at what point do I let the second nap go?

[Snapdragon]

Ds is one yrs old as of a few days ago. He had been doing a 2 hr morning nap and a one hr afternoon nap for quite some time, it was a pretty predictable schedule. Lately he is really resisting his afternoon nap! today I finally gave up on it, but now at 5pm he seems to be really tired so dh is trying to put him for a npa now- we know this will put his bed time pater tonight but we need the break today!  So he used to do 2 naps and then 7:00 bed time. with the recent time change we are closer to 8:00 or 7:45 bed time, but on days like this (which happened yesterday too) where he gets a later nap, he goes to bed later. so anyway- I am just lookng for advice on this transition.  He used to get up around 7, nap from about 9-11 or 8:30-10:30 when he gets up earlier, and then another nap around 2:00.  I am just not sure if at one he only needs one nap? or how to deal with his transition of really resisiting his afternoon nap, and then taking it too late and throwing off bed time. I hear silence from the bedroom so it seems like dh may have been successful at getting ds to nap, yay! but it is 5:00 so now he will be up till 9:30 or so!

do one yr olds still need 2 naps?

[Knitting Mama]

We're right here too! Lately Cecilia's afternoon nap has been either completely nonexistant or just really short. But she has such a hard time staying awake in the morning that I don't know how we're going to do this. I can't imagine keeping her awake in the morning for 4 hours so that she can take one long nap!

[Snapdragon]

yeah, thankfully he is still going for his morning nap within 2 hrs of being awake. I am hoping this afternoon challenge is something temporary! But who knows.

[Knitting Mama]

I talked with a couple of veteran mom friends today about this. One said that she just went with the flow and let her son go down the usual 2 or so hours after waking up, and then after he woke up from that nap, he was awake for 8+ hours until bedtime. She said that it naturally balanced itself out after a month or two.

The other said that she specifically pushed her daughter's naptime up by 1/2 an hour a week. By a month later, she was going down 3.5 to 4 hours after waking up in the morning instead of two. So I guess we have a couple of options! I think tomorrow I am going to try to go somewhere in the morning so that Cecilia is awake for longer than two hours and see how she does. Wish me luck!

[Snapdragon]

Good Luck! I am gonna try to do what I can to keep the 2 naps for as long as I can- just cause I so welcome the breaks!

[Snapdragon]

 Another day where he did not want  the second nap:( boo

Edited by Snapdragon - 3/20/11 at 2:52pm

[Knitting Mama]

We're doing well so far today with the one nap idea. She got up around 9 am (after being up from 3 am to 5 am which SUCKED ), and would normally want to go down around 11. I kept her up and around 11:30 we went grocery shopping. She loves being out, and it made it even better for her that we saw my parents there, so she was super excited. We stayed out until 1 pm and she went down around 1:30. We're at 3:20 right now and she's still out, though I can hear her stirring. So whenever she wants to get up now, I think we'll be good to go until bedtime. My goal is to do something similar, going somewhere, this week and aim for a 3-4 hour awake time from getting up in the morning.

[Snapdragon]

so you are fine with transitioning to one nap then?

I am resisting it but of course, the baby is the king, and I am merely his humble servant- ha ha!

Well, today he totally only took one nap- though it was actually an extra long one this morning and i slept at the same time, so I can't complain. But then no afternoon nap, but then he went to sleep just now at 7:15! yay!

Today was different cause dh was home and our whole day started kind of later and the first nap was later- so we will see how tomorrow goes.

[yippiehippie]

DS has been about the same...can't imagine no morn nap, but afternoon has resisted. Elizabeth Pantley (no cry sleep solution) and others I've looked up online ALL say they must be at least 1 yr and it's usually 18mo to transition. I thought about doing it anyway (experts also say they need 11-12 hrs/night and 2-3 during the day and DS only gets 10/night and 1.5-2/day!) but I've also heard a lot that have to transition back to two naps bc the kids really do need them at this age. I'm sure there's many exceptions and it totally depends on what works for the child and family.

So...DS is still at two 45min naps per day but please keep updating bc I want to see how/if it works for you guys, as I'm too scared to try;) 

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by Snapdragon 

so you are fine with transitioning to one nap then?

I am resisting it but of course, the baby is the king, and I am merely his humble servant- ha ha!

Well, today he totally only took one nap- though it was actually an extra long one this morning and i slept at the same time, so I can't complain. But then no afternoon nap, but then he went to sleep just now at 7:15! yay!

Today was different cause dh was home and our whole day started kind of later and the first nap was later- so we will see how tomorrow goes.

I woukd rather two naps, as I've come to love the break, but I want bedtime to be easier, so I'm fine with one nap if it means she sleeps better at night.

Sent from my HTC Evo using TapaTalk

[Snapdragon]

this one nap only thing has pretty much only been this last week. I think he still needs two tho and I think starting his first nap early enough is important- just gonna try to work it out and see what I can do! I think the time change threw us off a bit. we'll see how it goes.

[my kidlets and me]

Originally Posted by yippiehippie 

DS has been about the same...can't imagine no morn nap, but afternoon has resisted. Elizabeth Pantley (no cry sleep solution) and others I've looked up online ALL say they must be at least 1 yr and it's usually 18mo to transition. I thought about doing it anyway (experts also say they need 11-12 hrs/night and 2-3 during the day and DS only gets 10/night and 1.5-2/day!) but I've also heard a lot that have to transition back to two naps bc the kids really do need them at this age. I'm sure there's many exceptions and it totally depends on what works for the child and family.

