Hellobee

In this edition of the Swarm, the Bees share how many hours a day their little ones sleep, their bedtimes and wake-up times, and whether or not they think their LO’s need more sleep. Please note that most of these answers were written two months ago (their LO’s current ages are under each author banner), so feel free to ask anyone if sleep has changed since then!

J A M E S  ,  J  O E  ,  N  I C K  –  4
L I L L Y   –  2 1  M O N  T H S

James is 4.5 years old. He sleeps from about 8 at night until 6 or 7 in the morning. He doesn’t nap so he gets about 10-11 hours a day. For the most part I think he is getting enough sleep. Every couple of weeks or so he falls asleep mid-afternoon, so I know if he is tired he will take a little nap. I am interested to see if he going to start sleeping more once he start full day kindergarten. That has to tire him out.

Nick and Joe go to bed at 7:30 but often stay up talking until 9 or 10. They usually wake up between 6 and 7. Neither of them take naps. So on a good night they might get 11 hours, but some nights they only get 8. I think they need more sleep. We have been trying to get them to stop talking at night but so far have been unsuccessful.

Lilly sleeps from about 7:30 until 6 in the morning. She then takes a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. If she has a good nap, she gets about 12 hours of sleep. She is not cranky or moody so I think she is getting enough sleep. Maybe its’ just me who wishes she slept more.

L I L  C B  –  3  Y E A R S

Lil’ CB is 3 years, 10 months. He sleeps anywhere between 10.5 to 12 hours a day. He is still (a year later!) napping inconsistently — at this point, he naps about 2 times a week. When he does nap, he naps for about 1.5-2 hours and then sleeps between 8.5-9 hours (from about 9:30/10:00pm to about 6:00/6:30am), for a total of 10.5-11 hours. When he doesn’t nap, Lil’ CB will go down at 7:00pm and sleep until 6:30/7:00am, for a total of 11.5-12 hours.

I think 11.5-12 hours is a good amount of sleep for Lil’ CB, but sometimes it’s really hard to get him through the day without a nap, which then starts the whole vicious cycle again!

C H AR L I E  –  3  Y E A R S
O L I V E  –  2 2  M O N T H S

Charlie typically sleeps from 10pm – 7 or 8am for a total of 9-10 hours at night. He also takes a 2 hour+ nap at daycare, for a total of 11-12 hours of sleep a day.

For a very long time his bedtime was 7:30, and then it inched to 8:30 after Olive is born. But now he is at the age where is he close to dropping his nap, which is why his bedtime is so late; he’s just not tired enough to go to bed early with such a long nap. He’s going to have to drop his nap once he starts pre-k in the fall, so we’ve just been dealing with the late bedtimes for now since everyone at his daycare is on the same nap schedule.

Charlie still naps almost every day, but once in a while he will skip his nap. I think he still needs a short nap though, because he can definitely get cranky near bedtime if he’s overtired. But the nap needs to be limited to 1 hour max or he’s not tired enough at bedtime. A solid 10-11 hours at night plus a one hour nap, or 11-12 hours at night would probably be ideal for him. Hopefully when he’s forced to drop his nap soon, his night-time sleep will reorganize so that he’s getting more sleep at night.

Olive is 20 months old and her bedtime has been creeping later because Charlie is up later. These days she sleeps between 8:00 – 8:30pm, and we usually have to wake her up at 8:30 in the morning. She can sleep up to 14 hours at night if we let her — we had to wake her up at 10:45am last weekend!. She also takes a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. She typically gets about 14-15 hours of sleep, and I think she is getting a good amount of sleep. She has always been slighty sleepier than average and has had higher sleep needs than Charlie.

W A G O N  J R  –  3  Y E A R S
L I L  M I S S  W A G O N  –  1 3  M O N T H S

You caught me at a great time for this swarm post because both our kids’ sleep is really good and consistent these days!

Wagon Jr. is 3 years old (at the time I’m writing this). He sleeps between 12-14 hours total per day. Bedtime always happens between 6:30-7:30pm each day. He is usually asleep by 7:00-8:00pm and he is usually up the next morning right around 7:00am. If he naps, it’s usually sometime after lunch and always lasts between 1-2 hours. He is close to dropping his only nap (boo) but I think he still needs it, because on the days he naps, he behaves and eats much better than the days he doesn’t. I should also mention that most nights he has 1-3 wakeups from nightmares. Sometimes he goes right back to sleep, and sometimes he is up for a bit before he goes back to sleep.

