Finally STTN, but now what to do about naps?

[jessmke]

I can't believe the change in Isla, she went from waking 6-8 times every night to sleeping straight through. It literally happened overnight. It was like a switch flipped in her brain or something. I am very grateful to finally be getting sleep, but I'm stuck with what to do for her naps now. She sleeps at least 13 hrs at night, and in the last few weeks she has had some 15 hrs nights. If she sleeps 14-15 hrs at night that doesn't leave enough time in the day for 2 naps (unless we push bedtime much later), but she can't quite cope with only 1 nap. I was hoping that if she only had 1 nap it would be longer than normal and would help get her through to bedtime but this hasn't happened. Our schedule has been totally thrown out of whack where she sometimes has two naps and is happy during the day, and then sometimes only has one nap and is a total gremlin all day. Do I start waking her up in the morning at the same time each day so we can have some semblance of a schedule, or do I let her sleep as long as she wants and then just try to make the day work however I can?

Sometimes when she has a 15 hr night she will wake around 7/8 am and have a feed and then go back to sleep, should I start getting her up if she does this rather than letting her go back to bed? I have to admit that I enjoy lying in after a year of being sleep deprived so I have been enjoying her long sleeps!

 

[Taurus8484]

Both my boys at that age routine was

7am get them up even if still asleep
10.00am nap
2.00pm nap
7pm bed

 

[donnarobinson]

I'd probably get her up if you want to keep a routine but ino how tempting letting them sleep is esp after no sleep lol x

 

[Twag]

Yay for sleep I long for this day

I would say I would to wake her up but I can fully understand enjoying the lay ins

 

[crownest]

Wait a week enjoy the lie ins and then start to wake her. I've started waking my DS at 8

 

[minties]

I would wake her at a set time
so she can fit her naps in. I have to do that with Emma already!

Naps are tricky at that age anyway as they seem to start resisting them even though they aren't ready to drop to 1 nap.

 

[MindUtopia]

I would probably generally try to get up at the same time every day. 7-8am sounds amazing! I think around that time we were getting up about 5-6:30am every day (and that was with several wake ups a night still). Normally, I would say just go with it and a routine doesn't matter too much, but if it's screwing things up later, I'd try to get up about the same time every day give or take an hour or so. It doesn't have to be perfect, but just enough so she can squeeze in the extra nap if that works (and then you lie down and rest too during her naps if you need to). It's possible that she's trying to drop the second nap as some babies do around 12 months and eventually it will all even itself out, but if it makes it easier to keep it for now I'd do it.

 

[jessmke]

Thanks guys, I figured this would be the consensus I just needed other people to tell me I need to wake her up in the morning. Two nights a week I work until midnight and don't get to bed until 1 am, and then have to get up with her in the morning so I have been taking advantage of her sleeping in, but missing her second nap just makes our day miserable so I need to stop doing that. After so long of not sleeping it just goes against all my instincts to wake her when she is sleeping, but it is really for her own good. I don't really care about having a strict schedule where wake ups and naps happen at exactly the same time every day, I just need to make sure she gets her two naps so we are both happy during the day. If that means no more sleeping in until 10 am then so be it!

 

[Starlight32]

My daughter usually does 3 naps but usually only does 2 when she sleeps past 6 on the rare occasion. I wake her up by 6 on days I work though so I do let her sleep in when she can. It doesn't happen often (she usually wakes between 4-6am on her own) but if she only does 2 naps, bedtime has to be pushed up! I prefer early bedtime instead of getting a third nap with a late bedtime, so I try to avoid any naps going past 4 (I aim to cut them off at 3 but sometimes it's impossible).