Transitioning from 2 Naps to 1 per Day

Don't be in such a hurry to switch them to one nap. You know your children better than their doctor. My son is 18 months old, and he still takes two naps. He literally can not make it until the afternoon without a nap. I've tried a few times, and it doesn't seem fair to keep him up when he is basically begging to go to sleep. I figure he'll give me clues when he's ready. My son goes to bed around 7 pm and wakes between 6-7 am. He takes his first nap from 9:30-10:30. His second nap is usually from 2:30-3:30. I hope this helps.

With our daycare children we just stopped putting them down for the morning nap, but we would bring everything else down to an earlier time. If they usually slept from say 9-11 and ended up eating around noon, we would keep them ultra busy, tantrums and fussiness and all until 10:30 and would eat a real early lunch and put them down at 11:00 instead. We would even put all the older kids down early with a movie. They eventually fall asleep and the baby will end up waking them up early. The older children may not sleep as long as we would like for them to. But over time we move the babies one nap up later until all of them are back on the schedule we usually keep. There really is no perfectly easy way to transition kids when other children are involved. If you only had the one child at home it would be a lot easier.

Suzi

For what it's worth my 27 month old didn't transition to 1 nap until about 1 month before her birthday. When she took 2 naps, she woke around 6:30 am, nap at 9:00-10:00, then the 2nd nap was usually 2:00-3:00, then bedtime at 7.

I noticed her fighting the afternoon nap more and more, so that's when I decided to take out the morning nap. I cut out the morning nap, and moved the afternoon nap up to 1:00, right after lunch. Now she sleeps from 1:00-3:00, and still goes to bed at 7:00 pm, waking at 7:00 am. The transition was a little rough, especially the first week, but I stuck with it, and now it's much better.

Some kids are different, some need more sleep, some less. Do what works for your kiddos... so if 2 naps are working right now, then just go with it. When you do switch, you might not be able to switch both at the same time. Just be consistent in your routine.

A., just follow your kids' needs and what makes them feel better during the day even if that means two naps. I usually follow pediatrician's suggestions or instructions, but I follow my instincts mostly in this kind of things. Every child is different, and if your little ones need more rest, I think is perfectly normal. Kids have a way to let you know what they need, and yours, I guess, are still in need of having two naps. They will let you know when they are ready for one. I think they will be ready soon, may be in a couple of months or so, just let them have two naps.
Good Luck
Alejandra

Alejandra

I could have written your post. My twins are 19 months old too and do the very same thing. It's awful when they are on 2 totally different schedules. For the most part both of mine sleep most mornings from 10-12, but that is all for the day. As you said, then they are crabby and ready for bed early and then wake up early the next morning. A vicious cycle.....I'm anxious to hear what others say.

I have an almost 18 month old and here is his schedule, which is similar to yours except he only takes on nap.
6 a.m. Wake Up
6:15 Banana and Milk
8:30 Cereal/Toast/Waffle
10 Snack and Milk
11:30 Lunch
12 p.m. Nap
I let him sleep as long as he wants, but on a normal day he's up by 2.
2:30 Snack and Milk
5:15 Dinner
6:30 Bathtime/Storytime
7 Bedtime

At first it's hard because you can't do anything that would remotely induce sleep in the morning and still if we take a morning car ride for more than 15 minutes he's out. I think playing outside during the time that they start to feel sleepy helps. You could also try slowly moving their nap time back each day. I think I remember too that if they are still used to two naps to make the morning nap super short so they'll start to see the afternoon nap as the long nap.

Good Luck!

Everyone was pushing me to get our daughter to 1 nap after she turned one, but she needed the sleep, too. I think she was about 18 mos when we did change, and there are still days when she could use a morning nap, but she fights it, too, so I'm thankful to get what I can. Now she naps around 1pm-3pm. As long as your kids are getting around 14 hours of sleep a day, that's what's important. Be that 11 hours and night and two 1.5 hour naps, or 12 hours at night and one 2 hour nap, it doesn't matter. You might want to read the first part of "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Gentle Ways to Stop Bedtime Battles and Improve Your Childs Sleep" by Elizabeth Pantley. She explains what children need regarding sleep and did extensive research on the subject. It just might help you feel more reassured (and may help with the napping issue as she does discuss twins and naps). Good luck, but I think you're doing just fine!

