Ya, I know, kick me now. I would if I was you.
However, the last few weeks have been…WEIRD. For the past five months or so Stella was pretty consistently sleeping 8pm-7am with 2 naps of about 1-1.5 hrs each. That’s 13-14 hrs of sleep per day — quite typical and normal for a 13 month old.
SHIT, I just realized as I typed that sentence that it’s today that she’s 13 months old. EEK! Time flies.
At any rate, lately her bedtime has been shifted back an hour from time to time because she just is NOT tired at 8pm. Why, you ask? Well, her daytime naps have gone to shit at daycare and Nana’s house (maybe 30 min in the morning and 30min-1hr in the afternoon), but at our house, she has been sleeping 3 hrs in the morning (9-12) and 2 in the afternoon (3-5). That is a LOT of sleep. We’re talking 15-16 hrs/day.
What in the world?
A few mornings she has woken up early, but often I’ve had to wake HER up at 7:30 to get her ready for daycare. See exhibit A below.
Photo bomb by Chief’s nose. 🙂
Yeah, the kid is just zonked! She seems to be sleeping great – I can literally set her in her crib and walk away now, and 90% of the time she talks herself happily to sleep. But should I be concerned? Is it just due to a growth spurt or something? How much did your kid sleep at this age? How did you transition to one nap in early afternoon so that the late afternoon nap didn’t screw with bedtime? At what age did you make the transition?
*ETA – I really don’t know if she’s ready to drop to 1 nap, b/c child is CRANKY if she isn’t down by 10 at the latest for a morning nap. I can’t imagine forcing her to stay awake by any means. I dunno… I just think it’s weird that she’s suddenly sleeping so much more. Feel free to slap me if I’m being silly worrying about her sleeping too much. *sigh*
*ETA#2 – She is at daycare 2x/wk and Nana’s 1x/wk, so that means 4x/week she is sleeping a TON at home (my SIL watches her at our house and Wed/Sat/Sun I’m home with her) and 3x/wk not so much. Nana waits too long to put her down, I can guarantee it, and and daycare I think it’s a combo of (1) she doesn’t want to miss out on anything, and (2) I think the daycare provider kinda wants her on the toddler 1x/day nap schedule so the morning nap ends up being only 30 min for whatever reason. IMO.
No advice to offer here…but I’m anxiously awaiting what others have to say. Raegan goes down at 8PM generally without too much fuss and usually sleeps til 8AM with 2 naps a day 1.5-2 hours each. That makes her 14-16 hours of sleep a day. She’s always done this, except of course when she nap strikes or if she’s too stimulated to go to sleep right at 8 PM. But on your average day she does sleep that much. I wasn’t concerned, but wonder if now I should be.
I love the photo bomb of Chief’s nose…I was staring at it for a minute before I realized what it was and then read the caption…M&M do this to Raegan all the time. Sometimes their tongues can reach her and they lick her making her giggle hysterically!
My daughter who is 15 1/2 months old has never needed as much sleep as others her age. She hates naps and does just fine with very little sleep during the day. Other than as a newborn she has only ever really napped once a day, once in a great while if she gets super tired she will nap twice, but that is it. I’m a stay at home mom, so I don’t force a strict schedule, its kind of up to her on when to take a nap, but I do try to ensure she takes one unless we are out for the day since she gets very irritable later in the day without one. Normally my girl takes one anywhere between 11:30am and 1pm, and usually only sleeps for about an hour max, sometimes we’re lucky for 20-30 min. Rarely it will be for 2 hours. Bedtime hasn’t been an issue with her, she gets put in bed around 8pm, sometimes a bit later and she normally sleeps till around 8am, sometimes gets up a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later. She’s been a good baby in that regards and was sleeping through the night once she hit about 6 weeks old. But for a mid day nap, you might try one between 11 and 2 pm, seems to be a good time and it doesn’t interfere with bedtime at all. I know if we are out shopping during the day and she takes a nap around 3-4pm that makes her not want to go to bed on time, so the mid day nap does work better for bedtime.
Isn’t she really walking around now? I think you mentioned she’s now in full on walking mode. I’ve read that big milestones can do either of the extremes with sleep. For example, some people say that walking keeps their kids up at night because their brain is going going going from learning the new task, but others say it’s the opposite and all the extra activity zonks them out. Maybe it’s that?
And I know you said transitioning to one nap doesn’t seem likely, but Tay was about 13 months when she made her transition. We started by giving her lunch early (10:30am) and then putting her down right after lunch. Now she eats lunch around 11/11:30 and doesn’t go down for her one nap until after noon.
Regardless – sleep is a good thing! Yay, mama!
