Nap / Bedtime Sleep Schedules

Tiffany,
My youngest is two and recently quit napping. When he did nap though, we found it was usually best to put him down for his first nap around 10 a.m. and then we'd put him down for his afternoon nap around 2 p.m. That worked well for him. Then we'd put him to bed around 7 p.m or 8p.m. depending on what was going on that day. Hope this helps!
S.

You've gotten a lot of good advice. Definitely 2 naps, some say they grow out of that at 18 months, with mine it was more like 13-14 months for both of them. I think you will see an improvement in his naps and his nighttime sleep. God bless.

If the crip thing is working at night bot not during the day, check the amount of light in his room. If its not super dark, try putting some heavy coverings over the windows to see if that helps. What I had to do for my youngest. Hope this helps :}

Tiffany,
My husband and I used the book "On Becoming Baby Wise" and put our now three year old on a great schedule. It takes a few days to adjust, but it was a life saver. I give it at every baby shower and so far, it has worked for everyone I have given it to.
Good Luck.
K.

I have an 8 1/2 month old boy. I usually let him stay up 1 1/2 hours from when he first wakes up(usually around 6-7 am). I feed him every 3 hours. So let's say he wakes up around 6:30 am. I will feed him a 5oz bottle after I have changed and dressed him. At 8 am I will put him down for his 1st nap. If he sleeps past 9:30(next feeding time), I let him sleep. Once he wakes up from his 1st nap, I change and feed him and start the 1 1/2 hours staying up. I can usually get 2-3 naps a day from him. I wasn't sure at first if I could get him on some sort of schedule when he was 2 months old. However, I kept after it and he and I got into a routine of sorts. I did this with his older brother(3 yrs old) and it worked great. I hope this helps.

My Little girl is alittle over a year old. Our schedules is she wakes up around 6-6:30 eats about 7 then, we get my other two children dressed for school and take them she takes a nap between 10 -10:30 sleeps till about 12:30 then she is up and eats lunch around one. Then we play or she plays. Then about 4:30ish she takes maybe a 30min to an hr nap. Then she is ready for bed around 8:30 - 9;00. That is our daily schedule and once he gets the hang of a schedule you will be good to go. Elly (my daughter is like clock work) haha and if she cant take those naps at those times everyone knows. LOL Good luck girl.....

Hi I would check with the nurse at your pedtrician and see how much sleep and naps that a 9 mo. needs. Then look at your schedule and where you would like to see him take a nap. Try not to change your routine, eg. if you go to the library every tues. at ten do it. Ideally, your life and schedules should come first and his work into yours.
My 9 month is easy to put down but she takes a morning and afternoon nap. She is up by 6 am and plays , has breakfast cereal and bottle, and about 10 she is full dry and sleepy. I give her a bottle and a silky blanket and lay her down in her crib with quiet music playing. Sommetimes she fusses but usually she will go on to sleep. Yes I know that this is EASy and I appreciate it. MY older son is ADD and when he was little he didnt nap. I had to wait until he was so tired that he would fall asleep in the highchair or on the floor. I would cover him up wherever he fell asleep. I found any repetitive action would help to get him to sleep at bedtime being careful not to over stimulate him. For ex. if I tried to sing to him. he got all excited and wanted to play. Patting his botton or back was better.Hope this is helpful. You nap whenever your child does or do something relaxing for you even if it is for a few minutes.

dd woke at 7 or so and had a bottle, ate breakfast about 9, nap from 10 to 11, lunch at 12 with a bottle, bottle at 3 for nap time and nap from 3-430, then up until bedtime at 9

Each child is different and will have a different schedule. My daughter is 10 months and we have just found a schedule for her. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 pm at night. She wakes up between 6:00 and 6:30. She takes a bottle plays and eats breakfast around 7:30am. Then she is totally wiped out at 9:30 so that is nap time. She wakes between 10:30 and 11:00am. She eats lunch at 11:30 and stays up until 1:30pm, then it is nap time. This is her long nap. She will stay down for two hours. So she is up around 3:30. We play and the she eats around 5:30pm. Takes a bath and in bed again by 7:30 or 8:00. We have been working on a schedule that would fit her for awhile. My other daughter goes to pre-k at 12:30-3:30. So I had to get my youngest on a schedule that worked around those hours. It is tough but once you find one you will love it.

By 9 mo old most have settled into a two nap routine. The morning nap is usually surprisingly early. Like 9 or 9:30 and usually only an hour or so. A second nap around 1:00 might last a little longer. Sometimes a short evening nap at 5 or 6 just can't be avoided - but it is probably best to be phasing this out for an easier bedtime.

Watch her signs for sleepiness - rubbing eyes, fussing, The more you put her down at the same time the easier it will become to get her down at the same time. It will become a little easier to work from home, but it will always be a challenge.

