Going to 1 nap?

[Biscuits & Gravy]

When did your toddler go down to one nap?
How did you know they were ready?
How did you transition them from 2 to 1?

DS is ready for a nap by 10am, goes down easily and sleeps 2 hours, but he is fighting the afternoon nap. So today I pushed his nap off a couple of hours and we are attempting 1, but it took about 45 minutes for him to fall asleep. He fought, and fought until he finally gave in and went to sleep.

I can't figure out if he really is ready at 13 months for one nap, or if he still needs two.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

My DD transitioned to 1 nap around that age. I realized she was ready because she was wanting to take her morning nap around 10 or so and then wouldn't take an afternoon nap a lot of the time. This made night-time horrible! I moved the nap to 12, and then now to 12:30. It took a bit, but she just began making that one nap much longer.

[physmom]

We transitioned DD at about 8/9 months. The biggest thing with her was that she was refusing to sleep at night and wouldn't go to bed until 10 or even 11 some nights! Plus her morning nap kept getting later and later so we finally just decided to not even try to put her to sleep for her nap until 12 and then keep her occupied until 7 so she's sleep for the night. It worked pretty well for awhile. But not she has 1 nap and still is trying to go to bed really late so I'm wondering if we need to cut back on the time that she sleeps during her 1 nap?

[EdnaMarie]

One year is the typical age to transition to one nap. That's an average, of course. It doesn't mean your child wouldn't transition later or that there's something wrong with a child who transitions earlier.

However, physmom, overtired children also have problems getting to sleep at night, so perhaps your daughter needs more, not less sleep. How many hours does she get overall?

[pbjmama]

ds was about 12 months
dd was about 9 months

[Letitia]

DS was somewhere between 10 and 11 months.

DD was about 15 months, and it was a harder transition for her. She had several weeks of doing one nap some days and two naps others, and gradually the two nap days got less frequent. We just put her down for an early nap if she seemed tired at that time, and that would be a two-nap day. She has never taken naps as long as DS's.

I got pressure about DD's napping from a friend, but really it wouldn't have been right for her to force her to do it sooner.

We have found with both kids that they sleep much worse if they are over-tired, so sometimes the cure for not sleeping enough is more sleeping, if that makes any sense.

[Fly Girl]

DD just transitioned to one nap last week. She's 15 months. A couple of months ago, I tried going to one nap because she would take a long morning and then not wanting to take an afternoon until really late which screwed up her bedtime. But she just wasn't happy with one nap. So instead I started waking her up after an hour or so in the morning which gave her enough sleep to be happy but then she was ready for an afternoon nap too. I hate waking a sleeping baby but it worked for us until she was really ready for one nap.

[rvamommy]

DD transitioned to one nap at around 15 months but we had a couple of months of transition leading up to it. Some days she took two, sometimes just one. We had to play it by ear for awhile. What helped was getting her down for a 15 min to 1/2 hour nap at around 9 or 9:30. Then we would play a lot, eat lunch and nurse & be napping at around 1:00.

Now that she is down to one, I won't nurse her for the 2 hours or so before her nap. Then we she has the milk it is extra relaxing and a sleep signal. In fact, now when she is ready for her nap she stops playing and asks for "milk" and points to the bedroom door.

Good luck!