Hello,
My daughter is about 13 1/2 months old now and until a couple weeks ago...her sleep schedule was like this...she'd nap in the morning from about 10:30-12, then she'd have lunch and playtime until around 2...then she'd nap from about 2-3:30 or so. Then she'd sleep from 8pm-8am. Then a couple weeks ago she still took her morning nap fine but started not going to sleep in the afternoon anymore. So last week I decided to start gradually making her morning nap later and now this week I didn't put her down for her morning nap at all, she has lunch around 12, and goes down for her nap between 12:30-12:45. On Monday, she slept until around 2, on Tuesday she slept until almost 3:30, and now the past few days she's only slept for about 30-45 minutes. I just don't understand how she can go from sleeping 2-3 hours or so in naps to 30-45 minutes. Also, now that she's been taking shorter naps, she's been sleeping longer in the morning and has been extremely crabby at night; so I truly believe she needs more sleep, but I don't know how to make this happen. I'm going to try waking her up maybe at 7:30 or 8 exactly in the morning, but other than that, what else can I try? Also, after she wakes up from such a short nap, she's been having a poopy diaper, and whether I try to put her down again right away or a couple hours later, she will not go back to sleep. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks so much in advance!!
I would try moving her nap earlier. Just play around with the time until you get one that works for her. Her messy diaper might be what is waking her up so early so having her nap after lunch might be the problem. Good Luck
I use to work at a inhome daycare and we took their morning naps away around their first birthday give or take a few months depending on the kid. I would recommend taking the morning nap away. Do it gradually. If she just can't take it let her sleep a 1/2 hour then move that to only letting her sleep 15min. until morning nap is GONE!
Then tradionally speaking if you go buy a daycare's schedule which all I've ever known do this. lunch and then naptime at 1pm til 3pm give or take.
Then you should have a happy little girl who's getting enuogh sleep evenly spaced apart. You don't want to do nap time any later or it will mess up bedtime. 3pm should be the latest they nap til. If you do nap time before 1pm your gonna have a child who will need to go to bed earlier too.
One more thing. If she's not tired or isn't napping well in the afternoon nap I've found it incredibly rewarding to take the kid(s) outside before lunchtime. just doing that wears them out enough to take a good nap in the afternoon. We took the daycare kids out in all weather, except heavy rain, and extremely cold conditions. If it was 20 degrees outside they went outside, we just bundeled them up. It's amazing out a little bit of outside time get's their jitters and cabin fever behavior down and they're more relaxed the rest of the day.
Whenever my daughter did not sleep long enough (or so it seemed to me) I found that if I put her down earlier it really helped. So, if she awoke too early in the morning, I would make her bedtime earlier. In your case, perhaps the afternoon nap should be more like a lunchtime nap, and adjust meals accordingly. Don't feel locked into lunch being at a certain time and see how early the right time seems to be, perhaps backing it up by 30 minutes for a couple of days and then, if necessary, 30 min earlier a few days later until it seems to work. I am so envious of her 12 hour sleeping at night! Enjoy that and good luck. R.
I work at a day care and I had a little girl who used to take forever to fall asleep only to wake up a short time later with at poopy diaper. We started to let her stay up for about a half hour after lunch and she would then have a poopy diaper. We would then put her down for nap and she would sleep two to three hour naps after that. Maybe you could give her lunch at 11:30 and then try to lay her down at 12:30. I think she may only be sleeping for a short amount time, because she probably has to poop after lunch! I hope this helps you!
A., welcome to the great world of "I don't wanna nap"...LOL I know exactly what you are going through. My son is almost two and he went through the same phase. Also, he had the poop thing goin' on too. What I started to do was wait until he pooped to put him down for his nap. After about a month of arguing and losing sleep (for all of us) that started to work. My first son went through it too. They just have to get used to transitioning into a new sleep schedule. Easier said than done, but just be patient and eventually Cora will find a new schedule that works for her. My son now gets up about 7:30 am and he naps from 12-1 until 3-4. Also, he tells me when he wants to go ni-ni. I can tell he's sleepy cuz he gets whiny and I say "Do you wanna go ni-ni?" and he will say "Yeah!!" then he gathers up his blanket and nuk and will go crawl into bed. She will find a pattern that works for her, it will just take some time. Good luck to you!
R.
