Switching to One Nap from Two?

[jfromer]

I was wondering at what age babies should switch from two naps to one. My 9-month-old DS used to sleep 11-12 hours at night, with a 30 minute to 1 hour nap in the morning and a 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Lately, he has started going to bed at least one hour after his usual bedtime and getting up at approximately the same time in the morning, so he has about 10 hours of nighttime sleep. He is napping for approximately the same times during the day, but he won't fall asleep as easily as he used to (same for at night). He has just cut his first teeth and has been crawling, standing, and cruising for the past few weeks. I was wondering whether he isn't sleeping enough, and if it is time to switch from two daytime naps to one so he could sleep better at night or whether this was normal, particularly given the other changes going on for him.

Thanks a lot!

Jeannie

[MinnieMouse]

My dd is 2yo and switched to one nap at about 1yr..but I know other moms that their kids didn't do well with one nap until well after 1yr. Dd still takes about a 1-2.5 hr nap...depending on the day.

HTH

Christine

[Karenn]

Colin started to become reluctant to take two naps about a month ago at 13 months. Sometimes, if I've had him at the park or he's played really hard I can get two out of him but sometimes not.

I've read that babies will sometimes try to "boycott" naps at around 9 months, (maybe because of all the changes you've mentioned!) but that they usually still need both of them for at least the first year.
HTH,

[raynjen]

Jeannie,

I don't remember exactly when my daughter switched to one nap, but I do remember it was a LOT earlier than what the books said it should be. She sleeps 10-11 hours at night, but takes a 2-3 hour nap during the day (she's 22 months, but she's been doing this since she switched).

I think that with your son it is simply a case of disruption. Right before and during the beginning of a new phase (rolling over, crawling, walking, etc.) all their patterns get disrupted. Since your son is going through so many changes right now I would keep what you can as stable as possible. Give him another couple of weeks and see if he doesn't settle back into his old routine!

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (10/25/01)

[Mypunkin]

I was searching this forumn hoping to find some answers on this exact topic! My dd (almost 10 mos) is doing the same thing. Staying up until 11am and then we have a hard time squeezing in that 2nd nap in the afternoon because she goes to bed around 7pm. I'm just going day to day on her sleep cues, but I hate not having any predictability to our days. We did one nap/day four days last week and it worked ok, but she was usually up by 1:30pm, so it made for a LOOONNG afternoon.