15 month old and napping habits? What's normal?

Question

My grandson w hom we are caring for now sleeps from 10 p.m. till 8 a.m. - he naps at 3 or 4 p.m.. Yes, we try to get him to sleep by 8 p.m. (if only) and start rocking him etc. from 1 plm on - and yes he excercises, eats fine etc.. The "Mother's Day Out' program expects him to nap after lunch, we'd like that too. Any solutions or insights? Only solution we are trying now is to wake him at 6 a.m. and hope that adjusts things. My two kids had this problem too and it exhausted us for years. I don't want to go through this again. This forum promises some great help and I appreciate any ideas.

Answer 1

First off, what a wonderful woman you are. Bless you! Secondly, my daughter didn't start to have a good sleep pattern until i stopped rocking her to bed. She was around 18 months by the time I finally kicked that habit, and it just got worse and worse. He needs to learn to comfort himself in other ways, they are so much more smarter than we give them credit for, and they soon learn that when you start to rock them, it means bed time. So they try and stay up.. well, at least this is what my girl did. As soon as I started putting her down, without any rocking, and once she got used to that routine, it was so much easier to put her to bed at a reasonable hour. They need to change there thinking from "rocking" means sleep, to "bed" means sleep. I hope this helps a little, sorry if I'm rambling, and missing your question :-) Good Luck

Answer 2

Try skipping the afternoon nap for a day or two. If he doesn't sleep so late in the afternoon he should be exhausted by 8 pm and wake up a bit earlier and hopefully nap after lunch. A coulpe of days of this should help get him into a routine.
At night we (our youngest son is 15 mos old also) turn down all the lights and the TV down low so there are few distractions. We also follow the exact same routine everyday. Nap is noon until 1:30 to 2 and bedtime is 7:30. He wakes up around 6:30.
Of course each child is different.

Answer 3

My son (who is now 18 months old) has a great sleep schedule (and yes, I'm very lucky!) He goes to bed between 8pm and 8:30pm and falls asleep, most nights, very quickly. He'll sleep until about 8 or 8:30 am (like I said, lucky).
I am a firm believer that what got him on such a good sleep schedule was our insistence at having a schedule when he was a newborn. We developed a routine and stuck with it.
I have a few suggestions that I think will help.
First, do not let him nap at 3 or 4pm in the afternoon. That is too late and is partially the reason that he is up until 10 pm. At this age, since they are typically only needing one nap a day, sleeping at 4 pm until say 5 or 5:30 pm means that they really aren't tired at 8 pm. Yes, this will mean that for a few days, you will have a very cranky grandson. The good news is, that by 8pm, he WILL be ready for bed.
I would also suggest that if he is in a special program in the afternoon's that you make them aware of the schedule change; i.e. let them put him down for a "nap" with the other children, even if he's not going to sleep and do NOT allow them to give him a nap at 4pm in the afternoon.
And a final suggestion is establish a routine at night that will signal it's bedtime. Kids (as you know) are great at picking up on outside clues. My routine with my son is as follows:
Dinner at 6pm.
Play time from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
Cleanup toys at 7:30pm (and he helps!).
Run bath water at 7:45 and into the tub (which he LOOOVES). Get out of tub, get dried off, brush our teeth, into our PJ's (and powder...he loves his baby powder!), say goodnight to Daddy, get a sippy cup of milk (and it's only a little bit of milk) and he voluntarily walks into his bedroom, shuts the door (which invariably means Mommy trips over a toy or stuffed animal because now I can't see!!!) and he asks to be put into his crib. He drinks his milk, hands me the cup, blows me a kiss and I leave his room.
He may stay up a little while longer talking/singing to himself, but the key is, he's in his crib and he knows it's time to sleep. All of this by 8:30pm, the absolute latest.
I know that it seems very rigid, but the point is HE knows what to expect. We've been doing this routine since he was born. He will now ask for his bath (we've also taught him sign language...he will actually sign "bath" around 7:30 at night) and he'll go into the bath room and start getting out his bath toys. I also use a "soothing" bath wash for him (Johnson & Johnson Bedtime Bath) and he loves it.
I truly hopes this helps you out and best of luck!

Answer 4

I would put him down at the same time each night say 7:30-8:00 with the exact same routine (which should last a good half hour) and then leave the room.
He probably wont be tired and will want to play or shout in the room but the key here is to keep this same routine every night until eventually he adapts.
It will be very trying in the beginning the key here is to not give in.
Good luck and remember EXACT SAME ROUTINE FOR HALF AN HOUR EACH NIGHT AND LEAVE THE ROOM!!!!

Answer 5

It's interesting that you define the children's natural sleep cycle as them having a problem. It seems that you, as I was with my youngest, the one with the problem - that is, children who sleep differently than you. And, he's in a program that expects him to nap at certain times, too? It's kind of a backwards way to approach things. If you hope to have any success with an earlier bedtime, he cannot nap at 3 or 4. Period.