How did you know if your LO was ready to drop to 1 nap?

[TSomm]

My DD is 10 months and I realize that is way early for 1 nap a day, but she's been fighting her morning nap for 2 weeks now.  I know all the tricks, but they just aren't working. 

She'll be up between 6 and 7 and won't go back down until around noon.  Sleep for an hour or two, then be up.  Then she gets tired for bedtime earlier than usual, maybe 4:30 or 5, but I don't want her to sleep then and I try to keep her up until 7 when she (hopefully) crashes for the night.

Teething?  Growth spurt?  Too excited about standing and cruising?  I'll listen to what she wants, but just curious what others have experienced.

[LadyCatherine185]

my ds was 10 months when he dropped to 1 nap

[lookatreestar]

yikes my 18 month old is down to one but up until this point he would sometimes take two. but it almost never happens anymore.

[Lauren31]

I think it's different for everyone... I was wondering the same thing recently. Up until about a week ago DD would sleep from 9pm-9am, then 11-12 and then 3-5. and back to sleep at 9. Lately she has been skipping the morning and napping about 3 hours int he afternoon and falling asleep around 8 and waking up at 8:30 or 9am. I think you could try to skip her morning nap and see what happens.

edited to add- DD is 10 months as well!

[Unlikely Mama]

My baby is 9mo and I realize this isn't your question exactly, but in terms of fighting sleep, your wake times from wake up to first nap are super long. The max wake time for a 10-11 mo. is only 3-4 hours. You probably already know this, but if you keep them up longer they get overtired and have an even harder time going to sleep.  Also, I regularly put my baby to sleep around 5pm if her naps have been poor that day.  Babies need about 11-12 hours of night sleep at this age (night sleep is more restorative than day sleep) and although it sounds counterintuitive, my baby started sleeping way better with longer stretches when I stopped trying to keep her up hoping she would sleep in.  Although obviously PP says her baby transitioned to one nap at 10mo., that is the really early end of the spectrum. Average is 14-15 months. I would start with age-appropriate wake times and an early bedtime for a week and see if it doesn't help.  GL!

[flavorfull1]

DS is 11 mo this week and he has started to drop the morning nap probably for two or three days and then goes back to it.  He gets about 12 hrs for night time and about 1.5-2hrs for his afternoon nap. I have done everything to lengthen his sleeping time but it is just what he is doing right now. I am not going to stress about it (because I already have :)  so, I am going to be as conducive to sleep as possible but I have my limits to how long I will try to get him to sleep. He gets upset and I do too if we try for longer than an hour to get him to sleep.  He was doing this a month ago and then went back to two naps a day. It seems to revolve around what he is learning and right now it is standing on his own, teeth, and climbing. Hope this helps and yeah this is what mine is doing too.

[TSomm]

Thanks for all your replies.  Would you know it she took a morning and afternoon nap today?  I'll watch her over the next few days, maybe even try to get ther to bed earlier, and see what happens.

[texmati]

My son dropped to one nap pretty early 7-8 mos, i think? It was like a miracle. Naptime was no longer a struggle, bed time was no longer a struggle. He was in a better mood all day long. I wouldn't put too much stock into wake times and number of months means this many hours of sleep. If it works for your family, go for it!

[NevadaMama]

Originally Posted by texmati 

My son dropped to one nap pretty early 7-8 mos, i think? It was like a miracle. Naptime was no longer a struggle, bed time was no longer a struggle. He was in a better mood all day long. I wouldn't put too much stock into wake times and number of months means this many hours of sleep. If it works for your family, go for it!

Same thing for our DD, she was about the same age when she dropped to one nap. Now she gets up around 8:30, goes down around 1:00 and sleeps almost all afternoon til around 3:30 or 4! She's been doing this consistently for the last few months and it's wonderful, she doesn't fight naptime anymore and doesn't wake up during her naps anymore either. Plus I get lots of housework done, oh joy

[MJB]

My 5 mo. old only takes one nap a day, but it is 2.5-3 hours long. If she falls asleep before noon (after waking at 7-8) she won't sleep more than 30-40 minutes and won't go down for her real nap until later than usual and won't sleep as well. She was off her game today and slept for about 20 minutes 5-6 times, but didn't get a real nap. She's MUCH happier when she gets a good afternoon nap in. All babies are different. From my experience with 3 kids; if the baby's happy, it's working. If they're acting tired, they need more sleep. If they do fine with a missed nap, they probably didn't need it.