Ok, I feel like I have a few things to offer now that we’ve gotten Chloe’s sleep back under control. She transitioned herself really to one nap a day around 15 months. It just sort of happened. Rather than taking two shorter naps a day, having to wake her up just so she can get another nap in later seemed silly, now she averages one nap that lasts between 2 and 3 hours. Structuring her daytime routine helps with that. She sleeps from 9-9 (has always slept 12 hours at night at least) and with either two short naps a day or one longer nap a day she averages close to 15 hours. Her one longer nap is later in the day though, usually from 2-4 ish. If we go out somewhere in the morning she’s usually fine, but there have been a few days we’ve been home all day that come 1:00 she seems tired so we put her down then. I think it’s fairly normal for the child to kind of “tell” you when they are ready to make the transition. I don’t know, maybe I’m making that up. 🙂 If you want to keep her at two naps a day, can you wake her up from her morning nap at home so she doesn’t sleep so long and throw her bed time off? I agree with Shannon that now that she’s walking, she’s probably exerting more energy and just wearing herself out. Good problem to have though, a kid who sleeps TOO much!
Mira doesn’t get anywhere near that much sleep, but I don’t think I’d worry if I was you. I worry about too little sleep! We had to transition Mira to one nap because of her daycare schedule, but she’d ideally still be on two naps (and is on the weekend) at 14 months. We find that a late afternoon nap really screws with bedtime, and two naps are only possible if the first is short and early. I wouldn’t worry about a late bedtime if she’s getting so much sleep! She’s learning a lot these days!
Okay, that wasn’t coherent. I meant to say, yes, a late afternoon nap screws with bedtime, but most babies aren’t ready for one nap at 13 months and it doesn’t sound like Stella is. I wouldn’t worry about the laterish bedtime if she’s getting a good amount of sleep.
My guy was still taking 2 naps at her age. We weaned him to one nap a day once he started not taking 2 good naps. I would think with her new mobility she is more tired and she may be catching up on sleep when home with you if not sleeping well at daycare. G does this on the weekend when home with us. He takes a much longer nap with us then he does at daycare. Maybe you have, but I would ask the daycare if she’s just not sleeping or is she being interrupted by other children. We’ve gone through both scenarios. I’m a babywise mom and used this website to help me. I don’t think you do Babywise, but it has other information on it not related I find useful.
http://www.babywisemom.com/2008/10/dropping-morning-nap-from-2-to-1-naps.html
Hmmm. I feel like HGB did something similar around this time. He started taking really long afternoon naps (maybe 2-3 hours) but the morning nap shortened. On weekends, he sleeps until 7:30 but he wakes up with BJB on weekdays around 6:30. He goes to bed at 7:30 sharp every night and has since about 8 months.
Between 13-16ish months, the morning nap was hit or miss. I started trying to keep him up as long as possible, then putting him down and just letting him sleep, so there was one big block in the middle of the day. I didn’t worry about him “missing lunch” but would load him up on morning and afternoon snacks. (Note: This is right around when he weaned himself too. Not sure if it matters, but it’s noteworthy.) Eventually, the one nap shifted later and later. Courtney helped me get on a schedule that works well now, which is lunch by 11:30 and down for nap by 12:30. These days he sleeps until 2 or 2:30, which is only 1.5-2 hours, but it seems to be okay.
I miss the two naps a day though. I really, really do! Happy 13 months Stella!!!!
My little guy is almost 13 months old and I, too, wondered if he was sleeping too much lately. He goes down around 7:30 each night and can sleep till 7. On weekdays we wake him at 6:15 to get ready for daycare. During the day, he takes 3 naps. 9-10 am, 1-2pm and a short one around 4:30 till around 5. Sometimes these naps go longer. I think last week he slept from 9-11!
He is so close to walking so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it either.
I don’t think your child is sleeping too much, just because his naps are so short (that’s similar to what Stella’s nap schedule was around 6-8 months when she was taking 3 naps). It still sounds like only 13-14 hrs total. This site helps me – http://www.troublesometots.com/baby-sleep-what-is–normal/
D didn’t transition to one nap till 17 months and I knew she was ready because she just wasn’t tired and cranky in the morning any more. She (at 20 months now) is setting records for sleep too – 15 hours last night – and we have chalked it up to growing and maybe fighting something off, like a cold.
We were forced by daycare to transition to one nap at 13 months. It was a little too early for E to make that switch in our opinion (she would often fall asleep at the daycare lunch table) but after a month or two, she settled in nicely. On an ideal sleeping weekday, E (now 17 months) sleeps from 7:30p-6:30a and naps from 12-2:30p. On the weekends, she pretty much refuses to nap because Mom and Dad are SO MUCH FUN!!
I can say with almost 100% certainty that this is due to one of two things (or a combo of both) – growth spurt and/or teething. Just go with it and enjoy it!
