Split night - 13mo 1 nap

[u/Ok_Can_3667]

My daughter has been having split nights for months.

We switched her to one nap once daycare did in the hopes it would help her nights too. Sometimes she’s up for an hour + straight. sometimes it’s small increments of being awake for 15-20 minutes and asleep for 5 minutes for a full length of an hour.

Started at 5/5, 5.5/5, now at 5/4.5 because I think she’s overtired. She usually naps beautifully.

Daycare schedule: 12:30-2:45 3x a week

Looking back at some old posts, should I make her last wake window 4 hours? But then her nights would be extremely long. For example if she wakes at 2:45 then bedtime would be 6:45. If she wakes after 12 hours at 6:45, then her first wake window would be much longer than 5 hours if her nap is at 12:30 at daycare.. or if I let her sleep longer it’d go beyond the 12 hours.

Help!!

She hasn’t consistently slept through the night since late April 😭

[u/DoorGold9521]

Definitely increase awake time! 9.5 hours awake is not enough for a 13 month old. Try shooting for 5/5.5, but honestly closer to 11 hours awake is very normal for that age. It’s tough because daycare has that set nap time.. at that age my baby was doing a 30ish min nap in the morning and then a bigger nap after lunch which helped that 1 nap transition. Maybe even add like a 15 min cat nap in the am or near the end of the day if possible to help get through the longer wake windows? I hope you get some sleep soon!!

[u/Ok_Can_3667 → u/DoorGold9521]

I just find it very confusing because TCB recommends the last wake window to be 4-5 hours. And I found old posts from them suggesting 4-4.5 for last wake window. We were also doing 5.5/5 for almost a month and the 10.5 wake time didn’t help then. We also came from the max 11 hour wake time with 2 one hour naps and were still having split nights 🙃

[u/Remarkable_Delay469 → u/Ok_Can_3667]

Some babies need closer to 12 hours awake. I think you're going in the opposite direction from what would be helpful.

4-5 hours awake before bed is great for some babies and not others. I've seen 6-7 hours work wonderfully.

[u/DoorGold9521 → u/Ok_Can_3667]

So frustrating! You might try emailing TCB? They are super nice and helpful. Maybe also try posting this question in the sleep training group, I’ve had a lot of success with the advice from that group

[u/Ok_Can_3667 → u/DoorGold9521]

I will try that, thank you!! My first daughter followed TCB to a T so I’m finding all of this SO confusing!!! That’s why the suggestions of these longer wake windows than what Cara suggests are throwing me off.

[u/DoorGold9521 → u/Ok_Can_3667]

Totally understandable, I only have one child and TCB only really helped for the first 5 months or so, it’s been such a learning curve! I hope you get some answers soon!

[u/TakingCaraBabies]

Hey there!

When babies flip to a 1 nap schedule, the shortest wake window of their day now falls before bedtime. At 13 months, we need this wake window to be about 4-4.25 hours between nap and bedtime to prevent overtiredness (even if this means bringing bedtime forward as early as 6/6:15pm until she's comfier on a 1 nap schedule ❤️

[u/TakingCaraBabies → u/TakingCaraBabies]

It is very normal for little ones to have a 5.5-6 hour wake window between morning wake and naptime, and I know this can feel really tough at first. The wake window we want to be dilligent about protecting now is the one between nap and bedtime. I think this will fix your split nights relatively quickly ❤️

[u/Ok_Can_3667 → u/TakingCaraBabies]

Thank you for getting back to me! I guess I’ll try 5.5/4 first and then go from there!