transitioned to one nap, but taking it so early

[Mama Rana]

For the last 2 weeks or so, DS has been taking a nap at like 10, 10:30, sleeping for about 1.5 hours. He isn't usually taking a second nap in the afternoon, but on the rare occasions that he does, it is really too late. he goes to bed between 8 and 9, though on occasion we've gotten him down at 7:30 just because he's so tired, and he usually wakes up at 6, though with the earlier bedtime, he's waking at 5:30 sometimes (though that MAY be related to DH getting up earlier as well).

I'm worried that 1) he's napping too early and 2) that he's not getting enough sleep overall. Yesterday when I tried to hold off on the nap, he started to doze off in his booster seat!!! This is the boy who is somewhat challenging to get to sleep.

By the way, he's 16 months old.

What do ya'll think? Should I be trying to get him to sleep more, and if so how? Should I try to shift his nap later, and if so how?

Thanks! :notes:

[organicmommy]

My dd is 10 months and there are days that she will only take 1 nap, sometimes at the times you are having it happen. She will sometimes try to take another nap at around 6 at night, but we like to have her in bed between 9 and 10 so that we can go to bed between 10 and 11.

I think the you need to read his cues and go with that. We have never had a schedule and so I don't think that my dd is one to have a set time for things.

Hugs
Jessica

[katenyc]

We're in the middle of this now. A few weeks ago dd (almost 14 months) was taking a nap at 9:30 or 10 for 1.5-2 hrs and refusing to go down again in the afternoon (occasionally collapsing at 4:30 or 5 for an hour or less, but who wants that?).

So...basically now I feel like a mean mommy, but I stretch her until at least 11. Around 9 or 9:30 we go out and run errands--or we go to the park. We're out for at least an hour, then we come home and have a snack. Usually by this point she is getting crabby, so I pop in a Signing Time video (competes with my boobs for her #1 fav thing in the world :wink ) and that extends her another 30 min. Immediately after the closing credits she turns to me and signs to nurse, and then nurses to sleep within 10 minutes...sleeps for 1.5-2.5 hours.

I have been second guessing myself about this over and over, but every time over the past month that we let her sleep earlier in the day, she refuses a 2nd nap and the afternoon is exceptionally long (for us and for her) and I find myself in the bedtime quandary: I don't want to put her to bed before 6:30 because a 5:30 wakeup is not good, plus then she'll want to nap at 8:30 the next day and it would be a terrible spiral!

It might be different if I could pop her in the car when she's sleepy, just for 30 min in the afternoon, but I only have access to it on Sundays. For now we're sticking with this...

Oh, I've also found that if she has a playdate in that range (9:30-10:30) she does not get crabby and whiny.

HTH--we're there with you :D

[lara1828]

My 16 month old was often doing the same thing. It seems counterintuitive, but I noticed that if I feed him a snack around 10:00 when he is getting sleepy he usually perks up and then will stay up until 11 or 11:30 (which I think is still an early nap - but it is late enough to eliminate the dreaded 6:00 nap).

Hope that helps!

Lara

[starbarrett]

Glad to see this is so common!

DD (16mo also) has been "in transition" for about a month. She's ready for a nap by 10am lately, but now that she's not taking an afternoon nap, it's hell if I let her go down so early. So I too try my best to keep her up until 11:30 or 12. Her naps are only between 1.5hrs-2hrs. long, and she only sleeps about 10 hrs at night. The benefits of this new routine is that it's super easy to get her to sleep at naptime and bedtime 'cause she's so exhausted!

[Diane B]

I'm in the "keep 'em up" camp too. We tried not to ride in the car, stroller, etc. in the late morning and do interesting and active things so that our daughter's naptime would be in the middle of the day as well - otherwise, we had the "late afternoon doze/not sleepy at bedtime" problem too. We only had to deal with this for a couple of months - now, she rarely gets sleepy much before 12:30 (after lunch.) I know there are mixed opinions about manipulating children's nap times, etc. but it was a very gentle process and ultimately, it's worked out terrific.

[mommyabroad]

We went through a similar phase. I'm a much better parent if I get a break in the afternoon so I encourage DS to nap after lunch. This is really easy to do at home and if we do outings much earlier in the morning. He stays awake and happy. The challenge is only if we are in the car mid-morning and driving any distance. Than DS would snooze with ease. He's always been one to love car naps.

[tripleaces]

We seem to be experiencing the opposite! :LOL Well, for several months my DD has only been taking 1 nap. We slowly moved it to around 12pm-1pm and she'd nap a good 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. The last week, though, Dh has been leaving earlier, waking us up around 6:30-7am, and she's back to 2 naps. But she literally spent months with only 1 nap. Now that I think about it, our lives have become a lot more active lately, so that probably has a lot to do with her double naps again. I love it, I nap with her most of the time! :down