From 2 naps to 1

[Tattooed Hand]

How do you know when it's time to drop to one nap?

DD's sleep has recently changed alot - she used to sleep around 9 hours a night with 2 2-hour naps. The last few weeks she started sleeping 11ish hours a night and taking 2 1-hour naps. But lately I am lucky if I can get those 2 hours of total nap time out of her and she is more like 1-1.5 hours of nap time a day.

How do you know when it's time to switch? She naps now at 9 and 2. Should I put her down at 11ish for a one a day? She wakes at 6am like clockwork and goes down between 6 and 7pm (waking what feels like a billion times in the middle).

(x-posted in Toddlers)

[ErinYay]

V, who is 3 days younger than your little one, has been down to one nap for a month. She used to nap from 10-12, then again from 3-5. She now naps from 12-2ish, sometimes (if I am very lucky) til 3.

It was taking us 4 hours to get her to go down to sleep at night, so we said "Fine, don't sleep," and we just kept her awake one day, to see what would happen. She fell asleep on my lap at 3pm, and napped for about 2 hours. After that, she was happy, cheerful- like a whole new kid. She now puts herself to sleep for naps, and 50% for bed, too- without crying or fussing. I can actually put her in her crib awake and she'll just chill out while I hold her hand and pat her back, then she's out. Otherwise she happily plays for a bit, then crashes on her own. It's amazing.

On occasion she'll show me she needs an am nap, like if we got up really early and she starts rubbing her eyes, etc. But I think since we dropped a nap, she's only done that like 3 times.

In an ideal world, she'd still be taking 2, but she seems to be doing much better

[carmel23]

I think babies need to nap have the opportunity to nap twice until at least 12 months. Even if the naps are only 20 minutes, the baby needs the opportunity.

Babies still need 14 to 15 hours of sleep per day at this age. So unless your baby goes to bed really early-- like 6pm, and sleeps until/ after 6am (12 ~ 13 hours) you're betting on one 2 - 3 hour nap happening every day.

Which may happen for some children, but it's been my experience that they don't truly drop that second nap until well after 12 months.

[Tattooed Hand]

We have not managed to get her to sleep more than 13 hours a day total for months now. She goes down pretty easily, but just won't stay asleep. And, the earlier we put her down for the night, the happier she is. And she'll sleep 6pm-6am if we let her (again, not all in a row, but her night wakings are another matter altogether, they happen no matter how many hours she sleeps at night or the time she goes to bed).

The frustrating things is that she takes these short naps twice a day and seems tired all day.

[carmel23]

Yeah, I guess I would stress the option to nap-- but that could be in a carrier on your back, etc. More often then not my little guy naps on me or in a stroller, out,etc. But he always naps at least twice in a day. I don't do anything different to get him to nap, or not nap.

I think if she gets around 13 hours of sleep, she is doing well. But if she has one nap a day there really is no guarantee she'll sleep longer... I guess I don't see how you can really control it, yk?

[Tattooed Hand]

yeah. I will keep giving her the option to nap, though I wish it was as easy as a carrier or the stroller (which she will sit in for others, but not for me). DD is SO sound sensitive that she will only sleep in a room with a white noise machine and a fan. she didn't sleep at all before we figured this out.

[redvlagrl]

DD transitioned to 1 nap at 10 months, though she was sleeping 12 hrs through the night and napped for 2-3 hours.