What is your older baby's nap schedule?

[escher]

We're trying to figure out what the best nap schedule is for our 10-month-old. I know that every baby is different, but I'm curious what other baby's nap schedules are like. How many naps does your baby take? Are they are the same time every day or do they vary based on what time the baby wakes up in the morning? How long are the naps?

Thanks!

[MrsGregory]

Hi there!

My little babe has always been "ahead of the curve" in terms of dropping naps, just up front.  She started sleeping just whenever.  At about 3-4 months (I'm starting to forget!) she went on a 3-hour schedule, because nursing on-demand wasn't really working for us, and we'd fallen into a schedule naturally.  This meant she'd eat, play, then nap for about an hour and a half, and then wake and repeat the process in three hour blocks.  Shortly after this she stopped needing so much sleep and so many nursings and we went to a three nap schedule with a morning, early afternoon and late afternoon nap.  Then she went to two naps, the first being about 2- 2  1/2 hours after she woke up and the next one about 3- 3 1/2 hours after that.  She was, at that point, sleeping about 3-4 hours during the day and from 9pm until 7am or 8am.  She recently dropped her morning nap.  I knew it was time when she'd simply wake right up from the nap and be right as rain until the afternoon, but was cranky as all get-out all afternoon before and after that nap, and was misery to put to bed.

She's 11 1/2 months now, and she goes to bed at 9pm, sleeps until 7am or 8am and takes a nap from about 2:30pm-5pm.  Yes.  2:30pm to 5pm.  It's magical.  Sometimes she cat-naps during our morning nursing session... but for no more than 10-15 minutes and if I move to set her down she's done right then. 

[skycheattraffic]

10 months was a tough time for us. In fact DD went on a nap strike completely and we had to get blackout drapes to get her to nap at all. Then she settled into a two nap schedule until around her first birthday. The naps were based on when she woke up. First nap started about 3 hours after she woke up, lasted about an hour an hour and a half. Next she was up for 3 to 4 hours (I watched for tired cues) and slept about an hour more. Now at 17 months she is down to one nap at 4 hours after she wakes up. She is the only toddler i know who naps in the morning, making playdates and classes hard to schedule. She naps about 60 to 90 minutes and sometimes I can nurse her back down for another 30 to 45 minutes if she's still sleepy or cranky.

[AllisonRH]

My 13 month old DD has had the same basic nap schedule for a few months now. She gets up around 7am and needs to sleep again by 9:30 or 10. It's usually no more than an hour or an hour and a half. Then she's up until around 2 or 3 and sleeps for another hour or so. She goes to bed around 7:30 or 8.

Now that she's in daycare fulltime (I'm in Canada so just returned to work after her first birthday) her morning naps are not usually more than an hour and her afternoon naps are getting closer to 2 hours, sometimes even longer. I think she is slowly phasing out her morning nap.

This schedule totally changes if she sleeps in, or wakes up early by about the same amount. The only thing I generally keep is her bedtime around 7:30 or 8. After 8 she turns into a gremlin :)

Hope this helps!

[seraf]

My 10 month old gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 goes down for his first nap between 9 and 10 for 20-40 minutes. His afternoon nap starts between noon and 2 and will last an hour or two. If he wakes up after an hour I try to nurse him back to sleep. If he wakes up crying, same thing (anytime he wakes crying I assume he hasn't slept enough). He takes another 45 minute nap around 5 and goes to bed for the night at 8.

His first nap is shorter or longer depending on if he fell asleep in the car or at home. His second nap is shorter if one of the other kids woke him.

He falls asleep nursing, in the carseat or on my back.

[MN BabyDust]

My dd went to one nap around 10 months. She would occasionally still take a very quick morning nap, especially if she was in the or stroller around 11 am (like for 15 minutes maybe) and then she would take one long one in the afternoon. She has really settled into that pattern now at 11 months. She goes to bed around 8:30, up about 8 am. She gets a total of about 13-14 hours of sleep per day.
 

[Kindermama]

First nap 2-2.5 hours after morning wake up
Nap lasts about 1.5-2 hours
Next nap 3-3.5 hours later
Nap lasts about 1.5-2 hours (depending on how long his morning nap was)
Bedtime 3-4 hours later

My son is 9 months old and has been on this schedule for at least 2 months now

[rainface]

Oh nap schedule, how I miss you. Little is 11 months old and I wish naps were more regular. Typically she'll be up between 7 and 8, and go down for a nap 3 hours after she wakes up. She'll sleep for 45 minutes to an hour. If I'm home with her and she wakes up cranky, I can usually coax her into a 2 hour nap. If she sleeps for two hours she won't nap again and she'll go down for bed about 7:30. If she sleeps for an hour or less, she MIGHT go down for a second nap later, and then she'll go to bed closer to 8:30. Or if she's too far out of her schedule, she throws naps to the wind, also refuses to eat, and is a screaming, chaotic, hot mess by the time I get home from work at 5:30. Yay. (Can you tell the schedule has been off for two weeks? My poor kiddo.)