Hi A.,
I was just talking with my Parents as Teachers lady today about just this subject regarding one of the kids I care for and she gave me a pamphlet on sleep issues that was written by Nancy Birkenmeier, B.S.N., R.N. of the Sleep Medicine and REsearch Center at St. Lukes Hospital in Chesterfield, MO. In the pamphlet it breaks down the average total hours of sleep needed per day by age. Here is the breakdown: 0-6 mos 14-16 1/2 hr, 6-12 mos 14-15 hrs, 1 yr 13 3/4-14 hrs, 2 yr 12 3/4-13hr, 3 yr 12-12 1/2hr, 4yr 11 1/2-12 hr, 5-7yr 11 hr, 8-9 yr 10 1/2 hr, 10-11 yr 10 hr, 12-14 yr 9 1/2 hr, 15-24 yr, 9 hr, 25 and older 7 1/2-8 1/2 hr. One of the pages also states that some signs indicating children might be ready for transiton from 2 naps to one are the following...between 14-19 mos, if put down for morning nap as usual and plays for 30 to 60 mins before falling asleep, morning nap becomes shorter (30-45 min)or later. It says most toddlers take weeks to transition completly to one nap from 2 and by that tiem this occurs moret are 17 mos or older, and they sometimes fluctuate from one to 2. It says not to force the issue or try to keep them up later in morning as that can lead to crabbiness and an overtired child goes to sleep harder and may be restless. Also, the older the child is during the nap trasition, the shorter and less troublesome the transition period tends to be.
I wish you the best of luck... I got lucky and my 3 year old sailed right through the switch fairly easy when we went thru it...cant remember how old she was anymore tho.
L.

Good Morning A., Wow I guess I never thought a Dr. would tell a mom their children shouldn't be napping twice or more a day. All of our Gr children took two naps one in the morning for maybe 90 minutes tops then the afternoon nap which was usually longer. I had our son's take naps or at least rest until they started Kindergarten. Same now with the 2 gr son's I keep daily.
Zane just turned 18 months and he gets really cranky some days around 10, so he might take a 30-45 minute nap, then has his longer nap @ 1. Their Mama wants to try and limit Corbin's (4) naps. Would rather he not have one at all as then he will go to bed at night and not be getting up again before midnight. So some days that is fine he doesn't take one if I can keep him busy, other times I have him lay down for quiet time. He will normally fall asleep also.
Zane goes to bed at night around 7, Corbin stays up until 8. Both are up in the mornings by 6:30.

I can play the naps by ear to decide if and when to put them down. But whether Corbin sleeps or not I am pretty tight of at least having him lay down quite time for at least an hour.

A. I would use your best judgement with your children, you know them better then the Dr. as to if they need One nap or two. When they get overly tired they do become CRANKY, that's for sure.

God Bless you and your little ones
K. Nana of 5

if you don't have to institutionalize t he timing of naps ( which we did due to day care) I agree wtih the other moms and grandmoms to follow your child's lead. my pediatrician god bless him also did not like my Maya Wrap and said would spoil our kids...even though all research points to children that have close contact with parents in the 'Fourth trimester' as better better adjusted at later ages like grade school.

I do try and take his advice but I agree this one you should follow your gut

our dr also said we should take them off bottle at exactly 12 months

whoever heard of children being that exact

my son is probably going to be one of that 1% of 3.5 year olds that needs less sleep ....earlier than other kids....it ought to be really really interesting when he is in preschool this fall and probably wants to ditch the nap in day care/preschool completely.

stay well and good luck

I agree to do what works for your kids. My son transitioned right around 13 months, but I knew he was ready because his morning nap would last all of about 30 minutes. I then started to keep him awake and his other nap switched from late afternoon to right at noon. Eventually I have pushed it back to 12:30. He is now 23 months old, goes to bed at 8:00, wakes between 7:00 and 8:00, and naps from 12:30 until about 3:00. Best of luck to you!

My son is only 16 months now but he still takes two naps. The doctor asked at our last visit if he was down to one nap and said some kids need another nap so not to be worried about switching him to one nap. He wakes at 6 or 6:30 naps at around 10:30 or 11 for about an hour sometimes two and then again around 3:30 or 4 for an hour. Then he goes to bed at 8:30. If he doesn't have the second nap he gets really cranky and we will put him to bed earlier but then he wakes up earlier. So for the benefit of everyone two naps works for us. Good luck with your family and do what works for the kids and you!

Every child is different. My younger daughter took two naps a day until she was 2 1/2. Her body just needed the sleep. There is no reason to cut out the morning nap if they still need it.

As far as transitioning, try shortening the morning nap and then put them back down for a nap around 1pm. During the transition, many children will take two naps one day and then one nap the next. This is very common. Eventually, you will want them to take their nap around 12:30 or 1:00pm every day and sleep for a good two hours at least.

Do what works for you and your kids. You certainly aren't hurting them by letting them take 2 naps. You will know when they are ready to transition.

I have a 17 month old and she actually started taking one nap at around 13 months(ugh). Anyway, she was doing the same thing in the morning and then for afternoon nap she wouldn't go to sleep or it would take forever. Anyway, she now takes a nap after lunch (@12:30) and she usually sleeps 2-3 hours. She goes to bed at night at 7pm. It's a little crazy the first week or so trying this but it will work out in the end. Goodluck.

Hi A.,
I think every child is different and only you can determine if they're ready to transition from two naps to one nap. Just because the Dr says they're old enough doesn't mean they are ready. My feeling is that if they are tired in the morning and are still falling asleep for both a morning nap and an afternoon nap and aren't having any trouble sleeping a full night then maybe you should keep the morning nap for awhile longer. I could tell my daughter was ready to give hers up because she wasn't tired at night for bedtime any longer. If you're set on giving up the morning nap, I'd suggest slowly shortening it over a period of time until they don't have one at all. Their afternoon nap may become longer when that happens to make up for some of the sleep they're missing during the morning. I believe at this age kids should get no less than 12-14 hrs/day of sleep. Good luck!

My son is 22 months and went to one nap at 15 months. I should add he is a pretty active child - his two modes are running or sleeping! At 15 months, he slept at night from about 8-7, nap 9:30-11, nap 2:30-4 (approximately - he's never been very exact or predictable about his sleep.) I started having a harder time getting him down for the morning nap, so I thought I'd try cutting that one out and putting him down just after lunch, around 12:30. Either we were REALLY lucky or he was REALLY ready, but we didn't have a very noticeable transition. He kind of just did it. So since then, his schedule has been 8-7 at night and roughly 12:30 or 1 until 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon.

Based on my (one) experience, and reading your comment, I tend to think the twin fighting the early nap is ready to go to one nap and the other is not. I'm by no means an expert on infant sleep, and I'm sure you don't want them on different nap schedules, but maybe you'd want to try it for a few days and see what happens. Just a thought! Good luck!

My 22 month old daughter went down to 1 nap per day at about 9 months. My child is not a big sleeper however and at night I get her to sleep for 9 hours, max. Her bedtime is between 9 and 10 p.m. and she wakes up about 6 a.m. Her nap is between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and she'll usually sleep for about 2 hours. We went down to 1 nap because she wasn't sleeping through the night. As soon as we cut out the second nap she started sleeping through the night. Each child is different, though. My mother tells me that I rarely slept as a baby (much to her chagrin) and my husband's mom tells me that he not only did he sleep throught the night, but napped twice per day until he started pre-school. I guess our daughter inherited my sleep patterns.

Good luck.

I have a 18 month old son and he has been down to 1 nap a day for the last few months. I started transitioning him after he turned one. However if he shows he is really tired then I'll let him nap. He goes down for his nap around 1 pm and sleeps til 4 or somedays he'll sleep til 5pm. He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 7 to 8 am. I hope this information helps.

Hi A.!
Just because you dr. said that is the number of naps they need for their age does not mean that is what their bodies need. Maybe only one of them needs to go to 1 nap a day & the other still needs 2. Personally I'm not sure how much sleep a 7 y/o needs, but my 7 y/o needs at least 12 hours every night.
Go with what your kids need!

God bless!

A., my son just recently went through this. Maybe I read this wrong but are you saying your children go to bed at 6 pm? Anyway...Alex gave up his AM nap a while back, it was definitely a transition to ease him out of it but basically he just wasn't as tired anymore. That pulled his afternoon nap a little earlier, but it works out great...basically he makes it to lunch, and shortly after lunch, clean up, diaper change, and a story or some quiet music and he is out. If the schedule gets wonky and he goes down to late then he doesn't wake up until evening and then we are in for a late bedtime so I really try hard to stay on schedule.
Alex has an older sister and his daddy works nights so our evenings are his daddy time so he stays up until between 8:30 and 9...he gets up between 7:30 AM and sometimes if we have had a long day before he will sleep in later. You just have to adjust some to the kiddos natural schedules and tweak it a little so that it also works with your lifestyle.
I just can't imagine my little guy going to bed at 6 PM...I mean, how early must you do dinner and bath time? How do you get to go out in the evening for walks? As the summer begins to heat up you are going to want to walk in the evening when it is cooler = )
Lots of luck
B.

Hi A.,

My almost 18 month old is also an earlier sleeper (7pm bedtime) and we love it and it makes her such a happy little girl. She wakes around 6-6:30am. We have been transitioning for a few months now. Some days she takes a short nap in the morning (9 or 9:30ish) and I wake her after an hour. Then she takes an afternoon nap about 1 1/2 hrs. On other days if she sleeps until 6:45am, she usually skips the am nap, but we do an early lunch (11:30am) and she is in bed by 12:00. Then she sleeps more like 2 or 2 1/2 hrs. This has been going on for at least 6-7 weeks now. So I think it just takes time for them to get used to things.
For a 1 1/2 week time frame, she took no am nap, but a long nap starting about noon like I mentioned. So I thought that was going to be the end of two naps, but just a week ago, she was acting tired and wanted to sleep in the am. So I let her. This age should get between 13 1/2 - 14 hrs of sleep in a 24 hrs period.
I really like Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Weisbluth, if you are interested in reading any more.
You are great!
God Bless you,
E.

Do what's best for your kids. The Dr. is making a generalized suggestion based on the average. If your kids still need 2 naps a day, give them 2 naps a day. If your Dr still thinks they need just one nap tell him he can have them for a day & see how well that one works out for him LOL! Good luck.