I am hoping to get some suggestions for how to help my 12month old sleep for longer at naptime. She has consolidated her naps to 1 nap a day. I lay her down in her crib for her nap and it takes her about 15 minutes to fall asleep. She will only sleep for about 30 minutes and then she is crying for me. If I go in to get her, she is very cranky and clearly still tired but won't go back to sleep. If I don't go in and wait her out, she will only continue to cry louder until I go in. Just to give a little background on nighttime sleep, she has never been a great sleeper. In the past couple of months she is able to fall back asleep when she awakens in the middle of the night. We lay her down between 8-8:30 at night and she wakes up around 9-9:30 in the morning (although as I mentioned before, she does still wakeup at night). So it seems that she would be ready to take a nap around 1:30/2ish which is when I lay her down. I would certainly appeciate any suggestions anyone might have for how to extend her naptime.
How long is she awake in the night?
Since she is basically sleeping 13 hrs at night, she is not able to sleep well during the day.
Most 12 mos olds sleep 13-14 hrs a day. She is doing most of it at night.
I would cut her sleep down at night to 12 hours, move her nap to 12:30 or 1:00.
Try this gradually over a few days and see if it helps!
This is just my opinion, but 13 h is a looong time for her to sleep at night. try waking her up at 8:30, so she gets a solid 12 hours at night. Then try putting her down a little earlier, at 12-1pm, before she gets TOO tired. I bet this will help a lot.
Also, when she wakes up too soon and still seems very tired, try going in and soothing her without picking her up. You can rub her back, etc., to let her know you're still there and maybe she'll go back to sleep. In a couple days she may sleep through.
My experience... 13 months is pretty young to be down to 1 nap. It sounds more like she is overtired. I suggest going back to 2 naps --- maybe waking her 30 minutes to 1 hour earlier in the AM???? Not sure if that would back-fire, and I am sounding contradictory. But, my first thought is that 13 months is young for 1 nap. I've had 4 --- 3 of them didn't consolidate into 1 nap until 18 months and the 4th at 16/17 months. I know 2 naps isn't always easy on the schedule --- trying to do ANYTHING out of the house when you are trying to get in 2 naps is not easy, but an overtired cranky baby is not fun. Better they have good sleeping habits...
Just based on my own experience w/ my 14mos I'd guess she might be over tired. Even though she's down 13hrs/night it sounds like she's not sleeping all of it. Also, she's pretty young to be on one nap a day. I'm with the others, get her up a little earlier in the morning and try to get a second nap in (or an earlier, longer 1).
Just to give you another frame of reference, my son goes to bed at 7pm, wakes about 6:30-7am, naps 9:30-11 and 2:30-4:30. Now he doesn't always sleep through all these all the time, but generally it works out to be 13.5-14 hrs a day. The rest of those times he's often content to play quietly in his crib.
As for her ability to put herself back to sleep, try to find some good info on teaching your baby to sleep. There are lots of great books, you're sure to find one that matches your parenting style. I liked Dr. Ferber's book, but I was ok with letting our son cry some and it worked pretty quickly for us. Good luck!
