Going From 2 naps to 1

[twins r fun]

I know all babies are different... But in your experience and that of others you know at what age to babies go from 2 naps a day to 1? I ask because it seems my 11 month old twins are heading that way (i.e, now taking 1 very long, 1 very short nap where they used to take 2 the same length, not being too cranky when they miss the second nap, waking later in the morning). I thought we'd be doing 2 naps for awhile yet. What's your experience?

Nicole

[egoldber]

That would be a little early. My ped told us at the one year appointment that around 18 months most babies go from 2 to 1 nap. I have noticed Sarah's morning naps becoming more inconsistent. I would say that 1-2 days a week, she doesn't take a morning nap and maybe 1-2 other days it is only 30 or 40 minutes. FYI, she generally sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am, and whether or not she takes a morning nap has nothing to do with what time she got up. She has slept until 9 somtimes and still goes down for a nap around 10.

But she still takes a morning nap more than half the time. I remember around 10 months there was a short period of time when I was afraid that Sarah was giving up the morning nap, but that was just a "phase", LOL :) . I have read (could be an old wives tale) that when they are working on a milestone that the nap can suffer.

HTH,

[Sheila]

I am actually going through this right now with my 19 mo old.

She was still loving her morning nap (both used to last between 1 and 1 1/2 hours) but we started having sleep problems. She goes to bed around 8 pm, and while she used to be SO tired and ready to go to sleep (cranky for several hours even before bedtime) she had started having trouble falling asleep. She would lie for 15-20 mins and then cry out if she were still awake! And repeat and repeat (sometimes awake for an hour or more!!) and I would have to keep going in (CIO wouldn't work cause she wasn't tired enough to sleep!) Ugh - this was awful for both of us because she has always been a great sleeper.

Even though she is still tired in the morning and loves her nap, I decided that it was time to give it up. I think her sleeping late into the afternoon was making her not tired enough at bedtime. Plus, most do give up the am nap around 18 mo, so I figured it was time.

So now she has an early lunch and naps for 2 hrs (sometimes more) midday. It is working out great. She is back to being able to fall right asleep when she goes to bed at night (and at naptime, too). Of course, now she is cranky again at night (and also a bit in the morn, when she would usually nap) but all in all, I think the new sched is agreeing with her.

Good luck. Adapting to a new schedule is always difficult!

Sheila



________
Milf teacher

[trumansmom]

My guy is a terrible sleeper, so he's probably not a good example, but he dropped his morning nap around 7 months. He only takes one nap in the afternoon that can last anywhere between 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.

With twins, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that yours haven't truly given up that extra nap!!

Jeanne

[suzska]

Evan is 18 months old, and he's been taking one 2-hour nap (you could almost set a timer to the minute!) for quite a while now. Not sure when it happened. Lately he's been sleeping more than 2 hours. Today it was more like 3.5! Or at least he didn't start making noise that I could hear him downstairs until then.

[brubeck]

I think this is one of those things that depends on the child. My 22 month old daughter usually only takes one nap in the afternoon (she's doing it right now or I wouldn't e on the computer!) for about 2 to 3 hours.

However sometimes she will fall asleep for 30-60 minutes in the morning, and then her afternoon nap will just be later and last about an hour less. So overall she gets the same amount of sleep, just split up. Regardless of which pattern she uses, she gets about 9 hours sleep at night (10:30 pm to 7:30 am).

She has pretty much been following this pattern since right after she got her molars in at 15 months. I don't remember what she did before that because the whole molars thing screwed her up royally and she was actually napping 4 hours a day plus getting 10 to 11 hours at night for an entire month. Of course she was also whining constantly when she was awake so maybe she was just more tired out!

[twins r fun]

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm hoping this is just a phase, but I'll follow their lead-so far they seem to know what they're doing! I don't want to give up the 2nd nap, but on the bright side it would be less restricting as far as planning outings, appointments, meals, etc. I just don't want them to do what they did today-one took the short nap in the morning, the other in the afternoon-that makes 2 short naps for my purposes! I've been spoiled for awhile with 2 naps of 2 hours each.

Nicole