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The daily routine of an 11-month-old

Eleven months is a quiet transitional month on paper: two naps that still hold, nights of ten to twelve hours, a rhythm the whole house has absorbed.

What is coming is words and walking. Both are big acquisitions, and big acquisitions cost a few restless nights and a week or two of shorter naps.

It is also the month many families face nursery or a return to work. A change of childcare shifts the rhythm for two to three weeks: better to expect it than to discover it.

Their typical day

  1. 07:00Morning wake-up
  2. awake 3 h 10
    10:10Nap 1 · until about 11:30 (1 h 20)
  3. awake 3 h 35
    15:05Nap 2 · until about 16:00 (55 min)
  4. awake 4 h
    20:00Bedtime
Naps
2
Daytime sleep
2 h 15
Awake windows
3 h – 4 h
Night
11 h

Calculated from the figures for this age. These are starting points, not instructions: your child’s tiredness signals come before the clock.

The awake windows at this age

First window, on waking
3 h 10
Between two naps
3 h 35
Last window, before bedtime
4 h

The first window of the day is the shortest, the last the longest. That holds at every age, and it is what stops you putting down a child who has not built enough sleep pressure yet.

If your baby wakes earlier or later

The whole day shifts. What matters is the gaps between the moments, not the times themselves.

Wake-up at 06:30

  • Nap 109:40 – 11:00
  • Nap 214:35 – 15:30
  • Bedtime19:30

Wake-up at 07:30

  • Nap 110:40 – 12:00
  • Nap 215:35 – 16:30
  • Bedtime20:30

The key point at this age

One change at a time

Starting nursery, moving to a big bed, ending the evening bottle, changing rooms: each of these is digestible. Three together are not. If you have a fixed deadline — going back to work, say — leave at least two calm weeks before and after. It is the simplest and most effective rule in the whole subject, and it applies to the daily routine too.

The page for this age

When the day goes off the rails

The naps have shortened since they started walking

A major motor acquisition gets rehearsed during sleep for a few days up to two weeks. Do not touch the rhythm: you would risk crediting the day for an effect that comes from the legs. Simply move bedtime earlier on the days the nap total came out short.

Starting nursery has thrown everything off

Count on two to three weeks of shifted rhythm, that is the norm. Naps in a group setting are often shorter and later than at home. The only variable to adjust during that time is bedtime, which you move earlier without hesitation on days nursery went badly.

They refuse bedtime even though the rhythm has not changed

At eleven months, resistance at bedtime tests the rule, not the tiredness. The rhythm is only to blame if settling regularly takes more than forty minutes. Below that, the answer is boring and effective: the same routine, in the same order, every evening.

What changes before and after

By ageNapsDaytime sleepBedtime
10 months22 h 1520:00
11 months22 h 1520:00
12 months22 h 3020:00

The questions of this age

How many hours does an 11-month-old sleep?

Between 11 and 14 hours per 24, of which 10 to 12 at night and about two hours of naps split into two.

My 11-month-old takes shorter naps since starting to walk, is it related?

Very likely. A major motor acquisition gets rehearsed during sleep for a few days, sometimes up to two weeks. There is nothing to change in the rhythm: you have to go through it.

Should you move to one nap at 11 months?

No, barring exceptions. Before twelve months the vast majority of babies still need two naps, and dropping the morning one too early produces a child in permanent debt.

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