Changing the nap routine
This week we are trying out a change in Arthur’s routine. We are going to test it out for a couple of weeks and see how it goes!
Arthur is almost 11 months now. His bed time is around 6:30pm and he goes to sleep really well but for around 2 months now he has been waking up between 4-5am most days and won’t go back to sleep. He has been having 2 naps a day which recently have been getting shorter, around 45 minutes at a time. This reduced from anything from 1 to up to 3 hours!
We have tried putting him to bed later and it has made no impact on his wake up times.
The other day Arthur had his first sleep and slept for around an hour. He then wouldn’t go to sleep in the afternoon so we kept him up and put him to bed at his usual time. He slept until 6! So we have decided that we are going to try changing the nap routine to one nap a day and see how he gets on.
Interestingly he has still been waking up after 45 mins-1 hour but if we lay him back down he then goes back off for another hour. To me it seems to make more sense that he has one really good sleep a day rather than 2 not so good ones. It also has an added bonus for me of a good chunk of time to get lots of stuff done!
Today we are on our 4th day. Its going pretty well. He has been waking up at half 5 which is still not great but it is a big improvement on 4am!
We have been getting Arthur to 10am and by that time he’s really tired so he goes to sleep in seconds. He’s then getting up around 12 and then going until bed time at 6:30. It’s not perfect right now because clearly he is really tired by nap time and bed time but I’m hoping that it will then mean that he starts sleeping until later in the morning. We may be at a phase where 2 naps are just that little too much but 1 is not quite enough!
This may be a bit of a dead end and a lot of wishful thinking on my part but I guess its worth a try!!
Have you tried anything similar to this? Did you have any luck? Or is this a no hoper?!
With my son, he sort of naturally dropped his second nap, when he was a little older than Arthur. He now has 1 nap, and it can start at any time from 10am until 1pm, depending on how tired he looks or what we have planned for that day. He likes his naps! I wish you luck with it, as it sounds like you are making progress x
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Thank you!! I feel like we have made a little progress so fingers crossed we are going I the rift direction! Would have loved to keep more naps in the day but I think it’s better for all of us this way! X
We switched both girls over to one big morning nap aroud the ten month stage. My 2y3m old has three or four proper cot naps per week now, and will usually have two solid hours. She also goes to bed around 6:30. Sounds like you’re on the right road 🙂 #sharewithme
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Ooo okay, sounds like we’ve done a very similar thing then!! Glad it worked for you, fingers crossed for me (and Arthur) haha xx
It’s such a tricky stage moving to one nap. I’m not looking forward to my Arthur dropping one but I’m sure the time will come soon. My little girl dropped to one nap at about a year and after a while it moved to straight after lunch so was more central in the day. It worked for her. Hope he settles into the new routine soon for you and you get a few later morning’s.
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Thanks lovely! After lunch would be a much nicer time for sleep!!
i guess its realy good for you as you will have more time for yourself and do these important things
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Glad you found something that works. He just wants to spend more time in his fabulous surroundings! xx
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Haha yes maybe that’s what it is!!! Xx
My H is a hopeless sleeper, nothing ever seems to work with him unfortunately. I look forward to seeing how lovely little Arthur adapts though 🙂 xxx #sharewithme
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Aw man it’s so difficult isn’t it! I’m not sure of our chances but I’ll keep you updated 🙂 xxx
Our Little Man naps randomly – There is no routine to it. He’ll nap at some point in the morning and some point in the afternoon for anything from 30mins to 2 hours! His sleep at night is terrible still too. I have no advice 🙁 Hope it helps though! x
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I’m pleased it’s not just me that was having unpredictable naps!!! I had to try and make a change since he kept waking up grumpy from his nap as he’d not had enough!! Hope LM starts sleeping better at night soon!! X
You sound like you are doing great hunny. I am huge on sleep routines I have schedule fed and nap and sleep trained both of my kids literally from the moment they were born. Yup, nap room first day. I find at 11-12 months it’s time to cut morning naps out so you don’t start getting an early riser. Gina Ford has a lot of advice on early risers if cutting out the morning nap doesn’t work. But by this time they should easily be able to stay awake in the morning and have one BIG nap in the midday. It will take about a week and a half for their bodies to really adjust I have found. This is only my own opinion not science. And every child is different. But it worked for both my kids. And they both have never woke up early, I wake them up both each morning at 7:30 and I wake them both up from their naps so it seems to work for us. I put them to nap from 12-2 then bed time at 7. I know a friend that has a 11 month and does 11-1 nap. You can alter it to whatever suits you is the beauty of it. As long as it’s a 2 to 2 1/2 hour midday nap it should really help Arthur sleep longer in the mornings. Also check lighting its summer now is the brighter mornings creeping in his room and waking him up earlier? Although where you live it’s probably always brighter mornings hahaha . I think you are doing right by cutting out the morning nap and just having one big one. I am cutting Missy Moo’s out in two weeks when she is 11 months just like i did with Buba. Best of luck anyways you are doing amazing and sound like your natural instincts are all the ones they advice in the sleeping books anyway so follow your gut hunny. Arthur will adjust quickly. It’s just training their bodies like we do our own bodies. Thank you so much for linking to Share With Me #sharewithme
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Thank you so so much for taking the time to write all that Jenny. This has given me lots of confidence with what I’m doing!! I’ll keep you updated 🙂 xx
I remember this so clearly. My little man was always a bit of a cat napper. He’d have 45 mins in the morning and a similar amount of time later on. People would talk to me about these infamous 2 hour naps and i had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn’t until O was over 1 he started to just have one big nap and he will now have an hour and a half to 2 hours. Although, I fear naps may be coming to an end in the not to distant future 🙁 Xx
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It seems it’s not too uncommon after all!! I might be trying this a little early as a few people have said that the morning nap was dropped at around a year!! I hope little O holds in to his nap a little longer for you, I can’t imagine a nap-less life yet!!! Xx
Bella also started waking early a while ago and I am lucky enough to be working for a sleep consultant so I asked her advice. She recommended cutting her nap (by then, at 18 months old) she was only having one nap a day, around 3 hours) down a little. I did that so that she has between 1.5 and 2 hours and she sleeps a lot better at night now. If she wakes pre 6am I will lie her back down again and some mornings its 7am before she gets up.
Hope it all works out for you!
x x x
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Thanks so much for your comment!! As awful as it sounds its good to hear that its not just us thats had this issue 🙂 I’m hoping things will all settle out soon, he’s grumpy because he’s tired so fingers crossed he will start sleeping longer!!! Glad it worked out well for Bella! xxx
Little 2 went down to one nap at 10 months, Little 1 was a bit older around 12 months, there is usually that annoying tricky phase where they adjust and are tired missing the morning nap but you are doing the right thing, you will find the time for nap that suits Arthur in a week or two, as he gets older you might be able to push it back to around lunchtime. #sharewithme
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