How often do you put your little one down for a nap?

[luckies4me]

I just wanted others opinions on the whole napping topic. Does your baby have a routine? Kai wakes up in the morning, gets changed, has breakfast and then we lay together in bed for about an hour talking and stuff, and then he usually falls back to sleep around 9 or 10. He sleeps for about one or two hours and then is up for another 3, then down for a nap, up for two hours and then down again for about an hour, and then up again. We usually have him in bed no later than 10. Most nights it's 8, but tonight it will be a later night, since his last nap was taken a bit late due to all the easter goings ons. It's already 7 and he's been asleep for fifteen minutes. Either he'll wake up in about an hour and be up for awhile or sleep through the night and wake up bright and early tomorrow morning!

[sumbirdy]

Well Nathan is 20 months old so he is down to only one nap a day but he is on a schedule. He wakes up and eats breakfast and then gets dressed, then has his breathing treatment (he's on a nebulizer). Then he plays in the house for a while, has lunch at 11:30, goes down for his nap at 12, sleeps for a couple of hours, wakes up around 2, gets his breathing treatment again, has a snack, if it's pretty outside we'll let him run around a bit, breathing treatment again at 7, dinner at 7:30, bath at 8 and he's usually in bed around 9:30 or 10.

How old is Kai? I really don't remember Nathan's routine before when he had more than one nap. (He went down to one nap when he was about 11 months old)

[luckies4me]

He just turned ten months old two days ago. I guess I was just wondering if I was overdoing it on the nap time. I just feel bad keeping him up if he is tired. I know how cranky I am when I'm tired and I would hate for him to feel that way. However, he used to sleep through the night around 3 months and then stopped until about a week ago. Now he'll sleep all night long. I thought about keeping him up more during the day, but with constant car rides it's hard to keep him awake...and I didn't even factor in car rides!

His schedule changes during the week though as he is with his grandmother during the day while I work, so he actually might sleep more then as she is in the car quite a bit.

[RobiLee]

When my son was little and if I remember right he usually had two naps a day. I remember for sure that he always took a early nap not too long after breakfast and then later on in the afternoon he would have a nap. Brandon could be very cranky if he didn't get his naps in. I'm not for sure at what age he switched to just one nap a day but it did eventually happen. I also remember that you never wanted to wake him from a nap because he would be super cranky for awhile if you had to wake him for some reason.

[Cookiebaker]

Lately, Lydia has weaned herself down to just one nap per day, from 2-5 in the afternoon (sometimes a 10-15 minute catnap late morning).

When I get confused about her schedule, I just 'observe' her natural patterns for 2-3 days, and then (because I like predictability) I then encourage her to keep the same routine. I watch for signs that she is tired, like rubbing her eyes and yawning. I always try to feed her before she is too tired to eat so she will sleep and not wake up hungry.

ps I think we need some new pictures of your two boys!!

[BitsyNaceyDog]

Nathan takes 1 nap some days and 2 other days. He always goes down for a nap around 11 am. If that nap lasts 2 or more hours he usually won't take a second nap. If he takes a shorter nap he's more likely to take a small second nap in the late afternoon.

[Sirrahsim]

Austin will be 10 months tomorrow and most days he goes by that exact nap schedule. He will let you know when he is ready to go down to fewer naps a day. One thing that I swear by to make his bedtime more predictable is a bedtime routine! At 7:30 every night the boys take a bath. After bath they get changed into jammies, have a snack, say good night, and are in bed by 8. They both thrive on it and my husband and I are able to plan time to watch a movie or something.

[luckies4me]

ps I think we need some new pictures of your two boys!!

I was going to direct you to the other thread, but I see you've already been.

Well he actually ended up sleeping through the night last night, until 4, and he woke up with an awful tummy ache. He wouldn't go back to bed unless he was with me and I was rubbing his tummy. We co-sleep and he usually sleeps with me, however lately I've been trying to transition him into his crib. He sleeps there for naps, but usually at night he's with me in bed.

He's changed so much too. When he was very little he wasn't a cuddle bug at all, and now, he loves to cuddle! He will fall asleep with his arm around me. It's the cutest thing and I absolutely love it.

[luckies4me]

One thing that I swear by to make his bedtime more predictable is a bedtime routine!

That's so hard for me to do, as I work full time and I usually work until 6-7 some days, and other days I get off at 4:30-5, so our nights always change. I used to try to bathe him at night, but his grandmother usually bathes him during the day and I didn't want to be bathing him twice a day. When I do he sleeps a lot more soundly, but he really hates the bath. I'm sure he'll grow to love it soon though. Once my fiance is done with dentistry school I will be a stay at home mom for a few years, so that will make things much easier for the next one.