My son gets a good night sleep, 7ish to 7ish with an occasional wake for a drink and has always been on a strict schedule for morning and afternoon naps (I follow Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Child). He now seems ready for just one nap a day, but the problem is he wants that to be the morning nap. Often he is so grumpy at 9-10AM that I have to put him down because I feel it's not fair to him or my family to make him wait until after lunch.
But, whether or not he takes a 1-2 hour morning nap, he refuses to take an afternoon nap. He'll scream, thow out all his crib stuff and get so worked up it is crazy. It is really frustrating because I can't plan my day and it upsets my 3 year old that we have a different routine every other day. Worse than that, my usual easy going boy gets so grumpy in the late afternoon but not grumpy enough to fall asleep earlier (believe me I've tried). I would really appreciate some adivse on how to get him to skp the morning nap and not the afternoon. Thanks in advance experts!
You guys are brilliant! I have been keeping him busier in the mornings and not letting him fall asleep in the stroller or carseat and he is taking a nice long nap after lunch. As an added bonus he is even sleeping better at night. I love this site and value all your input.
if you keep him occupied with fun learning activities in the morning, then you may be able to change the routine. I truly believe that this will help.
Usually the morning nap is dropped between 18-24 months. & that nighttime routine may need to be adjusted.....maybe 8pm to 7am.
He's sleeping 14 hours a day. That's a lot of sleep.
Okay same thing happened to me. As soon as my child hit 16 mos.
So.....I get him good and tired. I let him walk everywhere.
I play w/him outside all morning long (hope you can do this) instead of taking him for a walk in the jog stroller.
Then I feed him lunch and if he won't go down (which is his new thing) then I put him in the car for a short ride and voila.....out like a light. Of to sleepy time and off to bed.............yahoo. :)
Maybe try that if you can
OH AND HE ONLY TAKES ONE NAP NOW.....IN THE AFTERNOON.
I've been told that the baby decides when to nap. I've seen some moms fight this............to no avail so go with !what your baby needs/determines/shows you.
I don't know if this is the best or right answer but my son will still sometimes do that in the morning. He has pretty much dropped the morning nap but will occasionally get fussy enough that he could sleep. What I try to do is run an errand or take him somewhere in the mornings, he may then fall asleep in the car for about 30 minutes (a little cat nap). We get back home, do lunch and then go down for our regular afternoon nap and all is good. I know it is not the best to sleep in the car and for the most part he doesn't really need to but if we can get out of the house in the mornings and plan something for that time he is fine and still takes his regular afternoon nap. 15 months is hard when it comes to naps, I do remember that. My son is now almost 21 months old and is pretty much taking the one nap around 12:30 for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Good luck.
My son also sleeps a good 12 hours and he dropped his morning nap around 15 months. It was very hard at first, but I tried really hard to keep him entertained by going outside or blowing bubbles or other things to keep him awake until I fed him an early lunch by 10:45 or 11:00. He was in bed by 11:30 and would take a two hour nap. Now he goes down a little later, about 12:00 and will take a 2.5 -3 hour nap. It is rough at first, but it will get better. Hang in there!
it just takes time, every day just push the morning nap a little later, maybe even 10 minutes or something... but I think we did about 1/2 hour later for a few days, then another 1/2 hour. eventually my daughter was taking her nap around noon and that worked great, now she takes it more like 1:30, she's 22 months though now.
Good luck, it is one of those transitions that is hard and takes a while
My kids were down to one nap by that age, and done with all naps by age 2. They pretty much make their own schedules and we need to be flexible with them within reason. So, just go with the flow. If he's done with afternoon naps, just have him do quiet time in his room looking at books or playing with quiet toys.
Until he gets used to this he will probably be a little grumpy whether you skip the morning or afternoon so question is when do you want to deal w/ a grumpy little boy. You could slowly start pushing the morning nap back. Keep him distracted. If he is tired at 9 take them out to play, offer a snack, give him something to play with that he usually doesn't get. I don't think I wouldn't push it back too far in the day you don't want it to mess with his sleep. I say push it to about 1130. Have an early lunch around 11 and put him down for a nap it will hopefully be late enough in the day to keep happy until its close to bedtime.
The fact that you made it this far with 2 naps is amazing. My children (2.5 years apart) gave up their one nap in the same week - no --- I was not happy. We instituted quiet time. They had to stay in their rooms in their beds and play quietly. Sometimes they slept - but mostly they played.
Giving up the morning nap may make him grumpy for a couple hours in the morning, but you need the sanity in the afternoon. I'd give him an early lunch - 11 or 11:30 and then plop him into bed.
Good Luck!
LBC
How about trying to schedule a physical activity during those times. Trip to the zoo or the pool, have water play outside, play dates with other kids during that time, bike ride to the park. That way he'll want to be awake to have all tat fun, then after an hour or two of hard play outdoors, you can have some lunch to wind down, he'll be ready for a nap around 1pm. I know that's the schedule that my 4 year old has at preschool and I try to keep him on that schedule during the weekends. That way, I'll go grocery shopping in the afternoon or the mall and he's less likely to be grouchy and throw embarrassing tantrums.
All sounds normal, I was shocked to see he was still taking 2 naps- our 14 mo has moved to one nap for a while(can't remember when). I would slowly push back his morning nap until you get somewhere in the middle. Very tough- because when they need a nap, they need a nap!
My son dropped his second nap at 13 months, and still went down in the morning - but then was a crab by late afternoon. I slowly started pushing his morning nap back, about 10 minutes at a time, until he was going down to sleep closer to noon instead of 10:30 or 11:00.