LMW is 13 months (at the time I’m writing this). She sleeps between 13-14 hours total per day. Bedtime always happens between 6:00-7:00pm each day. She is usually asleep by 6:30-7:30pm and is usually up the next morning a little past 6:00am. She takes two naps, each right around an hour long. On the weekends one nap is usually shorter because it happens in the car, and she doesn’t stay asleep well in the car.

L I T T L E  J A C K S  – 3  Y E A R S
J A C K  J A C K  – 1 6  M O N T H S

Jack Jack is 15 months old. She goes to bed at 7 pm and wakes at 7 am. She occasionally takes two naps per day, but mostly just one 2 hour nap, for a grand total of 14 hours a day. I think this sleep schedule is just perfect for her and she always seems very well rested and in good spirits.

On the other hand…

Little Jacks is 3. She goes to bed at 10 pm and wakes at 7 am. She sometimes takes a 1 hour nap and sometimes doesn’t. This puts her grand total of sleep at 9-10 hours. While I think this is not enough for a 3 year old, she doesn’t seem particularly tired and as I speak at 8:30 pm, she’s dancing around as if she could go for a few more hours (because she can and does!) We suspect she just needs less sleep than most toddlers.

D R A K E  –  3  Y E A R S
J U L I E T  –  2  M O N T H S

Drakey is newly 3. I would say when I don’t work, he probably averages a good 10-12 hours overnight. When he does nap, it’s 1-2 hours, sometimes 3, depending on how much sleep he got the night before. When I work and have to wake him up for work, some nights I’m lucky if he gets 9 hours in and those are the days when he will definitely nap on the longer side if we can get him down at the right time. If he falls asleep in the car, even for 10 minutes, all bets are off and he is not napping again.

Bedtime varies a little depending on how much sleep he got the night before and also how well and late he napped. On average it’s around 7:30ish, or at least that’s when we start getting ready for bed. But it might not be til 8ish before he is in his crib and then it’s a free for all when he actually falls asleep himself. If he naps particularly late, to 5 or 6 PM, then bedtime is pushed back, but the latest we ever go is around 9-9:30ish.

When I work, wake up is 6:45 but when I don’t Im not always sure when Drake gets up as I’m sleeping sometimes and can’t hear him. I would say. on average, he wakes up probably close to 8-9 depending on when he fell asleep the night before.

I think he needs way more sleep and now that work has stopped and I don’t have to wake him up, I hope this improves in general. He probably doesn’t need as much sleep as most toddlers, but he certainly needs more than he is getting some nights.

N O E L L E  –  2  1 / 2  Y E A R S
J A R E N —  5  M O N T H S

Noelle, 29 months
Night sleep from 8:30 pm – 7 am = 10.5 hours.
One 1.5-2-hour nap in the afternoon.
Total = 12-12.5 hours

Jaren, 15 weeks
Night sleep from 8 pm – 4 am, then 5 am – 8 am = 11 hours
His naps are sporadic, but he usually takes one long 2-hour nap, 2 smaller 1-hour naps, and a 30-minute catnap. Naps = 4.5 hours
Total = 15.5 hours

Noelle has always been a great sleeper, and tended to sleep more than most… so for her, I feel like it’s not enough right now. On weekends she can easily nap for 3 hours and not let it affect her night sleep, so I think she gets enough on weekends, just not weekdays. Even an extra 30 minutes on top of what she’s already doing would be nice. I think Jaren is getting enough sleep for his age.

B A B Y  C H E C K E R S  –  2  Y E A R S

Aliya is 2 years old and sleeps about 13 hours a day (10 hours overnight, with one three-hour nap in the middle of the day).

We put her down around 8:30 PM, but she needs her own wind-down time which consists of repeating conversations from the day, talking to her dolls, and singing very loudly for about an hour. She usually falls asleep around 9:30 PM and wakes up on most days around 7:30 AM. I think she gets plenty of sleep.

