1 nap...2 naps

[ashleybama24]

Ok this transition to 1 nap a day is killing me! I feel like we can never go anywhere or plan anything because my son can't seem to make up his mind about 1 or 2 naps a day! He is 17 mo old and I am not pushing the issue because this child NEEDS his sleep and gets up early (6-7am). If I get him to nap just once a day a few days later he will CRASH and take 2, 2 hr naps!
And even if I can keep him awake until after lunch he can't seem to nap for more than 2 hours. There are some days he only naps 1.5 hrs in the am and is up the rest of the day! I will try to get him to nap again and he is in there jumping in his crib, singing to himself, and looking out the window.

As soon as he transitions I know I am going to be wishing he still napped twice but right now I am just frustrated! And tired!

[Beth24]

I feel for you. I remember that this is a rough transition and am not looking forward to it again in a few months! Hang in there.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Oh, that's so frustrating. I'd just be sure to be out and doing something fun/energetic in the morning, feed him lunch there before putting him in the car and heading home super-early. My DC would always fall asleep in the car during that stage, then they wouldn't sleep that long b/c they woke up starving.

[okinawama]

I did more of a gradual transition. I found that if he took his regular morning nap, my son would refuse his afternoon nap and be a mess around 5, which was far to late for another nap, but too early for bedtime. Or if I pushed him through to afternoon he would be too tired to sleep well and usually only nap for about an hour to 1.5 hrs and wake up fairly crabby.

So, I did an incredibly short cat nap around 9:30ish, usually in the car while running an errand or such, for about 30minutes. This got us over the hump, he was rested enough to not fall apart during the morning, but not so rested that he refused his afternoon nap. Then come 12:30/1, he'd take his nice long afternoon nap. We did this for about two months when I noticed that even with a short morning nap he'd refuse his afternoon nap. So, I brought the one nap fairly early, 11:30ish, he'd sleep for about 2hrs and go to bed around 6:30.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i feel your pain. my son is 15 months and has been skipping one of his naps at least 2-3 times a week...i'm sure pretty soon he'll be consistently skipping one and it will be just 1 nap. and yeah, it's hard to plan anything (doctor appts or whatever) bc his schedule is just so random.

[CharlotteMommy]

I feel your pain. We started the transition around Christmas, and it took two good months before we were on a consistent one-nap-a-day plan. If you truly feel your DC is moving to one nap, I would try to push him as long as possible and put him down when he just can't take it anymore. When he gets tired at night, push him again and you'll probably need to put him down earlier than usual for a little while. My goal was a 1:00 nap, but he definitely did not make that timing early on in the transition. Once your DC starts being able to stay up later, your day to day will still not be consistent, but things will be better. Stick with it, and you will get there eventually. GL!!

[ashleybama24]

Every day I aim to be awake until noon but some days DS drags his blankie and pacifier out of the crib and brings it to me. Those are the days I just know he NEEDS a nap. Last week we were out touring a school for MDO and then had a playdate schedule to keep us out until lunch. My son kept walking to the gate, pointing to our car and signing want. I asked him if he wanted to go home and he nodded with this look like yeah mom...that's why I'm telling you!

[twowhat?]

This transition sucks. In the end, we just forced it (mainly because we knew we'd be putting them in daycare and this was daycare's schedule) - we made sure they were awake until 12:30 (which meant not going anywhere in the car in the morning!) and put them down for naps, and then made sure they were awake until bedtime.

At first they wouldn't nap long (45 min) but after a couple of weeks it lengthened to about 1.5 hours. We did it when the girls were about 19 months (and their two 30-min naps was driving me crazy).