This was my 9 month old's nap and sleep schedule...wake up and have breakfast at 9 AM, play, snack then nap 11-1, wake up and have lunch at 1 PM, play, snack then nap 3:30-5 PM or so, wake up and have dinner at 5 or 5:30 or 6 PM, play, snack then go to bed 9 PM, and doesn't wake up again til 9 AM the next morning. During the day she is awake around 2 hours at a time between naps except for the evening which is a longer stretch, and the naps are around 2 hours (sometimes 1.5 hours, sometimes 2.5 hours). When she was younger I had always heard they should be awake during the day for only two hours between naps, and that is pretty much what she has done. She set her own schedule from the beginning and I just followed her cues, and it has been super-consistent for a long time now. She is 14 months and still has the same schedule, although I think soon she will want to give up her morning nap and just have one per day. It seems to me like she sleeps an awful lot, but I guess they need it. I think the best advice is to follow your baby's cues as to when he is tired instead of trying to create an arbitrary schedule. And, when he gets a little older (1 +), he will probably stay in his crib and play and just have quiet time sometimes, even if he doesn't actually sleep, but it does give him a rest and also gives you a chance to get things done. One last trick, I always give mine a snack and offer her a drink right before naptime so she will not be hungry or thirsty and therefore she'll be more likely to fall asleep and stay asleep for awhile.

If I remember correctly, Elizabeth Pantley's chart in her book, No-Cry Sleep Solution, said that 9-month olds usually need 2 naps: one in the mid-late morning and one around mid-afternoon. But you might want to check. I really need to check it out from the library again.

I have the same issue, but I often just nap with my daughter (or read a book for a while till she's really out), and this way I can stay up later and work on stuff at night. Try it! They say even adults should nap, anyway :) And it helps them to sleep better.

Get that book for some great advice on any sleep issue you can think of (or that your son can come up with ;)

L.

Hi Tiffany, I have 12 month old twins and I struggled with their schedules for a long time. I was determined, however, and now we have it pretty much worked out.

Around 9 months, right where you are now, we started eating more regular meals and taking regularly scheduled naps. Here's how our house works, and by now it is pretty much like clockwork:

6:30 get up and have bottles
7:45-8:00 eat breakfast
8:30 nap (they sleep about 1 - 1 1/2 hours)
10:45 bottles
12:00 lunch
1:15 juice cups and learning video
1:45 nap
3:30 milk cup (we're beginning weaning off bottles here)
5:00 dinner
5:45 bath
6:15 bottles
6:45 books
7:00 bed

It may sound like boot camp but it really works for us. All times are flexible at least 15 min each way depending on how the day is going. And there is room for variation. I often take them out after their morning nap and we do bottles and lunch at the mall or a friend' house. In the afternoon we can run errands or go for an early dinner somewhere. I have learned, though, that morning and afternoon naps need to be within 15-30 min of the same time every day for us. Otherwise the kids get cranky. It can feel like groundhogs day sometimes but I like it better than things feeling chaotic. And I really like knowing I have 2-3 hours in the day I can count on to myself.

It was a bumpy road. I started putting them in their cribs awake for naps at 7 months (night time was easier for us too) and it took a LONG time for them to go to sleep without tears (especially my son). I hated it. They cried, I cried. But I knew they needed the sleep and they would eventually sleep better this way than whenever they happened to fall asleep in a swing. I found doing the same thing every day before naps helped them know it was coming. For us, playing in their room before morning nap and juice and a video before afternoon nap. I also play the same background noise cd for them every time I put them down. I have learned for my family the "routine, routine, routine" mantra really works.

I hope this helps. It's so much easier to go through the day knowing an hour and half of peace is just around the corner.

D.

All 3 of my kids took 2 naps a day until they were about 15-18 months old (when they went down to one long afternoon nap). They were generally sometime around 10 or 10:30 in the morning and about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Both naps lasted about an hour and a half to two hours. If you've already "trained" your child to go to sleep on their own by putting them down partially awake at night, it shouldn't take long to establish a normal napping routine. Again, put him down awake but sleepy. During the day it seemed important for my kids to go down before they got completely exhausted. It seemed, for us, like the kids would get more and more cranked up the tired-er (is that a word??) they got. So pay attention to when he begins to get cranky or shows other signs that he is tired and move him to the bed. We also made sure we had at least a few minutes settle down before the nap. Maybe that means reading a book together or snuggling for a few minutes in a quiet darkened room. Keeping the room dark during the day also seemed to help. I will encourage you by saying that all 3 of my kids had very different personalities and natural sleep patterns. But, I was able to establish very similar routines for all of them including regular napping. They came to think of their beds as a positive place where they could get refreshed. All of them would ASK for naps by the time they were two or three. And, we continued a nap or quiet time right up until they entered school. It is a great time for not only the kids to recharge, but also their mommy!

mine were both down to one nap a day at nine months, if not sooner, and went to bed arount 8. the nap was around 1230, and lasted one to two hours.

I have a 9 month old daughter. She wakes up around 7am and takes a nap about 9am - 11am. Then she is ready for her next nap around 2:30pm or 3pm and sleeps for about 2 hours. She usually goes to bed between 8:30pm and 9:30pm and sleeps through the night. I read the book "Baby Wise Giving your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep" by Gary Ezzo, M.A. and Robert Bucknam, M.D. This book helped me get my daughter on a schedule for not only eating and sleeping at night but also for naps and play time, and they aren't rigid schedules to follow. Good luck!