So...DS is still at two 45min naps per day but please keep updating bc I want to see how/if it works for you guys, as I'm too scared to try;) 

I've learned that the "experts" speak in vast generalizations.  My kids all consolidated to 1 nap waaaay before 18 months (ds1 was only 10 months old), and all my kids have given up naps altogether before 2.5.  All my kids thrive on less sleep than they are "supposed" to have.  The expert advice just stressed me out with dd1, so now I ignore it.  
 

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by my kidlets and me 

I've learned that the "experts" speak in vast generalizations.
 

I think that expert advice is a great starting point, but I do think that sometimes people stress themselves out unnecessarily trying to fit their child into the nicely painted picture an expert portrays. Some kids do things on their own timetables. I know that a lot of kids don't go down to one nap until later, but I also know kids younger than my Cecilia who have done it already. I am just going with the flow here, reading her signals, and her signals seem to indicate that she wants more awake time between her sleeps, so we're giving it a go. I'll be happy to let her have two naps again if she seems to want it again.

[greenemami]

Dd dropped to one nap around 9 months old, ds just a year old last week and mostly only takes one nap, though it varies. Today he woke up around 7:30, napped from 11:30 to 2 (which was an abnormally long, but wonderful nap for him! yay!) and will go to bed around 7:30-8.  This schedule works really nicely for us because it allows me some flexibilty to do things (errands, activities, playdates, or even just chores or projects ag home.) in the morning or afternoon and we all get a nice midday break. Sometimes he will nap around 10;30 for just a short nap and then wants another nap around 4, which pushes his bedtime to close to 9 or 10 pm, which I am not a big fan of.

 I would just do what works best for you-some moms don't mind the late bedtime and still enjoy two breaks during the day while others, like me, would rather sacrifice one break during the day for one at night :)

[Snapdragon]

Another one nap day here- though we were out at appointments all afternoon- the good news is that he went to bed at 7. I still prefer when he used to do two naps AND go to bed at seven. Still hoping for that. But I do like the early bed time as dh and I NEED our alone and alone together time at night without staying up too late as we are both over tired anyway

[Knitting Mama]

So last night was wonderful, seriously the best night of sleep she's ever had. She didn't go down until 10:30, which I thought meant that we were in for a bad evening, but then she slept solid until 5 am, got up for milk, and went back down until 10:30! 12 hours of sleep! That is completely and utterly unheard of here.

The downside of that is that she only napped for 40 minutes today. She went down at 1:00, and I figured she'd nap until 3-ish, which worked fine for me. Instead, she woke up at 1:40. So tonight she went to bed at 7:30, and I am praying that she has a repeat of last night and sleeps until 7:30 tomorrow!

[waiting2bemommy]

Cecilia's Mama, have I mentioned that Cecilia is absolutely *adorable*? I love that picture!! 

Anyway, on topic, I was just coming here looking for a thread about this....dd is in that all over the place nap stage.

In my case I am looking to hurry up the transition to one nap. If dd is on a two nap schedule then my day looks like this: dd up at 7, ds up at 8, dd snack at 9:30, ds not ready for snack until 10 because he got up later. dd down 10-12, then up to eat lunch with ds, then ds down 12:30-3, dd snack at 2 then down 2:30-3:30, ds snack at 3, then both kids are up til 8:30 or 9. Basically it sucks because my entire day is focused around the nap/snack schedule and there is no good time to get out of the house without compromising someone's nap.

So I have been including dd in ds' morning activities.....if he is doing schoolwork I put her in her chair at the table with a crayon or two. If we are doing cut and paste I give her paper to rip up. I feed the kids lunch a bit earlier (like 11:45) and then put dd straight to sleep, while ds get the "big boy" privilege to read books with me and then in his bed. dd usually wakes up first, around 2:30 PM and ds wakes up around 3 or 3:30. After dinner we do the same thing, baths for both kids, cleanup time, and then dd goes to bed about 7:15 while ds gets to stay up til 8:15 or 8:30. 

Honestly ds had a 7 PM bedtime for the first 2 years of his life. It didn't matter how many naps he took, I carried his butt to bed at 7 PM because I desperately needed that time for other things. So I know it can be done. I've just gotten lazier my second time around.

The early bedtime has helped IMMENSELY with getting dd to sleep without a struggle. And a new development since I've done this consistently is that she now wakes less between 7-2 AM and after nursing I lay her down and she goes back to sleep without any fuss or back rubbing or singing or other hoopla. It's AMAZING.

[MrsBone]

my son is now 2, and giving up naps completely, but at a year he was down to one nap a day. He's never needed much sleep though. He'd sleep 11 hours at night and 1-2 hour nap during the day. That was it! Now, he sleeps about 12 hours at night total. It's been a rough couple of months getting him to give up naps, but has been well worth it. Before, he'd wake at 7:30 and not be sleepy for a nap until 3:30-4, so if he took a nap at that time, he'd sleep for 2 hours and be up until 10:30. yuck! So, now he doesn't take a nap and is in bed by 8:30, then sleeps for 12 hours! Just roll with it and know it may be a day here a day there where she takes a second nap one day and not the next..Just when you think you've got their sleep figured out, they go and change it on us!

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by waiting2bemommy 

Cecilia's Mama, have I mentioned that Cecilia is absolutely *adorable*? I love that picture!! 

Thank you, mama! Sadly, "side head" on command is a thing of the past now. I am so glad we got photos of it!

[texmati]

don't fight to keep the 2nd nap so hard! When ds stopped taking his second nap it was a miracle. He no longer faught at each naptime/sleep time. Life was so much better!