I'm trying to figure out how to make my daughter take an afternoon nap. Right now, during the week anyway, she sleeps at daycare from around 10-1:00- not sure how consistent that is but I'm saying that is the average. We currently do not put her down for an afternoon nap, and she goes to bed around 6:30-7:00. I'm wondering if I give her an afternoon nap, would that extend the time she is awake in the evening so I could put her to bed about 7:30 or 8:00? I'm trying to get the sweetie to sleep through the night and I'm thinking if I put her down later she might sleep longer. I tried laying her down this afternoon at 4:20, it is now 4:40, and I am just about ready to go up and get her because she is screaming from her crib :-(
She has never really taken an afternoon nap, mostly because we have had her in daycare since she was 2 months old- so a schedule was not really formed up until that point... I'm also not too sure how she sleeps at daycare from 10-1, because on the weekends she cat naps throughout the day- totally different story.... weird. Maybe I should sit down and really figure it out with my daycare provider tomorrow... but I need to make sure I'm being a good mommy and giving my gal enough sleep for her growing body!
4 comments:
Both my kids have followed the same schedule.
Up around 6:30 or 7 and down for a nap 2 hours later. That's always around 9am, I give Callie a bottle and she's down until 10:45 (it was longer when she was A's age).
Then it's crutial that I notice when she wakes up as she then sleeps 2.5 hours after she gets up again, for the most part around 1. She is down until about 2:30.
Then bedtime is between 6 and 6:30, sleeps until 5am, has a bottle and down until 6:30 or 7.
The most important thing is that the better they sleep in the day, they better they sleep at night. The more consistant you can be in forming a nap routine, the quicker she will sleep longer. It's like when you get up at the same time for work how on the weekends, you still wake up around then - your body is trained.
Having an early bedtime is awesome, I'm so glad you are doing that- it will make all the difference when she is older as she will stick with that bedtime, give or take a little. Morgan still goes to bed at 7:30 and is up around 6:30 (but not allowed to call us until his baseball nightlight on a timer goes on at 6:45)
Most babies her age only can last about 2 - 2.5 hours awake and then they need to go down again. At about a year, they go down to one long nap around 12 or 1 and it's wonderful as it's like 3 hours!
If you put the work in to get her on a good sleep schedule, you will thank yourself a million times down the road. I have friends that are still struggling to get their kids in bed, their kids are going to bed at like 11pm, they are lying with their kids until they fall asleep- and their kids are 3+!
I could write a book on the subject - I worked so hard on getting Morgan on a routine that with Callie, I knew exactly what to do!
Working with Daycare is an excellent idea. As mine told me, keep in mind that not all babies are the same in terms of how much sleep they need. Blair is not a huge sleeper (unless he is a little sick). He does 2-3 hours worth of naps during the day and then sleeps 9pm-7am, waking once or twice to nurse. So, he is not a huge sleeper during the day, but he is happy as a lark! Good Luck. You have made excellent decisions to this point, you'll continue!
Don't count me as an expert, because half the time I feel like I am failing miserably, but... they say (at that age) let the child takes naps when She needs to. I would say promote a 4pm nap, but don't force her. mr Man has gotten into a pretty good rythum all on his own. He takes a long nap in the AM and then goes down again from 3 or 4. He then eats his dinner, takes his bath and hits the hay around 7 to 8 pm. This works for us, and our schedule, but to be honest, it just started. So... we will see how it goes :) Hope that helps
I have no advice but just want to sympathize - babies' sleep habits are still such a mystery to me.
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