Baby on totally different nap schedule at daycare? What to do?

[LittleBirdy]

DS has always been a very alert baby, and a light sleeper, which makes napping at daycare a challenge for him.  The infant room is sleep on demand, but all the other babies are older and down to 1 nap - from about 12 to 2.  When he was taking 3 naps a day things sort of worked out - he'd have a morning cat nap, big nap when the other kids were napping and it was quiet/boring, and then an afternoon catnap.  He just dropped his 3rd nap and now the only way to get a decent nap out of him is to just have him nap once around lunch time.  (They tried still giving him a morning nap, but it would be short.  Then he wouldn't be tired enough to sleep when it was quiet, so his afternoon nap would be short too - for a couple of days he came home and had only taken 2 20 minute naps all day!!)

I am fine with what daycare is doing, on a good day he sleeps for about 2.5 hours so coupled with 11-12 hours at night he's getting enough total sleep (though on the low end).  But I am at a loss about what to do on the weekends.  I feel like it would be really hard on his internal clock to sleep from 11:45 to 2:00 for five days straight, and then Saturday comes and he's supposed to do the exact opposite - take a nap at 9, be awake during naptime, and then take another nap around the time he's used to waking up.  But for a 7 month old to be down to just 1 nap per day... yikes!  That just seems impossible.

[P.J.]

I would just go with the flow, and on the weekend if he is tired and sleepy then put him down and let him sleep. Just let him nap when he will. If it turns out to be one long one in the afternoon, and it seems like he needs more then maybe try to put him down either in the morning or later afternoon...if it's the weekend you can even go down for a nap with him, that might help! My baby sometimes will not seem sleepy and would not nap if I tried to put him down alone, but if I or DH goes down with him, he'll sleep.
But if your baby seems to do okay on the weekends with just the one nap, I'd leave well enough alone. I'm not in the camp of people who believes that a baby absolutely has to have the same exact schedule every day or else. Some do, but some do fine with a varying routine or no routine at all. I also do not firmly abide by the charts that say how many hours a baby needs to sleep or how often. I have always gone with the flow with DS, and although he sleeps a few hours less than what all the "experts" say a baby his age should, and he naps far less than he "should"......he is doing fine and does not seem overtired or lacking anything at all.

[nextcommercial]

I would also just do either what your son seems to want, or stick to a late morning nap at 11:30-ish.  

[LittleBirdy]

Thanks for the input, it makes me feel better than you didn't say, "OMG, he is going to be damaged for the rest of his life from this!" Which of course is absurd, but as a first time mom it's easy to let yourself go down this path.

He seemed totally fine this weekend with our regular routine - yesterday was a little off kilter because I tried to stretch out the time before his first nap which was just a bad idea but today he napped from 8:30-10:30 and 1:00 to 2:45 without a problem.  Amazing but he seems to get that a "home day" is different than a "daycare day".  Of course tomorrow is a "auntie & cousins day" (daycare is closed for the holiday), who knows what he'll think of that.

[tzs]

we had the same issue when dd was moved to the toddler room with one nap from the infant room at like 11 months. 

i was worried (good sleep is a priority for me) but in the end it worked out. on the weekends she still took a long am and a long pm nap like usual and at school she took the one long pm nap.

i didn't like how she was being forced to drop a nap (and at first she was super overtired late am's at school) but when it came down to it, the naps that she got in the infant room where they do on demand were way shorter than an home anyway (no more than 45 minutes) because of the extra activity going on. so it was actually nice for her to get the one long 2 hour nap in the toddler room where they totally shut down, turn off the lights, and play soft music.

[LittleBirdy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tzs 

we had the same issue when dd was moved to the toddler room with one nap from the infant room at like 11 months. 

i was worried (good sleep is a priority for me) but in the end it worked out. on the weekends she still took a long am and a long pm nap like usual and at school she took the one long pm nap.

i didn't like how she was being forced to drop a nap (and at first she was super overtired late am's at school) but when it came down to it, the naps that she got in the infant room where they do on demand were way shorter than an home anyway (no more than 45 minutes) because of the extra activity going on. so it was actually nice for her to get the one long 2 hour nap in the toddler room where they totally shut down, turn off the lights, and play soft music.

It is really reassuring to hear you say that!  I don't like how they go to a scheduled nap at 12 months either, but other than that I love his daycare and he is really happy there so I don't want to move him somewhere else.
 

[tzs]

Originally Posted by LittleBirdy 

Quote:

It is really reassuring to hear you say that!  I don't like how they go to a scheduled nap at 12 months either, but other than that I love his daycare and he is really happy there so I don't want to move him somewhere else.
 

i think it would be common anywhere. i actually worked at the same center where i had dd so knowing for a fact that she got one really good nap vs. two horrible naps did help. 

an added "bonus" is that when they do reach that age where they just naturally drop the first nap, you can blame it on the daycare teachers....i did!  ;)