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Switching from two naps to one nap

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  ananas 
#1 ·
For a year now, my youngest has happily taken two naps a day, one from 9-10:15am-ish and one from 1-2:15pm-ish. (She goes to bed at 6:30am and gets up at 6am). But now that she is 16 months, I can tell she's ready for one nap a day many days but not others. And she seems to need a nap around 11:30am ish but its often too short, only an hour.

What are other people's experiences of transitioning from two naps to one nap? What time is your one nap? How long is it? Do you do lunch before or after? How long did it take to fully transition? We have many days of one nap mixed with lots of days of two naps still.

Thank-you =)
 
#2 ·
My DS is 17 months, and has been doing just one naps for a few months now. He comes to work with me, and our schedule changes depending on the day of the week and seasonal jobs, so we don't have a set "nap time". He falls asleep whenever he's tired (if he's off playing, he comes to me with his sling, so he can nurse to sleep), or in the car between jobs. His one nap is anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours...depends on if he gets transferred to/from the car, etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, just go with the flow? She'll settle down into a pattern at some point! :)
 
#3 ·
A Little Something to Keep Her Going

Thank you for this response! I came to this thread because I struggle with keeping my daughter on a nap schedule. She is 20 months and also down to one nap, though that can happen anywhere from 11 to 2 and last as little as 40 minutes (one sleep cycle for her) or as long as 3 hours (if I let her nurse frequently during the nap). I tend to feel badly about this because so many experts tout the importance of routines for children. Your response is a welcome breeze of chill-the-heck-out.

As for my daughter's transition from two naps to one, that happened around 15-16 months. It began because she'd seem like she needed her afternoon nap, but after trying to nurse her to sleep for half an hour or more, her head would suddenly pop up, ready to play -- usually just about the time I was getting drowsy. It was torture, so I put the kibosh on that. Basically, I'd try to keep her busy in the mornings so she wouldn't fall asleep until sometime after noon. It did help that I was still nursing her so if she seemed particularly cranky mid-morning, I'd nurse her for a bit and the combination of a little quiet time and a little something to eat seemed to help her recharge and keep going until the nap. If you aren't nursing, perhaps a version of this with some quiet books and a light snack would help? Just a thought.

Good luck!
 
#4 · (Edited)
I'm glad my response helped! Honestly, from what I've seen, I think it's almost better to NOT have a "scheduled" nap time or bedtime. So many people I know get locked into their kids' schedules and can't do anything during nap/bedtimes. It can really cramp your lifestyle! My little guy has four much older siblings, and if we had to stick to a prescribed nap/bedtime, we'd miss out on soccer games, swim meets, school events, etc.

If he's tired, he naps at home on the couch, in the car, or on me in a carrier. Life doesn't stop around here for naps! :p

None of my older kids had particularly scheduled nap times either. As they got older, they had a bedtime routine, which involved reading a chapter book aloud, and whichever baby/toddler I had at the time just sort of fit in as well. :)
 
#5 ·
My son is 15 months and we are just starting to move to 1 nap a day. He had been struggling with the two naps so we were seeing if adjustments would work. The nanny gives him some milk and rocks him and he will sleep in her lap for about 15 minutes in the morning and then in the afternoon around noon or so he would take a nice long nap. This weekend was the first one where we tried to do it at home. It will take some getting used to for us. I would like him to eat lunch before the nap so he's not hungry, but he fell asleep in the car both days so we put him to bed when we got home with just some nursing. He slept for 1.5 to 1.75 hours. I think this would be better if he had lunch and didn't fall asleep in the car. This morning he woke up at 5 because his diaper leaked and couldn't go back to sleep and was really cranky by 7:20 when the nanny arrived so she's going to have him take a morning nap today. I think we just need to be flexible during the transition and pay attention to when he is tired and hungry so he doesn't get fussy.
 
#6 ·
Pretty much everything farmer said...my DD (22 months) goes to work with me also. She transitioned to one nap a day probably by the time she was 1 (except for occasional afternoons where she would randomly fall asleep in the car, but that very rarely happens anymore). She goes down at different times of the day depending on where we are and our schedule that day...at work she generally goes down between 12-1 (depending on when we eat lunch and how sleepy she seems). At home she doesn't get sleepy as early so she goes down between 1:30-3:30. Or, quite frequently on days off, I can't get her to go down for a nap at all. It all seems to work out. She still goes to bed at roughly the same time every evening and gets up at the same time in the morning. So yeah, just go with the flow :)
 
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