Transition from Two Naps to One

Hi J.,
Have you ever read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. M. Weisbluth? It has a great section on moving to one nap. I live by that book! My son is 14 mos. old and is now on one nap (his choice) and he has never been a good sleeper. This book has helped me so much to get him to sleep better! Hope that it can help you too!
H.

My son quit taking naps all together by the age of 2 1/2. It just all depends on the needs of the child. They grow when they are sleeping and some days they may require more sleep than others. I have let my children guide me on there needs. (I have 3 living and one on the way).

Hello. I have a three year old and he knows after lunch time that its time to rest. About 1:00 is a good time. He sleeps until about 3:00. It gives me a break too.
N.

Hello,If you are putting him to bed around 7 or so that is the reason.Try this and I have two girls that are 14 mos apart.Try to get him to bed at 8pm and when he wakes up the next day,give him a nap after lunch and you will see a change.I know for me I had to stop the morning naps because they change as they get older.The nap after lunch will be a long one like (1pm-330pm and you will see a change..Then he will start to go to bed alot better .Hope this helps.

I had trouble transitioning my oldest to one nap. She went from two 1 1/2 hour naps to one 1 1/2 hour nap. I frustrated me to no end, so I can empathize with your situation. The only advice I can offer is try to put him down a little earlier for his nap. This may help. Always putting them down before they start to look tired helps. It may be that he only needs 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap once a day now. My second child was easier to transition, but he still occassionally will take two naps. If your son goes down early for a nap, definitely try to lay him down again in the afternoon. My oldest, once she went to one nap, she enver went back to two. So I guess every kid is different! Good luck. I hope this helps, even a little.

IT IS BEST IF YOU NAP THEM WHEN THEY ARE TIRED. AT THAT AGE, SOME DAYS ARE LEARNING DAYS (NOT A LOT OF NAPS). AND OTHER DAYS ARE GROWING DAYS (SLEEP!!!). THAT IS JUST THE AGE. BABIES AND TODDLERS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A SCHEDUAL IS!!!!!

Hello, my name is B. and I run a daycare. I deal with these things all the time. The best thing is to make sure you and the daycare provider have the same schedule, otherwise his body can not get used to the new times. I have a total of three kids in my daycare that have transitioned from two naps to one in the last 4 months. The first thing is to try and make sure they get up about the same time every morning. If the am nap is around 10 try to schedule a activity at that time. Feed him lunch and then after lunch and right before nap time, read him a small book or sing a song. Something that is relaxing. It can take up to two weeks for him to adjust. This is a very emotional time for children as well as adults. Keep doing what you feel is best. Good Luck
B.

my son is now 4 and he was done with taking 2 naps by 1yr and then my daughter came along , my son was 21 months and then his naps just stopped...so I think if you at least get one nap then your doing great....my daughter never really took 2 naps, she always that i can remember she takes on good nap and sometimes she wont take a nap at all. and she is 2 1/2 sometimes I think that there to busy playing to take naps...all i can say is do whats best for you. and what you are comfortable with....like you said move the nap up a little and see what that does..

D.

Hi J.,

Why change his routine? It sounds like it was working fine with the 2 naps. Even if he talked and played during his morning nap, who cares, it was his down time. A lot of kids don't sleep through their nap but will read, play, talk, it's their way of resting. Don't fix what isn't broken, he'll wean himself from the morning nap soon enough. Good Luck!

J.,

My son went to one nap when he was 11 months. I remember that he would often start to fall asleep during lunch, so I usually put him down around 11. I slowly moved that time later and later until he was napping around 1 again. The nap times can be erratic and will probably remain so. My son would often nap for only an hour and then other days he might nap 2+ hours--this is sometimes still the case (though we are back to longer naps now that he is a lot more active at 2 1/2). I always feel like that as long as he is in a good mood (not crying and whining about every little thing) he is probably getting enough rest--especially if you keep bedtime a consistent thing. It seems with toddlers that nothing is entirely predictable. Hope this helps--good luck.

A.

Hello J.:

What time are you laying your son down for the nap?? I started my children with one big nap right around your son's age. I would feed them a lunch about 11:30 and then place them down for a nap around noon. The transition took about a week or so. But, they always got used to the schedule and ended up sleeping about 3 hours.

There is a small window of opportunity with them feeling tired and then they'll become rejuvenated and not feel tired anymore....that's why I asked the time frame of your son's nap. Maybe he starts rubbing his eyes around 11;00 or 1:00p.m. The sitter has to seize the moment.

Just keep at it and he'll become used to it. I have a daughter that stopped taking naps at 3. Drove me crazy!!! I would place her in her room and she did everything but take a nap. She even picked off the wallpaper. I tried a little tent set up in her room. I tried soft lullaby music (which works really well) we still listen to the same cd every night while my girls fall asleep. It makes them sleepy now when they hear it. Just keep at it and maybe try a special toy just for nap time.

