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Toddler sleep question
First, when does your kid go to sleep and what time do they generally wake up?
Jack is 18 months. He is pretty consistent with his 8pm bedtime. We do our routine and we put him in awake and he has no problem putting himself to sleep (we used the Ferber method around 10 months).
He's always been an early riser. For the longest time, he was up at 5, which was fine when I was still nursing because it gave me enough time to do everything in the morning. He's pretty consistent at 5:30 now (we had 2 weeks of 6am wakeups but I think that was a fluke). When he does wake up, he wakes up crying. I'll give him a minute while I get up and go to the bathroom and then get him. Happy as a clam once I pull him out of the crib.
Mr. D insists that he needs more sleep (because he wakes up crying) and I should let him cry and try and go back to sleep. I kind of agree (about needing more sleep, not letting him cry) but at the same time, I know that when he's up, he's up. He sees the light outside and he hears me getting ready at 5:45 anyway so I don't see what the big deal is. He takes a 2 hr nap at daycare every day and is not generally cranky in the evening, so I'm just resigned to the fact that we have an early riser who is totally fine with 9.5 hours of sleep a night.
We have our 18 month pedi appt tonight and I was going to ask the doc (more for Mr.D's sake than mine) but wanted to see what everyone else is/has experienced.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Re: Toddler sleep question
The kid is currently 20 months. We also did Ferber around 10 months. We actually just pushed his bed time back from 7 to 7:30pm. He will typically sleep until about 7:30am. He tends to nap less at daycare than at home. I think an hour/hour and half vs. two hours at home, but he generally maintains the same schedule all week.
For what it's worth, I've usually found that putting him to bed earlier can sometimes help "righting" his schedule if he gets up too early or generally seems off.
See, I don't think we have to 'right' his schedule. I figure this is HIS schedule. And we've tried putting him to bed a little early sometimes and he is not having it. It's like he can tell time and says hellz no!
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Blackout shades and a fan (for white noise) helped Oliver sleep better/later. He goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes around 6.
ETA: maybe he wakes up crying b/c he's hungry? Or maybe that's just how he wakes up, and he knows that if he cries you come in?
I think the average amount of sleep at that age is like 13.5 hours or something, right? So yeah, I would probably bring it up with the pedi, just because it's a big difference. Sometimes not sleeping as much is actually a sign of sleep deprivation in kids.
That said, Jodi Mindell has four rules to look for sleep deprivation. If you aren't seeing them, he just might not need a lot of sleep.
My toddler is a sleeper (until recently when she has been going to bed at 830 but not actually falling asleep until almost 10pm) so I never brought this up with my pedi, but everything Ive read has been consistent about children that age needing about 10-12 hours of nighttime sleep in addition to a 2 hourish nap. It seems like you are right on the edge of the minimum so irritatingly, you are probably in that "maybe he needs more sleep, maybe he doesnt" category.
At 18m DD1 slept from about 715p-7am with a 2 hour nap each day. But like I said, she was a sleeper, so I could see some kids being okay on a little less sleep. She was clearly in need of sleep if she deviated from that schedule.
Id personally try to push his bedtime back a half hour or so and see if it makes any difference in his sleep habits. It might take a few days for him to get used to it, but perhaps at some point he'll adjust, or he wont and you'll know that this is just his natural pattern.
I do think some kids just require more sleep than others, but 9.5 hours seems pretty low for 18 months.
My kids were always on the opposite end of the spectrum - at 18 months they slept from 7-7 and took 3 hour naps.
Ditto the suggestion of pushing bedtime back. GL!
DS 3.12.08
DD 7.11.09
DD 8.01.13
Well, verdict is that he just doesn't need as much sleep. Because he sleeps consistently and sleeps well and doesn't exhibit any signs of sleep deprivation, she said he's fine. Obviously, we can adjust moving bed time up or back if it changes.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD