My 13.5 month old baby girl has always been a pretty good sleeper. She sleeps great through the night. Very, very rarely does she ever wake up. Of my four kids, she's by far the best sleeper.
She's been taking two naps a day, but this week she has been AWFUL. She'll take two hours to fall asleep for her nap instead of 10-15 minutes. Since she's been doing it for so many days in a row, it's making me think she's needing a change with her sleep routine.
I've never had a baby go down to one nap at 13 months. I'm a little nervous to try it because if she's not ready, she'll likely sleep pretty awful at night (and I'm 30 weeks prego with baby ##5 and would really like to keep getting sleep at night!). Any time she doesn't get her sleep routine followed during the day, it really seems to mess with her night time sleeping, which is why I am worried about trying this change. Average age to go to one nap is 15-18 months...but maybe she's ready?!
So, to my question, anyone have a child go to one nap a day at this age? I might go ahead and try it today and see how she does. She should have been asleep about an hour ago and she's babbling and playing right now. She looks tired, too. Just curious if others have had babies this age go to one nap.
Wow, I had no idea! Thanks everyone. Now I feel a lot more confident to try going down to one nap. I just couldn't believe she really only needed one! I hope it works smoothly and doesn't mess with her night sleep. Sounds encouraging that it worked for the rest of you. It's been 1.5 hours and she's still babbling away. I think I'll get her back up, have lunch, and try putting her back down. And then hopefully she'll sleep for a long time.
Oh, and some of you mentioned your others stopping their naps completely at 2.5 yrs. My son was like that. I couldn't believe it. He still seemed to need them, though, because he was so fussy. But he wouldn't go to sleep. Then my 3rd, she stopped after she turned two years. She was so hyper and wouldn't ever fall asleep, so it became obvious:-) Luckily she did great with it.
Anyway, thanks again! I feel a lot better knowing this is quite common and that it really probably is the problem.
My daughter has always just taken one nap, from when she was 5 months old. She would always nap from 11:45 until about 2:30 and then sleep from 6 pm to 7 am. She is 2.5 now and STILL pretty much sleeps that same schedule (she goes to bed at 7 now). My son took two naps until he was about 16 months old.
My youngest did go to one nap right after she turned 1. It was crazy because her sister was turning 2 and was still taking two naps......it worked out in the end.....just made sure we went to bed around 7:30.......she still is not a huge sleeper (she does great at night) but quit taking naps around at 3.
I do home childcare and my goal is always to try to get children off the bottle at 12 mos and to have morning naps gone by 13 mos. I have had many many kids who we eliminated the morning naps WELL before then...about 10 mos seems to be the norm for my last several little ones. Then afternoon nap after lunch isn't even until 1pm.
Sometimes they fall asleep in the middle of the playroom floor. I figure they must REALLY need that little 15-20 minutes of sleep at 10 am or so if they can fall asleep in the middle of a crazy, chaotic room with up to 7 other children under age 5 playing all around them!
I would just start manipulating her day. Stop the morning nap and alter lunch and afternoon nap to suit her, then try to push it back a few minutes at a time until its where you can live with it.
Good luck!
Mine did. He still sleeps great at night-goes to bed a little earlier now too.
Give it a try!
sorry i dont have time read responses but i use to run a large daycare *300 kids* and 13 months is the 12-18 months toddler 1 class... there is only 1 nap on avg is daycare.... all the ones i worked at usually 2-3 hours but 2.5 on avg.... 12-3 time frame
Yes, my daughter went down to one nap a day at 13 months (she's 21 months now). She just did it naturally and was happy (not cranky) so to me it seemed like that was just the right thing to do for her. She didn't need 2 naps anymore for whatever reason. She did take one longer nap though - 3 hrs. Now her one nap a day is about 1.5 to 2 hrs.
Yes. My daughter just turned 2 yrs old. Right around one she went from two naps 2 one a day. She was the one that was ready for that, not me. It did seem to work better for us. Instead of putting her down for her first nap around 10 we waited until around 12 then she would sleep around 2 to 3 hours instead of maybe an hour then another hour later. Which also allowed me some time to eat lunch, clean the house etc. Sometimes at first she would get a little sleepy in the evening around 5 I would have to put her down for another nap but that didn't last long. Just wait till she lets you know when she is ready to nap..believe me you'll know.
I don't think it's unheard of to have a 13.5 month old have 1 nap. I work at a mother's day out and our rounting for our 15-18 mo olds was one nap, so that's not too far off the mark. I know we did lunch around 11 so we could have them down by 11:30-12 b/c they ARE tired. What time is she taking her morning nap? If it's at 10, and she's playing for 2 hours, maybe that's the thing to do, let her play until 11 and then feed her and put her to bed. If her morning nap is earlier, you can always do a good snack 30 minutes before bed, then nap, and when we wakes up after lunch, give her another good snack. Like if you were going to feed her goldfish, yogurt, and meat for lunch, maybe give her the meat or yogurt before nap and then give her the goldfish and whatever is left when she wakes up.
If your child was in a child care center they would have moved them to one nap per day around 10-11 months. They move up to the toddler room as soon as they turn 1 year old and that room is on one nap per day. They also start having them nap on cots at 10-11 months old so they are ready for that too.
My DD is dropping down to 1 and she is 11mos.
My son did it at 10 mos.
It's rough when they're not quite ready, but I've found that an earlier bedtime to make up for the lost hour or so helps until they adjust.
I have one doing that right now. My grandson is 13.5 months and yesterday
and today has done the one nap. He was getting cranky so I fed him an
early lunch and then he passed out cold in about 90 sec. He is a great
sleeper. Hopefully he should sleep for three hours. Did not want to put
him down without lunch because chances are he would sleep a short
time because he was hungry. Then may day would be a total nightmare. Sounds like you have to revamp your day.
My son went down to 1 nap between 12 and 13 mos.... Around 1230 instead of later but he had been taking a long morn nap and 15-20 min afternoon so we needed to do something. He was crabby for a few days but the result was great then. It never affected his night sleep. He is my 2nd... DD didn't drop down to 1 till between 16 and 17 mos. Good luck and congrats on the new baby heading your way :)
Yes! My son is 14 months and is a great night sleeper as well, and was taking 2, 2-hr naps until around his 1 year bday. Then suddenly it became IMPOSSIBLE to get him down for his afternoon nap! So now he naps once a day, from 10a/11a-1p, sometimes 2p. The goal is 3 hours:) If he wakes up early from that nap, sometimes I will try to get him down again later in the afternoon. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But the transition didn't really ever mess with his nighttime routine. Occasionally he wakes up at night, but he puts himself back to sleep, so I never have to go in there. I am due in 2 weeks with my 2nd so I was totally feeling the same way about changing the routine!
Good luck!
My boy went to one nap, a long one in the early afternoon at about 14 months. He'd sleep soundly for about 2.5 hours. The hard part was that at 2.5 years old, my boy gave up on naps completely! I hope that won't happen to you. LOL.
My son just turned 12 months last week. He's been on one nap schedule for about three weeks.
My son also went to one nap around turning 1 year old. He typically takes a long one at daycare (typically 1 1/2 to 2 hours) and sometimes a long one on the weekends (sometimes not long enough LOL). He is now 27 months old and still gets one nap a day