Blessings, K.

Sounds exactly like my daugter. I find all she needs in the a.m. is a twenty minute nap, and then she can make it until 1:00 for her afternoon nap. Try giving him a very short nap or quiet time in his crib, and put him down a tad later for his p.m. nap. If I let her sleep to long in the morning, she will nit go down at all for her afternoon nap. So, be careful and I would suggest limiting her a.m. naps to under 30 minutes. Good Luck

Hi J.,

I transitioned my son now 20 months when he was about the same age. What I did is made a point to keep him very busy in the AM. Park, museum, zoo, etc. Make sure he was worn out, and put him in bed about 11:30 after a good meal. He started out taking about 1 1/2 hour naps, and is now up to about 2. Your son sleeps a lot at night, so he may not need more than an hour and a half during the day now that he is a bit older. As long as he isn't unbearable (a little cranky during transition is normal) you are fine. The other thing I did is if he only took a short nap, I would have quiet time with him in the afternoon. 1/2 hour or so of reading, singing and rocking type thing. That way he got some extra wind down time. Hang in there, you are doing the right thing and it will all work itself out.

Jeny & Zack

Good Luck!! We just went through that last month. Sometimes we still do two a day. Sometimes I can just tell that he needs more sleep. I have not been very strict though on what time of day my son gets a nap. If I need to go out in the AM he sleeps in the afternoon. If I need to go somewhere in the PM he sleps in the morning. We still consistently get 12 hours of nighttime sleep no matter what time of day he sleeps. It just seems to work for us. At first my son was so cranky switching to just one, but he would only sleep for one nap so I knew he was ready. We just had to wait it out. I think after almost 2 weeks he was totally adjusted. Now we get usually 2-2 1/2 hrs for a nap. He was doing the 45 minute thing too. Hang in there, it will get better.

Your son may be one of those children that needs more sleep. I personally prefer that the children in my care at your son's age do only one nap and we usually do those around 12 in the afternoon. I will place a few quiet toys in the playpen with them along with their bottle or sippy and they will go to sleep at their own time.

T.
http://klassytouch.tripod.com

Hi J. -

We had the same issues you're having when my son turned 15 months. We tried putting him down for a nap later in the morning, right after lunch. Once we got him into that routine, he consistently slept for 2-3 hours, once a day. Try putting him down at noon and look for him to wake up between 2:00 & 3:00. What we found worked is that he stayed in his crib until at least 2:30, even if he wasn't sleeping, he learned that this was quiet time and that he needed to sleep or play quietly until it was time to get up. The best part is, he now wakes up in the morning the same way and plays quietly until we come in and get him around 6:30 or 7:00 It's wonderful! He just turned 2 last week, so we've had success with this routine for nine months now.

Hi there J.. I am a mother of three children and I also run an in-home daycare. I understand how difficult the transition is. The key is being consistant with the time of the nap. If your child wakes up around 7 am, keep them busy. The best time is right after they eat. By that time that have had the morning to play and then after lunch their belly is full and that is when most people are sleepy. After they eat. I have a one year old that I just transitioned about a month ago. I had her napping from 9am to 11am, waking up at 11am and then had lunch at noon. By the time she got done with lunch, she was already tired and ready for her second nap of the day, which was from 1pm to 3pm. Her mom would bring her at different times each day and she would wake up at different times. My goal for her was to make sure that I kept her on the schedule while she was in my care. All my children that are under 5 years old take their naps at the same time. It's amazing! Because for two hours I have complete silence and time to gather my thoughts and plan the rest of my day. I would not move the nap time any earlier than 12:30 or 1pm. Because if they have that nap during that time, by the time bed-time rolls around they are tired and usually won't give problems when it is time to go to sleep. I even have a 6 year old who just started a week ago, at his old daycare, they gave him naps during the day and they couldn't get him to sleep at night. Well now that he gets up at 7am and stays awake throught the day, he is in bed no later than 9pm. His mom thanks me every day for it. A good routine is very important, so make sure that you stress to the daycare that you are moving the nap from two to one nap a day. I hope this helps! Good luck!

A.
"Precious Moments Daycare"

Hi, J. ~ I had the same problem when I was transitioning my daughter from two naps to one. She was doing the same thing ~ just goofing around in her crib during her afternoon nap so I decided she was ready for one nap even though she was only 13 months old. She was napping at 10:00 and 3:00 so I decided to try putting her down at 11:30 and she went right to sleep and has been on that schedule ever since ~ and she's 19 months old now. She will nap for about two hours. It does look like I'm going to have to put her down a little later because she is waking up a little later and she's been goofing around when I put her down at 11:30. I'm going to try 12:30 and she how she does. I think it's just a matter of trying different times to see which time works best. Good luck! L.

