Do you cap naps? 13 months..

[Dfjackson]

Hi everyone

13 month baby
2 naps - I tried 1 nap and we had an overtired mess for 4 days it was a disaster definitely not ready.

Problem is fitting 2 naps in the day without pushing bedtime back at the moment. wakes between 6:30/7am.
first nap typically 3-3hours 15 after waking in the morning so usually between 09:30am/10. This could be for up to 1 hour 30.
This then pushes that afternoon nap back quite late (I’m lucky if it’s 14:30pm we can just about squeeze an hour and still get to bed at 19:30pm 4hour wake window)

so my question is-
Should I cap the first nap to make sure we fit a 2nd one in?
She is routinely fighting that 2nd nap I think just purely not tired enough - then we’re awake for 6+hours which is HORRIBLE

im always a fan of the ‘don’t wake a sleeping baby’ up until now when bedtime becomes way past 8pm and then she only gets 10hours at night and after a few days have passed is an overtired mess

Any help appreciated x

30-45 minutes max for the morning nap. Afternoon nap 1pm-3pm. Definitely wake by 3pm if you want a reasonable bedtime.

Thank you
I was doing the opposite and letting her sleep as long as she wanted in the morning
but then having to cap the 2nd nap sometimes only 20 mins long poor thing in the afternoon. But then more often than not started to refuse that 2nd nap, me thinking she’s then ready for 1 nap which she isn’t, she probably is just not tired enough after a lovely morning slumber possibly?
Thanks so much for your reply.

I would skip the long morning nap and bring lunchtime nap to 12-2ish.

30 mins nap later on if needed which is then the next one to drop.

She can’t make it to lunch without a morning nap, are you suggesting stretching her to 12 from wake up? I tried that last week as I thought she was ready for one nap so tried to stretch her morning one to 11:30/11:45 but she really struggled to get to lunch and even after waking up was not a happy baby. She can tolerate 4 hours max I would say so the timing is just a little off as will be to late for a cat nap in the afternoon if needed but can’t tolerate any longer wake windows.

Im thinking maybe stick to the comfortable wake window of 3/3.5hours maybe around 09:30/10 but just wake her up after half hour then let her have a good nap after lunch?

Im thinking maybe stick to the comfortable wake window of 3/3.5hours maybe around 09:30/10 but just wake her up after half hour then let her have a good nap after lunch?
This is essentially the classic/typical nap schedule that most 9-18 month olds will be on.

yes, you can do short nap then longer nap. Although at this age we did two naps both capped at 1hr and worked well for my DS before transitioning to one long nap

There's no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to sleeping habits of our babies. But here's what I did with my DS who is now 14 months old, and we had the same drama before. What I usually do is let him have shorter nap times spread through the day, maybe around 20 to 30 minutes each. But make sure not to let him nap closer to bedtime to ensure he won't wake up at ungodly hours. Also, one thing that helped me a lot is playing white noise at the background, like rain sounds or static. He's getting longer sleep nowadays. Hopefully it could also help you.