Has anyone found a way to extend naptime?

[Cleo]

Keeping the babies up til 7-7:30 may be too late if they are overtired and only napping an hour. And if she is waking crying like that it may be teething.

Ferbers book is where i read about if kids only can get 13 hrs ( or whatever your lo is sleeping) if they are sleeping too much at night they won't have enough day sleep. So if you can get them to change it even gradually by 10 minutes maybe you can get a longer daytime nap and then they won't be so cranky during the afternoon as their nap is more restorative.

If Jordan would only nap an hour in the day I would have her in bed by 6 that night. When thats happened she has still slept til 7 the next day.

Sorry Daisybee, can you clarify something for me? If I put L to bed earlier then won't she be getting MORE nighttime sleep? But the Ferber book said to cut down on night sleep? Just confused. Or is the putting to bed earlier just on days when she has a bad nap? We do that, but we gauge it on how she's doing after dinner. Sometimes she perks right up, so it may just be she didn't have a big enough snack (she's a bit of chow hound!), or she's happier because she then has DH to entertain her, but if she's still whiny after dinner we know she just needs to go to bed. She'd be in bed by 6:30/6:45 on those nights. We really couldn't do any earlier as DH isn't home till 5:30/6 and we eat at about 6.

 

[DaisyBee]

The thing is that not all kids have the same sleep problems or need the same amount of sleep. In his book is lots of different ideas that work for different problems. But it's trial and error to see what is the issue and what solution helps. Jordan typically naps 2-3 hrs in the day, if she has slept less than that then I put her to bed earlier that one night. Then she isn't overtired the next day and starts over. Kids can wake early if they are overtired.

I personally would be trying meds before nap to see if that helps, if it's teeth pain waking them early. Teething pain affects jordans naps more than her night sleep.

Also the idea of more wind down time before nap is a good one.

 

[Cleo]

Thanks Daisybee!

We used the teething excuse for a long time haha, but she has all her teeth now, so we don't know what her deal is!

 

[d_b]

Have you tried going back to 2 naps/day Spiffy? Some kids stay on 1 nap a day until they're 2.. maybe your LO would do better with an early (8:30ish) morning nap in addition to an afternoon (1pm) nap?

I'd also try moving bedtime to 6:30pm. what time is your LO up in the morning?

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Have you tried going back to 2 naps/day Spiffy? Some kids stay on 1 nap a day until they're 2.. maybe your LO would do better with an early (8:30ish) morning nap in addition to an afternoon (1pm) nap?

I'd also try moving bedtime to 6:30pm. what time is your LO up in the morning?

I've tried going back to two naps, but unfortunately she will refuse to take a second one, no matter how early she went down for her first.

She gets up around 7am, and funny that you should mention moving bedtime because just today I've actually decided to start putting her down for the night at 6:30pm for the next few days to see if it helps.

 

[Cleo]

Let me know how it goes spiffy!!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Let me know how it goes spiffy!!

So yesterday I put her down for her nap a half hour earlier, with some Tylenol, in case it's her teething pain making it hard to nap, and she slept for two hours! I can't remember the last time she slept that long! So either I did something right, or she was playing catch up on sleep. I guess we'll see how it goes today...

 

[wannabemomy37]

Let me know how it goes spiffy!!

So yesterday I put her down for her nap a half hour earlier, with some Tylenol, in case it's her teething pain making it hard to nap, and she slept for two hours! I can't remember the last time she slept that long! So either I did something right, or she was playing catch up on sleep. I guess we'll see how it goes today...

From working at a daycare, I've seen and dealt with a ton of naptime issues!
From her age she would be on the toddler schedule which is one nap/day after lunch - lunch at 12, nap 12:30-2:30 (2 hrs)
You mentioned you put her down at 12, I would attempt pushing it BACK so that she will be completely exhausted at that point. Just by 30 minutes, so that she doesn't get overtired, but keep her entertained for that 30 mins and she will be tired enough at 12:30.

Sounds like the Tylenol is what made her sleep longer, TBH. I honestly don't think it had anything to do with when you put her down.

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Let me know how it goes spiffy!!

So yesterday I put her down for her nap a half hour earlier, with some Tylenol, in case it's her teething pain making it hard to nap, and she slept for two hours! I can't remember the last time she slept that long! So either I did something right, or she was playing catch up on sleep. I guess we'll see how it goes today...

From working at a daycare, I've seen and dealt with a ton of naptime issues!
From her age she would be on the toddler schedule which is one nap/day after lunch - lunch at 12, nap 12:30-2:30 (2 hrs)
You mentioned you put her down at 12, I would attempt pushing it BACK so that she will be completely exhausted at that point. Just by 30 minutes, so that she doesn't get overtired, but keep her entertained for that 30 mins and she will be tired enough at 12:30.

Sounds like the Tylenol is what made her sleep longer, TBH. I honestly don't think it had anything to do with when you put her down.

Yeah, I think it was the Tylenol, too, because yesterday I put her down at the same time, and she only slept for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I used to put her down at 12:30pm everyday for her nap, but then she started getting so fussy that I moved it up to 12pm. Today I'll try putting her down at 12:30pm and see what happens.

 

[RachA]

At 12 months or so Esther would only nap for 45-60min. However somewhere between 18 & 24 months she increased this to around 2 hours.
One thing that I did was to lie down with her. I knew when she woke up after 45min that she was still tired but she just wouldn't go back to sleep so I started lying down with her on my bed and she'd sleep for another hour. I also slept so it was good did me too lol.
Then all of a sudden she stopped falling back to sleep - this was probably when she was around 3. But because she was used to having a 2 hour nap she struggled at only having 45 min so after a couple of weeks if short naps she started staying asleep in her bed for the full 2 hours.
She's nearly 4 now and is still napping for around 2 hours most days.

 

[Spiffynoodles]

At 12 months or so Esther would only nap for 45-60min. However somewhere between 18 & 24 months she increased this to around 2 hours.
One thing that I did was to lie down with her. I knew when she woke up after 45min that she was still tired but she just wouldn't go back to sleep so I started lying down with her on my bed and she'd sleep for another hour. I also slept so it was good did me too lol.
Then all of a sudden she stopped falling back to sleep - this was probably when she was around 3. But because she was used to having a 2 hour nap she struggled at only having 45 min so after a couple of weeks if short naps she started staying asleep in her bed for the full 2 hours.
She's nearly 4 now and is still napping for around 2 hours most days.

That's awesome! Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to lay down with DD and sleep with her, since baby number two is due in about a month.

 

[RachA]

You may find that if she could get into the habit of doing it now then by the time baby is here she may already be sleeping longer.