Naptime Help!

I have had a little guy for about a month now. He's been a struggle with the napping... I've posted on it before. So, I have him finally going to sleep with little protest. (he used to jump and scream for the entire time)

In a perfect world he would go down at noon with the rest of them and sleep for a min 2 hours.

Right now he's awake as early as 5:30 at home... not quite sleeping through the night either... he may wake up one or two times before that. Mom takes him into bed and he may or may not get another hour or hour and a half of sleep.

He needs 2 naps... that's non negotiable for this little one.

So, I've been putting him down around 8:30 for an hour and then again at noon and I'll usually get about 1 and a half hours out of him at noon. I leave him up for the remainder and he cries it out.

Here's my dilema... Mornings that he's up at 5:30, he's easy to get down at 8:30. But this morning he went back to bed until 7 so I didn't get him down until 9:15. I'll let him sleep until 10 I guess then get hiim up.

What does everyone else do to accomodate that morning nap?

I can't push my pm nap back to 1 (as much as I'd like to) Because of busses in the afternoon.

I also nap one on my main floor so if the little guy wakes up early I can't bring him down or he'll disrupt the others.

I'm really only set up for 1 nap... 12 - 2 or so. This little guys only 13 months old. How do I get him to 1 nap... and 1 long nap? I don't want him to be overtired by the time we get to noon, otherwise he may be beyond a good solid sleep.

Ugh...that sucks. I'm not sure you are going to be able to get rid of his morning nap so soon with his erratic sleep schedule. Is there a way you can talk to the parents about leaving him in his crib until a set time so that he learns to sleep until a better time of 7am or so?
Other than that, I think you will just have to play around with his morning naps. For the days that he's up early, let him sleep for an hour, on that days he's up later, maybe cut his nap shorter so that he'll go down with the rest of the kids in the afternoon?

Good luck!

It sounds like you really are doing the best thing. I do the powernap for morning nap with most kiddies starting at that age. It depends if they are big sleepers too. I have had kids sleep an hour in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon and the parents still tell me they sleep through the night so it really depends on the child. I would speak to the parent about keeping things consistant but at this age and with such an early rise (5:30!!!) What you gonna do...

I would cut the nap back to 30-45 minutes and maybe even bring it earlier. Tweak it a little and see how he does but if the morning powernap was a little earlier he might be a little more tired in the afternoon. It might simply be though that 1 and a half hours is just all his body clock wants in the afternoon but I personally wouldnt get him up till naptime is over so he can learn that it is quiet time to rest whether he is sleeping or not and he will also learn to self sooth. To help your routine, make sure his parents are following the same routine at home otherwise that can throw a wrench in the works. Good Luck and I hope this was helpful.

I know I also have a tendency to put the babies into bed out of the way that are sleeping up in playpens and then settle the older ones on the main floor. If he was at my house I would need to reverse that so that he goes down last no matter how inconvenient that is so that the others get a 10-15 minute start on nap - ie his shorter nap wake up time will now be closer to the others getting up.

As for the morning nap just adjusting the length of it based on the time he wakes at home is about all you can do with a limit of no later into bed than 9:15 and no later up than 10:00. As for the noon nap if he is last put into bed say closer to 12:30 then he should be getting up the same time as everyone else. He can be in an exersaucer or something similar ie confined while you deal with putting the older kids into bed then go and put him into bed.

I have a baby on two naps right now that needs a bottle before nap so that is how my afternoon goes in that the older kids go down and then I settle to feed the baby and put him into bed which gives me about an hour and a half till naptime is over. The older ones get up, diapers changed, etc. and sometimes start them on snack. Usually our noise of all this helps wake the baby and then he comes down and joins the group.

Then he is in his highchair eating snack while the older ones are done and getting shoes on for going outside. Then they go out (from kitchen door) and then baby is done and I can bring him out to the exersaucer as he isnt' walking nor will parents provide shoes for him.

I'm not used to having such a bad sleeper. I'm going to put him down last today. Normally I put him down first as he has been crying himself to sleep, but I think I have that under control now. So, i'll put the big ones to bed first then put the little guy upstairs.

I'm also going to shorten his am nap. He's at the highchair right now eating and he looks sleepy which is great! But I need more then the hour to hour and a half that he gives me. LOL

I hate taking 12 month olds! The first 3 - 6 months are rough with the older ones. I think this will be my last one. It just doesn't work for the type of dayhome that I want to offer. At least he's good hours, great parents and a really happy guy when he's awake.

thanks for the tips.

Playfelt .... Take the little guy out in his socks and I'm sure they will bring shoes after that. ; )