

[MummyLou1204]

My thirteen month old is taking horrendously short naps of no more than forty mins (one sleep cycle). We’ve worked super hard on his ability to self settle and subsequently his nighttime sleep has improved immensely. In light of this I had hoped that these skills would start to be transferred to naps but sadly not . I’m really conscious that he’s not getting enough daytime sleep and he’ll be having early bedtimes in order to compensate for the lack of daytime sleep forever. I’ve tried not rushing in and giving him time to resettle and I’ve tried being in the room ready to resettle immediately too but it doesn’t seem to help.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

What time is the first nap ?
At 13 months my dd was waking at 7am
Sleeping 11am/11.30am-1pm/1.30pm
Bed 7pm ish

She would only do more than one sleep cycle if in a cot at home. Still at 23 months she'll do an hour in her cot but 30-40 mins if in a car / push chair/ on the sofa

Thank you for your reply @Sussexcricket. He’s taking a short nap at 9:30-10:00 and second nap at 1:30. He’s waking around 6:30am. Can I ask you, when your little one was napping at 11:00/11:30, were you giving them lunch before or after their nap? It seems like such a juggling act. Really not sure if he’s ready to go to one nap or if I’m just asking for more overtiredness.

My DS now 26mo has never been a great sleeper and often still wakes up through the night. He also never used to nap any longer than 45mins right from when he was a baby baby. And he dropped his afternoon nap early (around 12mo)
However since he's been a lot more mobile and running round etc he tends to nap for a bit longer in the day, 1-1.5h now
This tends to be anything from 12:30-1:30 I make sure he's had a big breakfast and a snack and then I don't give him lunch til he wakes up, even if that's a 2:30pm wake up. I find he eats it all too.
Routines change as they grow, You'll figure it out x

Mine stopped napping at 11 months

@MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy Thank you! I’ll try an early lunch today and one nap and see how we get on. 🤞🏼

@Somebodiesmother Stopped napping completely? 🙀

Our generation is preoccupied with babies sleep habits, and rather like the Victorian’s obsession with bed wetting, it is more driven by the labour demands and patterns of adults than any intrinsic benefit to the children.

I’m not saying this to be dismissive and the need for some semblance of decent sleep for parents is very real. But babies change and grow and develop and routines have to adapt. It feels like an incredibly important issue to solve right now. But bear in mind that there are good livings to be made promoting anxieties about what lack of sleep might be doing to babies cognitive development, etc.

No Matter what you do, or what system you follow, as soon as baby has a growth spurt, new tooth, sniffle or an invisible cognitive development spurt, sleep will be affected. You’re along for the ride on this roller coaster.

Do what you can, but leave yourself a very large margin of grace and be kind to yourself.

Mine is same age and naps from around 12-2. I give lunch afterwards and a snack before. On nursery days they give lunch at 11:30. I'd try moving to one nap to see if that helps.

Mine stopped napping at all by twelve months, but slept great all night.