L I T T L E  Y  –  2  Y E A R S

Little Y just turned 2. He generally sleeps about 10-11 hours at night and 2-3 hours during one mid-day nap. We used to have him in bed before 8 most nights, but lately it’s been more like 8:30 — since it’s summer, so often we’re running around, enjoying the evening. He usually wakes up a bit past 7, but as early as 6 isn’t unheard of. Thankfully, if we wakes up early, he usually makes up for it with a nice 3-hour nap. Because of that, he generally gets about 13 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, regardless of wake time, which seems like a good amount for him now.

C H L O E  –  2 1  M O N T H S

Chloe is 19 months old. She takes one nap a day, for about 2-3 hours at a time. She goes to bed at 8pm and usually wakes up around 7am, give or take, for a total of 13-14 hours of sleep a day.

If she needs more sleep, she takes a longer afternoon nap. Some days, she’ll take a 4-5 hour nap but we’re fortunate (knock on wood!!) that it doesn’t interfere with her bedtime schedule.

L I T T L E  M –  2 0  M O N T H S

Little M is 19 months old. He usually gets about 15 hours of sleep a day. His bedtime routine starts with bath at 5:45 and he’s in bed by 6:30pm. He sleeps until 7/7:30 most days. He naps every day at 12:30pm for around 1.5 hours (knock on wood), but for the past month it’s been more like 2-2.5 hours, which is amazing since he was a bad napper for so long.

I think he gets the perfect amount of sleep. He’s incredibly active and hasn’t stopped moving since he was born. He’s always very happy until he’s tired and then he starts to get frustrated and more apt to throw tantrums. As soon as that happens we whisk him off to bed. It’s the perfect amount of sleep for me too since we have our evenings free for adult time and the mid-day nap gives me a chance to refresh my energy to keep up with him again in the afternoon!

J A C O B I  –  1 7  M O N T H S

J is 15.5 months. He sleeps 11-12 hours overnight and anywhere from 2-4 hours during the day. Naps vary — he was on a consistent 1.5 hour nap twice a day schedule, but the last 2-3 months it varies by day. He sometimes sleeps an hour in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, or even 2.5-3 in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon. But he normally gets the same amount of sleep either way.

Bedtime is 7:30, but he often doesn’t fall asleep until after 8pm. He wakes up anywhere between 7-8am. On a bad day it’s before 7am, but we don’t let him get up. We go in there and give him his pacifier, and he will either go back to sleep or wait there until after 7. He is such a good kid!

I think we’ve struck gold. He turned a year old and his sleep took a turn for near-perfect. He started sleeping through the night and having more consistent naps. Although he’s nearly 16 months, he’s still on two naps/day unless he wakes up late (after 8am).

B A B Y  H  –  1 5  M O N T H S

Miss H is 13 months old. She sleeps 12 hours at night and about 2-3 hours during the day for naps (all depends if she’ll take her second nap or not!). She has consistently slept from 7pm-7am since she was 12 weeks old, which I realize is downright amazing! She goes through weird phases on occasion where she’ll wake up at night (4.5 month sleep regression, teething – right now she’s getting molars!), but we rarely go into her room at night and prefer to let her self soothe. If she’s hysterical I definitely go in to soothe her, but she’s usually good about just fussing a little bit and going back to sleep.

I think overall she’s getting the right amount of sleep. Her overnight 12 hours really works for her. On days she doesn’t take a second nap she definitely struggles, but a lot of those days she will have taken a 2 hour morning nap so she’s still getting a decent amount of sleep during the day!

L I T T L E  C O N F E T T I – 1 4  M O N T H S

Little C is 13.5 months, and sleeps at night from about 7 pm until 5:30-6 a.m. (and sadly sometimes a bit earlier). I would say on average he gets about 10.5 hours of sleep at night.

He usually naps for about 3 hours during the day, although the timing/duration of each of the two naps is extremely variable. Sometimes the naps are even in duration, and sometimes he will take an extra long morning nap and fight the afternoon nap.

His total right now is 13.5 hours, but he used to get a solid 12 hours at night (6 to 6), and I think he was happier and better rested with 15 hours rather than the current 13.5.

L I L  T E A C U P  –  1 2  M O N T H S

Little Tea Cup is 10 months. Excuse me while I take a minute to collect myself over the fact that we have reached the double digits!

She sleeps approximately 16 hours per day. Little Tea cup is a 12 hour night sleeper and then sleeps 4 hours during the day split between two naps. Sometimes we get a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon and everyone is very happy.

