Baby naps for a 17 month old. What is right? Post Reply

[ladygaga]

I am a little confused on how many hours my 17 month old daughter should nap during the day? She still wakes during the night and I am wondering if she is having too much or too little sleep. She has a sleep from 11 to 12.30pm or 1pm. Goes down in the evening around 7pm but wakes any time between 12 - 4 am. I am wondering if I should be starting to cut the naps out? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Jellybeans]

Hi
I assume she doesn’t have morning naps so she should sleep from 12:30 pm till 3pm .
She might wake up because she is hungry for example. What time she is having tea and how much milk does she drink before bedtime? Is it cow milk? Does she eat a good portion of meal? Meat etc?

[CraftandArt]

I’d say the lunch nap isn’t a problem, it’s the waking up and not being able to self-soothe back to sleep that needs to be addressed - hmm… are you going to her too soon? Is she just talking to herself when she wakes up or is she really hungry/thirsty? Have you got a Ewan the Sheep you could switch on to make calm heartbeat noises when she wakes up? Or a sleepy star light show above her bed for her to gaze at and doze off?

Also a big tea, a warm bath and some milk before bed in a regular routine will certainly help, but no doubt you’re already doing that. Maybe it’s a phase too. Either way it *will* get easier, I promise. (I’m a Mum of 3 girls, aged 5, 3 and 6 months) Good luck in the meantime!

P.S. I’d say you ditch the lunch nap when she won’t go to sleep at 7pm and is regularly wide awake til 8/9pm - much later than she should be. That, for me, would be a sign to drop the nap - but only if the late evenings are driving you crazier than not having lunch nap peace and quiet would! Waking up in the night is a whole different ballgame, I think.