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View Full Version : afternoon nap strike -please help!



mykidsmom
11-02-2005, 10:22 PM
Hi All,
My 1 year old has always been a great sleeper and for the most part still is. She wakes about 6:30 or 7am and goes down for her morning nap between 9 and 9:30. She sleeps for 1.5 or 2 hours.(I wake her at 11am if she is not up yet). The problem recently is she is not going to sleep for her afternoon nap. I usually put her down at about 1:30 or 2pm but lately she just plays in the crib and does not sleep. She will stay in there for an hour or even longer but does not sleep. I don't mind her just getting the quiet time, but this is causing her to be really really cranky from about 4-6pm. As a result, I am putting her to bed at 6:15 or 6:30pm and she immediately falls asleep because she is so tired. Has this afternoon nap strike happened to anyone else? She NEEDS that morning nap, so pushing it off to later does not seem like an option to me at this time. I hate to think she is going to only take 1 nap a day so young. Please help!
Thanks!

csburky
11-03-2005, 08:13 AM
YES! My DS is 11 months old today and has been protesting his p.m. nap for about 2 weeks. He does eventually fall asleep but only sleeps for 35 minutes and then wakes up crying HARD (unlike happy disposition after a.m. nap). I am at the end of my rope with this kid! He has been going to bed by 6p.m. and waking at 5:20 every a.m. Could they be transitioning to 1 nap? It kind of looks like it! I am thinking of slowly pushing his a.m. nap back 30 minutes every couple of days. Let me know if you come up with a solution!
Colleen

mykidsmom
11-03-2005, 01:30 PM
I just got some advise to only let my dd sleep for 1 hour in the morning nap (like just make it a cat nap) in order for her to also take an afternoon nap. She probably does not need so much daytime sleep which is why she is not falling asleep in the afternoon, but this way I can spread out the sleep into 2 naps so she will get through the day in a better mood. My only fear is if I wake her up early from her AM nap, and she still refuses the afternoon nap, I will have a doubly cranky baby on my hands.

csburky
11-04-2005, 08:17 AM
My son actually flat out refused the 2nd nap yesterday, so I put him to bed at 5:15 p.m. He didn't wake up until 6:40 this a.m. I am defintely going to try a later p.m. nap today but if it doesn't work, back to bed at 5:15!!!!

Nicodemus
11-06-2005, 08:22 PM
I've always had a difficult time getting my son to take his afternoon nap. He does great with the morning nap and wakes up happy (as your baby does). He was sleeping at 10:00 am and then at 2:00. The morning nap is about 2 hours and the afternoon nap about one hour long. Lately I've been putting him to bed at 9:00 am and 3:00. This seems to be working. The extended time between the two naps seems to help. He goes to bed at 7:30 pm with no problem. Hope this helps.

Best,
Diane

smzapalac
02-25-2006, 02:02 PM
My daughter turned one and the same thing happened. I was advised that she may be ready for only one nap. What I have been doing is putting her down for her nap starting at 11:00, then 11:30, then 12:00, working my way to a 1:00 PM regular nap. She has been taking this single nap and sleeping 2-3 hrs. Some evenings you may need to put her down a little early 6:30 for example. I would give one nap a try and see how it works. Warning, there is a bit of a fussy transitional period that lasts 2-3 weeks. So prepare yourself for having a cranky baby until he she gets the hang of it all.

leslieu
07-08-2006, 05:35 PM
If I can remember right, we transitioned DS from taking two naps to one nap at about 10 months. He would take his morning naps just fine, but wouldn't take his afternoon naps. He would either fight it or just stay awake in his crib. To help DS transition to just one nap I would take him to the park or plan some fun activities to distract him until about 11:30 - 12:00, then I'd feed him lunch and put him down. At first DS couldn't make it past 10:30, but slowly he got use to staying wake until 1-ish and then would willing go down for a 2-3 hour nap. And as pp have said in the beginning your DC will go to bed early, like 5 or 6. But not to worry they will adjust.

HTH