Great Question:
Stephanie Nielsen asked:
“Hi Tracy, I have a quick question! I have done sleep training with my 16 month old son since he was around 5 months old and he’s doing great. However, two weeks ago I had the flu and didn’t see him in the day like normal so he wouldn’t go to bed that night. Since then, he has been staying up until 10-11:30 at night and wanting to sleep in until 9 or later if I let him. His naps have stayed completely intact.
His usual schedule is:
– wake-up 8 and 8:30
– Nap 12:30 (for 2-3 hours) (I lay him in his bed and walk out right away and he goes to sleep on his own with no crying)
– bedtime 8:15-8:30 with a routine.
He doesn’t have any sleep crutches that I am aware of at bedtime and I don’t think anything has changed to cause a difference in his bedtime. But he is wired and will not go to sleep. My only thought is maybe the gap between bedtime and nap time is too big? I have been waking him up at 8:30am to help get things back on track but its not working. I also tried putting him to bed at 9 one night to slowly move it bedtime back and he woke up at 10 and stayed up until 2am. I think I am missing something! Thanks!”
My Answer:
You nailed it. It looks like the wakeful window between the end of the nap and the bedtime is too long. Typically it’s just 4 hours. Can you push the nap later so you have a 4 hour window at the end of the day? This will change again around 2 years old. Having a consistent wake up time is a good idea to get things on track. Consistency is key here. When he wakes an hour or so (or less) after being put to bed, he probably was overtired and that makes the first sleep transition harder. So if he has trouble going back to sleep, be consistent about treating it like a middle of the night wake up. Does that help?
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Early Rising Question:
Our biggest issue is the early rising. He’s up at 4:30am no matter what we do. We’ve tried putting him to bed earlier/later done dream feeds, cry it out.. He’s just an insanely early riser. He’s 10.5 months and usually naps 2 times, the first one can range from and hour to 2 hours and the second is usually about an hour.. I can never get him to take a third.. He’s a little monkey!!
Answer:
It’s not the 3rd nap you need. It’s a longer 2nd nap. Most babies over nine months have dropped the third nap and can go four hours from the end of the p.m. nap to bed time. Try limiting your morning up to one hour, so yes, wake him up. Then try to extend the afternoon nap to an hour and a half or longer. That way you can try to get that four hour or less wakeful window at the end of the day. That will probably fix your problem if you were consistent about how you respond to the early rising.
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