Process of Moving to One Nap

[jk3]

The last few days have been exceedingly difficult in terms of DS's naps which is rare. I'm thinking he might be ready to move to one nap but as he is adjusting to this he is terribly cranky + totally off.

He used to wake up at 5:45, napped from 9-11 and again from 3-4:30 or so, before going to sleep at 7:30-8. This had been the pattern for about 6 months. Now he is waking later 7-7:30 + napping is erratic. I thought the past few days were tricky because my DH was home + this tends to throw off my DS. He napped all three days at around 10-10:30 for 2 hours + did not nap in the afternoon.

Today it is almost noon + though he looks exhausted, he won't nap - screams in his crib or plays. It's fine if he's ready to move to one nap but I'm not sure how to help him with this. Should I try to keep him up as long as possible + then put him in his crib at around 1 or so? I'm at a loss! Any help would be appreciated.

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[jennifer860]

I don't have an answer, but I was wondering the same thing. Morning naps have been harder since I finally decided to stop nursing DS to sleep. He's been taking a 2 - 3 hour nap around 12:30. It seems to be working well for him, but I'm afraid I'm being selfish - I really like one-long-nap schedule. At what age did people switch?

[amp]

If you figure it out, please clue me in! I asked about this some time ago, and I remember Lori telling me that some kids are ready to make the switch easily and others have a period of time where they sometimes need the two naps, and sometimes just one. She said, "Try planning around that!" Indeed, she was right. We are still in the adjustment period here. About 2 days last week Jake needed two naps, but this week he has only needed one (both yesterday and today). Go figure. Just try to follow his lead and try not to set any plans in stone for awhile. Good luck!

I look forward to reading the replies and hope to glean some helpful info myself!

[janeybwild]

Megan transitioned to one nap at about 14-15 months, and the transition took about 2-3 weeks of being erratic. She was always a strong napper and regular as clockwork, but that I mean she would take her regular morning nap around 9:30 or so, but fight her afternoon nap. So, after a few days when it became clear that this was something new, I started pushing the morning nap later and cut the pm nap. Occasional days still had 2 naps. She now goes down around 12:00. If I wait too long though, she gets too tired, so I wouldn't push it too late for you. During those times when the one nap was earlier, we just moved the bed time up 30 minutes since she was so pooped by 6:00. Now her schedule is wake 7:00, nap 12:00-2:00, bed at 7:00. HTH & good luck.

[houseof3boys]

It is my question too! Ryan is 16 months and is still happily at two naps a day. He has started the super early wake ups again too. He is up anywhere from 5 am - 6 am and he goes down at 9:30 and at 1:30. He falls asleep pretty quickly for both of them and will give me about an hour minimum each nap. His bedtime is at 7:30 pm these days.

I wish he would go to one nap and wake up at 8 am. :) I'm dreaming, aren't I?

[mharling]

Yep, it's a tricky transition. Lane has been taking one solid nap a day since about 15 months. For about a month before that, we were in limbo...... do I keep him up and do one nap today or put him down and *hope* for two.... AAHHHH!!!!

He has been getting up around 7:00 for a long time. Early on when he would take one nap, it would be around 10:30 and last 2 1/2 to 3 hours. If he looked tired around 9 or 9:30, I put him down and we'd try for two. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. If he made it past the 9 or 9:30 mark without acting tired, I pushed it to 10:30. He gradually started making it past 10:30 without acting too tired and I was able to push back the naptime. At 18 months, he now goes down between 12 and 12:30. I would be surprised if your ds could go from 7 to 1 without needing a nap. You may eventually get there, but that's seems aggressive at this point. If he tells you differently, though, ignore me. ;)

The key was just keeping an eye on him and trying to guage what I should do based on that. Good luck!

ETA: There is no magic age when all babies are ready for one nap. That would sure make it easier, wouldn't it??? :)

Mary
Lane - April 2003
Little brother or sister on the way - EDD March 2

[Sarah1]

Same thing happened with Audrey. Around 14 months, she just would not go to sleep for her afternoon nap. She would talk, play in her crib but just not sleep. So, after a couple of weeks of this I tried to transition her to one nap. She was always tired for a morning nap. It made the early evenings really terrible--so what we did was put her to bed really early for a while (like 6-6:30) and gradually moved her morning nap later and later. It was a really, really tough transition, though. There were more than a few days where she would take a nap at 11 AM, only to wake up an hour later. UGH! After a couple of months, we got into a regular pattern of napping, and after 2-3 months the nap lengthened.

Good luck, and try not to let it stress you out too much. It's hard to "go with the flow" but sometimes that's what you have to do!

[barbarhow]

I have found that I have to remain fairly flexible. Some days Jack, at 18 months still wants 2 naps. On the days that he only has one he goes to bed earlier-by 7p-sometimes 6:30p. When he takes 2 naps he generally stays awake until 7:30 or 8p.
Daycare only gives him 1 nap and somedays we can only manage one at home-but if there is time and he is showing the need for 2-he gets them.
That probably isn't all that helpful. I guess what I am trying to say is that for the most part I try to follow his lead.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
expecting #2, a Yankee fan, around 5/9/05!

[g-mama]

We're going through this now. Benjamin was happily taking 2 naps a day and then in September, he started a Mothers Day Out program two mornings a week. The schedule is 9:30-1. When I signed him up last spring, I thought he'd have outgrown the morning nap right at age 1 because my older ds did, but he didn't, and was still napping right at 9:30 after a 6:45-7am wakeup.

He was having such trouble at MDO that I considered withdrawing him, but the two teachers suggested that I get him to give up the AM nap and that he'd do much better there if he weren't used to sleeping at that time. So for two weeks, I kept moving his nap later and later each day (hard!) til he was eating lunch around 11:30 and napping at noon. He'd still some days only nap 1-1.5 hours and that was rough. But gradually, his nap has lengthened to about 2.5 hours, and he sleeps in til about 8am now, which helps, too.

I felt guilty for pushing him to drop that AM nap when he was doing so well, but after a few weeks now, he's doing fine and it really does make my schedule easier with the two kids as far as going out in the mornings and not trying to squeeze activities in between Benjamin's two naps.


Kristen
Paolo 11-00
Benjamin 8-03

[jk3]

Thanks for all of the advice. It seems like the next few weeks will be touch and go + I'll try to take my DS's lead in this one. He is napping now so perhaps the past few days were an anomaly. I might try taking the advice to push back the AM nap slowly over the next few weeks. This is tough!

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png