My son (15 mo.) was wanting to take only one nap a day at 11 mo. He would do the talking and jumping in his crib during the morning nap time. I would give him lunch around 12:00 or 12:30, then he would sleep for 2-4 hours in the afternoon. He would get real irritable before lunch, so I started giving him lunch a little earlier (11:00-11:30). It worked really good. When I see him giving his tell-tale signs of getting tired, I give him lunch, then it's off for a nap.
Lately though, he has been getting more teeth and is more tired than usual. I have been laying him down twice a day again. I think the important thing is to watch his signals, mine gets really clumsy and rubs his eyes and ears.

Just a suggestion, but maybe try one nap at 1 pm.

My little one did this too and she ended up just taking one nap in the afternoon.

Remember try not letting them sleep too late because he/she will be up much later in the pm.

Good Luck!!

14 1/2 months is not too young to go down to one nap. Of course, it all depends on what time he gets up in the AM and goes down for the night. I provide family childcare and the kids go down between 1230-1pm and wake up between 3-330pm. Do not get him up after the 40 minutes. Keep him in his crib. You are the parent. He can stay for a little bit.

I run a daycare and have 1 child that doesn't always take a morning nap...I just let her lay in her pack n play for a while just because she needs the rest. She may or may not fall asleep. If I don't have her down for the morning time she gets really cranky by the time the afternoon nap comes around. She does much better even if she just rests for 20-30 minutes. I let her take her favorite stuffed animal and she may just play with it instead of sleeping but at least she is getting rest.

Hope this helps.

J.-
Hi! My son is the same age and we are in the process of trying to figure out if he's ready to give up his a.m. nap. He's done it a few days (when we've been really busy and doing something fun!), but I've found that overall, he still needs that morning rest or, he too, takes too short of an afternoon nap and is a monster early evening.
If he is still willing to go down in the morning (even if he doesn't sleep), he's still getting some very much needed down time and you should probably continue to let him do so. When he starts to fight you (cry, refuse to go down), then I'd think he's more ready to give up his a.m. nap. Then, you should probably see him giving you a longer afternoon nap when you put him down. Hope that makes sense.

D.

When my girls were that age, I started trying to keep them up past their morning nap time. I started slow and kept them up for about an hour longer the first week and then 2 hours the next time. They were very tired each time because their naps were late and they'd sleep a bit longer than they would for one nap but not as long as they would have for 2. They did adjust though and finally started sleeping for longer periods during their one nap time but it was never as long as it was for 2 naps. If your son isn't sleeping during his morning nap, he might not need such a long nap time anymore.

Hi J.,
I went through the same thing! My son also at about 14 months seemed like he was trying to give a nap so we tried switching to one. He would alsonap for about an hour but than be miserable in the afternoon. After a week of protest he went back down to 2 naps for a couple weeks. Than when we finall did the transition and he was ready it went smoothly. We put him down at about 11 and he sleeps till rougly 2. There are some days where he suprises us and wakes up after an hour and a half but on those days we put him to bed a half hour ar so early. I think they say that babies at that age only need between 13-15 hours a sleep in a 24 hour period so it may be he is getting most of his needed sleep at night. I would say give it a couple weeks of doing exactly what you are doing.
our schedule thar works so well is as follows:
7:00 wake up
7:30 breakfast
8:30 walk
9:30-10:30 play or run errands
10:45 light lunch
11:00 books in nursery
11:15 down for nap

i know that when we were trying to stretch him in the mornings he would start to still get a little tired around his original nap time which was 9ish. if he acted sleepy we would take him into the nursery turn off the lights and let him play quietly for 15 minutes or so. after a week or so he didnt need that down time!

good luck!

M.

My daughter is going to be 15 months, and she transitioned herself to 1 nap about 1 month ago. My biggest issue though is getting her to nap in her crib. She is fine if she is sleeping by us or being rocked, but hates the crib. She will scream for 1 hour plus. I gathered get info from other mothers here, so good luck!!

My daughter needed her 2 naps until after she turned 2. Most of the kids at my daycare have transitioned and do a nap around 12 or 12:30 and sleep 1-2 hrs. If they do not get picked up until 5:00 or 5:30 and their afternoon nap is not good I will often put them down around 4 for a "rest" or maybe a nap- but only for a 30 min to 45 min nap. ithink most kids go to bed by 8:00.

Both of my kids went through the same thing. When they are transitioning, the nap lengths were generally sporadic, usually do to the fact that they were overtired. Putting them down right after lunch always worked best for me, and after a while the naps lengths got longer, and more regular.

Good Luck!

J.