Am I expecting too much?

[FebMama]

Keeping it brief but 8.5 month old now sleeps through the night, no wake ups. Approx 7.30pm to 6.45am.

But he only has 30-40 minute naps throughout the day! Currently on 3 naps and can't seem to extend them.

Of course I am over the moon about the nights. But do I just accept that he's ok on short naps and clearly he's getting the sleep he needs? You read everywhere that they should be on 2 naps per day at this age and definitely over an hour in length. But we just can't seem to get there.

I've tried tweaking his routine and giving shorter wake windows as well as longer and nothing seems to work!

Children are all very different in what they need.

It seems you have a decent night sleeping routine that works for you and him at the moment and that the daytime naps are enough for him.

It may well change as he grows and develops but I would be very wary of changing something that is currently working - unless he is super grumpy/ not coping during the day.

Whilst you can create positive conditions to encourage sleep it really is impossible to make a child sleep when they aren't tired.

Thank you @willingtolearn. I agree, I am very wary of rocking the boat with his sleep seeing as nights are so good! But daytime is so hit and miss I feel like we have no set routine as I'm messing about with his wake windows every day to see what works/what doesn't! Every day seems to be different at the minute 😕

He seems to be managing fine on the short naps and doesn't impact on his mood as such so I guess that's a positive too.