So the past three days, my son has been doing his 9 AM nap like usual and goes to sleep almost immediately for 2 hours. BUT when it's time for his 1:30 PM normal nap, he will not go to sleep--either playing in his crib for an hour or 2 or spends the time fussing. I know that it's about the time to start dropping one of his naps, but I thought it was the afternoon nap that kids kept? By 4:00, he's sleepy--often having that glazed over look and falling asleep if we're out and about. He's still sleeping 11-12 hours at night (8:00 to 7:00 or 8:00) no problem. Any suggestions from any vets out there on how to re-juggle the schedule to something that worked for them?
Have you tried not putting him down at 9am and see how long he lasts? Because maybe if he can go for another hour or so he would just combine nap 1 and 2. A sort of meeting in the middle.
When my son started dropping one nap, he'd go down after lunch (around 12-12:30ish) and sleep for a few hours. So maybe try putting your son down for a nap later (slowly phasing out his morning nap). Even though there were some days that he'd still need 2 naps.
So he sleeps until 8:00 am and then is down again at 9:00 am for a nap? Time for you to try to start increasing the time he's awake in the mornings so that you can get a decent afternoon nap out of him. Try keeping him up until at least 10:30, then gradually push that back another 15 minutes until he's napping in the afternoon and has lunch before the nap. Then he'll make it until bedtime in the evening.
My kiddo is 13 months old too and he gets a nap around 10 am and sleeps until 12 and then another from about 3-5. It works very well for us. Then, at 5 he eats dinner and goes to bed all night at 7 and sleeps until 8 again.
I used to work in day care and had a class of 12 to 18 month olds. We would not nap until after lunch, but lunch was earlier than the rest of the day care. We ate at about 10:30 or 10:45 and then napped at 11:15 for up to 4 hours (every child was different). They still need at least 3 hours of nap each day, so do the schedule that works best for you.
Just remember that it IS an adjustment for his little system to cut down to only one nap, so he just might need to go to bed around 7 or 7:30 instead of 8 each night until he gets used to the new nap schedule.
You will certainly enjoy the evenings together better when he is not "glazed over" from exhaustion.
You're doing great! :o)
P. <><