The transition to one nap a day should be initiated by her. If she’s not ready, she’s not ready. She’ll resist the morning nap when she’s ready. We let Matthew make that call and it was a very smooth transition. His nap usually starts around 12:40 and lasts at least 3 hours these days, so he’s sleeping at least 14 hours a day.
No such thing as too much sleep, in my opinion! And she’s probably making up for her short naps when she’s not at home (at daycare, IL’s, etc). I would try to make up for it too, if I were her 😉
You’ll know when she’s ready for one nap only. When Gracie was 13 months, she went down to one nap because every day for almost a month, I’d put her down for her morning nap, and she just wouldn’t go to sleep. She wouldn’t cry or fuss or anything, she’d just play in her for like half an hour while I showered. After that long, I realized she just wasn’t going to take a morning nap anymore and switched her afternoon nap (that had been at like 2) to noon to kind make up the difference. I intended that to be a short lived transition, but she still naps around noon more than a year later haha.
I don’t really have advice on any of this because I’m not there yet but it was great reading everyone else’s comments. I would say though that I really don’t think it is anything to worry about. I am sure she is just going through some changes whether it be growth, developmental milestones or teeth. I am sure she’ll be back into a slightly lower sleep time soon. Enjoy it while you have it, I say!!! 🙂 (Alidia usually sleeps about 14 hours a day but sometimes 15-16 if she has a 5:30am feed. 7pm to 5:30am (for 10-15 minute feed) to 8:30am then 2 1/2 hours of naps in the day. And there is never really any off reason for this. Just a different schedule that still works for her.)
And also, I was reading a bit about the nap transition last week while Alidia had some nap striking but it really doesn’t sound like Stella is ready to drop one in my opinion, as she is still really wanting a nap by 10am each day. No need to force her to change if she is still enjoying two naps everyday!
You’ve heard it all it looks like, but I’ll throw in that my girls easily slept 15-16 hrs/day at that age. If its not her normal, I’d vote growth spurt. At 15 mo we did a semi-transition to one nap (some days they’d take one nap, most days they still took two). We just made the full transition to one nap at 18 mo. Sounds like Stella’s doing great in the sleep department!
Sofia dropped her morning nap at just past a year because of the daycare schedule. On the weekends she’d still nap twice sometimes until she dropped it on her own – maybe 14 months or so? Ever since we got her sleep in order (or she got her sleep in order since I don’t think we added much…) she’s been a ridiculous sleeper. Now at 18.5 months she STILL sleeps 14-15 hours/day. Last night she was tired after a so-so (1.5 hour) nap at daycare so i put her to bed early at just past 7pm. We had to wake her up at 8am this morning. We typically have to wake her up, in fact, and she’ll do 12.5-13 hours each night plus a 2-hour nap at daycare. On the weekends we obviously let her sleep in. This past weekend we put her to bed sunday at 8pm and she slept until 9:45am on Monday morning!!!
All that to say, that I think it’s pretty normal in some kids. Our girls are just sleepers! I sometimes lament the fact that she clearly needs a lot of sleep because I’d love to not have to put her to bed so damn early. But I hate having to wake her up in the mornings because it feels “wrong!!” 😉
I can’t back this up but it seems like most kids sleep crappy at daycare (I only hear from tired people so I never hear from the “wow our baby is a champion daycare sleeper!” peeps). Yours is probably unique in that she’s making it up at other times which is …
AWE. SOME.
If it were me I would enjoy those long chunky naps while you get them. Because as with everything else, it’ll be temporary. My almost 4 YO has finally dropped his afternoon nap (NOOOOO!!!!) and I’m still pretty chuffed about the loss of free time 🙁
I’d say growth spurt–enjoy it while it lasts. Alice sleeps more now than ever too!
Interesting to compare schedules since our babies are like 48 hours apart but clearly I got the non-sleeper! I wouldn’t think teeth coming through but more that she is making up for missed sleep on the other days. We are still with 2 naps, although they last anywhere from 30 min- hour and that’s it. I also think the increased activity messes with their napping and schedules. Who knows?! Just when you think you have something figured out… these baby toddlers surprise us:]
I have read your blog for a while, but I am a first time commenter! I have a 22 month old. I knew it was time to transition into 1 nap when he didn’t want to go down for the 2nd. He used to nap at 9:00 and like 2:00. But when he didn’t want to go down at 2:00, I knew we had to start moving that 9:00 nap back. It took a while, probably a few weeks. I gradually moved it from 9:00 to 9:30 for a few days. Then 10:00. It was a struggle to push it back, he was still tired mid-morning. He now naps about 11:30/12 for about 2.5-3 hours. I don’t think she is ready yet, since she still likes that 2nd nap. That is my two cents! Good luck.
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