Bedtime is around 7 or at the latest 7:15 pm and we wake her up every single day at 7 am. We are routine people around here and if you don’t wake her up, it mixes everything up for all of us.

Believe it or not I actually am starting to think that she may need a little more sleep. She has been super hyper, agitated and wound up around 6:30 pm and usually that means that she is starting to get tired and is ready for bed. A few times we have put her to bed at 7 and dealt with a very overtired little one. I think she is in the middle of a growth spurt though so that is probably causing it.

I however am perfectly happy and tremendously grateful that she sleeps as much as she does.

T R I K E S T E R  –  8  M O N T H S

I’ve put off participating in this swarm post because the Trikester’s sleep is CONSTANTLY evolving. Just when I think we’ve established a pattern, something changes — so keep in mind this info applies to his habits this week.

He’s seven and half months now and he usually sleeps between 11 and 14 hours between night time and naps. Sleep training was clutch, so there’s way more sleeping than ever before. He’s asleep around 7:30 PM, and wakes up at 2:30 AM and 5:15 AM to nurse. He’s up for the day between 6:15 AM and 7:30 AM, and then takes at least three naps. On a good day, his naps total 4 hours, and on a bad day, naps are around 2 hours. Most days, I think he gets enough sleep, though there are times when an occasional need for more sleep is obvious!

B A B Y  M A R K E R S  –  6  M O N T H S

Baby M is 4 months old.

She goes to bed between 7:30-8pm and wakes up between 4:30-5:30am every morning. Sometimes after she eats she’ll go back to sleep until 7am – but only if we let her fall asleep in our bed — she will not fall back asleep in her crib.  I’m torn between creating good habits and letting her get the sleep she needs.

Naps vary from day to day, but she usually sleeps for an hour or more at some point during the day. She also takes at least 2 catnaps after eating, sometimes only for 15 minutes in my arms.

Grand total: 9 hours at night, 2 hours during the day = 11 hours altogether. I do not think this enough, as she is usually very tired at the end of the day and struggles to stay awake during her last feeding. I would like to extend her nighttime sleep to at least 6am, and have her taking at least one 2-hour nap per day. I think around 13-14 hours of sleep would be much better for her – I’m just not sure how to make that happen! Tips are welcome. 

I S A I A H  – 5  M O N T H S

Isaiah is 4.5 months and sleeps 12ish house overnight + 3ish hours of naps = 15

Naps are inconsistent because I don’t rearrange our schedule to accommodate them. I may in the future, but right now he will fall asleep where ever he is if he’s tired.

We start our bedtime routine at 6:00p and he is in bed by 7:00p. He wakes up between 5:00-5:30am but I give him his pacifier and he sleeps until 6:00-7:00a.

I notice that when he naps more he needs more sleep. He’ll have a day when I’m completely blown away by how much he sleeps. I think he is getting as much as he needs, and I’m grateful that right now his daytime sleeping isn’t causing any disturbances to his nighttime sleeping.

B A B I E S  B L U E  –  6  M O N T H S

Elliot & Finn are 16 weeks old.
– They sleep about 8.5-9.5 hours at night. Naps are all over the place. At daycare, they don’t sleep well and may only get 45 minutes of sleep total in 10 hours–not good! At home, they usually go back to sleep after their 5 a.m. bottle for about an hour and a half. Then, they usually take two more naps that are between an hour to and hour and a half. They sometimes take one little cat nap in the evening, too.
– Bedtime is generally 8:30 p.m., but if they didn’t sleep at daycare we put them to bed as early as 7:30.
– When we’re at home, I think they are getting about the right amount. When they are at daycare, even on their “good” days, they don’t get nearly enough.

L I T T L E  L I O N  –  5  M O N T H S

Little Lion is 4 months (3 months adjusted). Overnight he sleeps about 11.5, hours with one feeding around 2am (I am so jealous of those of you who can get a dream feed to work! Poor kid still wakes up to eat at 2am no matter what.),

He sleeps from 6:30pm – 6:00am. Naps are changing right now… right now they are about 5 hours per day, split over 4-5 naps. In the next week or so it will most likely be down to 4 hours per day, spread over 3-4 naps.

He seems to do pretty well with the amount of sleep he is getting, but sometimes fights naps, or takes short ones. We are trying to figure out how consolidating works right now!

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How old is your LO and do you think they need more/less sleep (although who needs less sleep!)?