Advice for Son's Sleep Pattern

It sounds like to me you just have one that dosnt need as much sleep as others. my daughter now 6 yrs never needed to sleep. She was always a never a sleeper, didnt sleep all night till the age of 3. He may not need a 3rd nap. my daughter was down to 1 nap by a year and no nap at 18 months. just go with it. You can't force him to nap. Also he may be about to start walking or another milestone. you might try making his second nap later.

Sounds like he is getting a great night's sleep - what a joy.
Probably he just does not need as much sleep as you would like for him to get during the day. You can try to put him down a little later in the mornings and then a little later in the afternoon so that perhaps he won't be too exhausted by 8pm OR you could put him to bed earlier. Depending on his cycle, it does not necessarily mean he will get up earlier.
I always tried to go with my children's natural body rhythm rather than what was convenient for me.

My son was not a good sleeper and had reflux badly. My daughter had more spitting but her reflux did not hurt like my son's and she was a solid sleeper. As an infant she slept for 10-12 hours and took 3 naps. But as she became more active, she held onto the night sleep and slept less during the day. However, if she did not get in the bed by 6:00-6:30 her whole day would be ruined. Keeping her up later made her sleep less. We realized the best thing for her was to forgo a social life for a few months of our lives and so one of us was always at home by 6:00 putting her to bed. It was not easy, but it did not last forever. Both my children 4 and 6 years old go to bed by 7:30pm at the latest on school nights. My son gets up by 5-6am regardless of what time you put him to bed so putting him to bed later just makes him cranky during the day. As hard as it seems, you have to figure out what works best for as you can see from reading these posts - different families find different ways of dealing with the sleep issue. The most important thing is that your baby gets enough sleep, and you get enough. Blessings!

I sort of have the same issue. But, I have found out that when someone else watches my son, he sleeps better. The only reason I can figure is that he is more active with them, running and playing. When I am at home I have things to do, like laundry, cleaning,etc. so I can't always play directly with him. But when I can, I do. Sort of wears him out and he sleeps longer. Hope this helps!

I agree with Jessica. I'd put him to bed earlier. I'll bet he won't wake up any earlier, at least. My son has always seemed to be hard wired to wake up early and it doesn't seem to matter when I put him to bed. He used to be up at 5:30 at your son's age and now that he's five, it's more like 6 or 6:30. Of course I'm now happy with his morning person stance since he'll soon be starting school. So, I can't say I ever successfully got him to sleep later in the a.m., but try putting him to sleep earlier so he's at least better rested at the crack of dawn! I always read that at this age "sleep begets sleep" meaning that if he gets a good nights sleep he'll nap better and vice versa. I always found it to be true.

H C.,

I know you said he's sleeping better now that his medication was adjusted but GOOGLE the side effects and type of med that it is. Some of these meds that say "may cause drowsiness" are really stimulants, like Benadryl. It will knock my kids out for about 2 to 3 hours but then they are wired for the rest of the day. I try to avoid meds when possible just because you don't know exactly what they are doing in the chemistry of their little body...

Regards,

M.

The only thing I can suggest is before his after noon nap play, play, play...I notice when my youngest child started taking less time to nap and my husband would be home and play with him on the floor it made him more tired and he'd sleep longer. I also notice when he was getting teeth he'd sleep lass at nap times because of teething pain, he'd need sleep but just wouldn't do it very long. At 2 yrs old he'd only nap once a day...he was different then my other two older children at the same age..so enjoy those naps while you can not just for a moment to do something (like you can with a 2 yr old home too) but because I think naps make them grow and have better attitudes and frankly they seem to stay well their resistance seems to be better to colds and flu's during the winter months. Sorry I couldn't offer anything more other then trying to play and make him tired my other was a walk with the cold air always made my youngest have a 2nd long nap in the afternoon. Best of luck!!

You didn't say what time his naps were during the day or what time you tried to put him down for the 3rd one that he won't take. Since he takes a short 2nd nap and you know he is tired and needs a 3rd, try putting him down sooner for the 3rd nap and see if that helps. Play around with the times till you find something that might work. Or try keeping him up longer befor you put him down for his first nap. But trying to keep him awake at night so he can go to bed at bed time is only going to torture you, baby and everyone else in the house with all that crankiness!! If you are trying to schedule his naps around what is convient for you-forget it!!! You need to work around his schedule in order to have happy babies at this age!!

Good luck!
S.

I'm not sure when you are putting him down to bed at night, but we have found that with our twins, they did much better with their naps when they went down at an earlier bedtime. When they were younger, we kept them up until 9:30 or 10:00 at night & they woke up at 7 or 7:30am. They screamed during naptimes and the evenings were just miserable for all. I read several books & the gist of most of them was earlier to bed, Later to rise (you would think that's opposite, but not really true according to the experts) and the naps would get patterned with the body's natural rythm. We put them down around 7PM and they both sleep until 8AM!!! And take two 1 1/2 hr naps (one at 10:30 and the other at 2PM). Now they don't always sleep...sometimes I hear one or both playing quietly, but they are relaxing and know that is their down time. And not that they aren't a joy to be with, but it also gives you more time to relax and regroup from the day when they are down earlier. I hope this helps & good luck!

Hi, try putting him to bed later at night that way he will sleep in longer. I stay at home with my two and I put them to bed at 11pm. They are too little for school yet so there is no reason for me to put them to bed early unless I want to get up early which I don't. Plus my husband doesn't get home from work till after 9pm most nights so it gives him some time to spend with the kids.

Many children his age start to be eager to move around and explore. He sleeps enough already and doesn't need more, evidently. Some children really don't sleep much. My son has always slept less that other children but I never compared him to them: every child is different and we need to adjust to them. If he wants to be active that's a good thing, he is developing well.