8 month old dropping naps

[SpanielFace]

DS is 8 months old, and until recently has had 2 naps a day, morning and afternoon, of about 1.5-2 hours. He naps in his cot, I put him down when he looks tired & he self-settles.

This week he has entirely skipped his afternoon nap on four occasions - just cried and refused to settle, and wanted to play. But then he's been clearly overtired & grumpy by bedtime.

He's in his cot at the moment, supposedly having his morning nap, and isn't crying, but clearly isn't asleep either - I can hear him "talking" away to himself!

At what age do most babies start having one nap rather than two? I'm sure it should be when they're older than this! Any tips for helping him nap? I don't want to start rocking him to sleep etc as he is such a good self-settler. If he is ok on one nap that's fine, but I don't want him to be overtired & unhappy every evening.

[teacher123]

Try shortening them? I try to limit ds (now a year) to 2 hours overall a day-usually 45 mins in the morning and 1 1/4 hours after lunch.

[Jayne266]

I was just looking to see if I could see a thread about this as I feel my DS may go to one nap. So watching with interest.

[SpanielFace]

Thanks. He's clearly not ready - he missed his morning nap and was very grumpy by lunchtime, then was woken early from his afternoon nap (after about an hour) by the dog barking, butthen was so tired he was crying by bedtime. He ended up going to bed at 6pm and sleeping until 7.30am so he must have been exhausted! Hoping for a better day today.

[Jayne266]

Good luck I did a bit more research after this and found it can normally be dropped about 13 months but you need to look for the signs.

[MortifiedAdams]

Could you wake him after 45mins in the morning and then keep his pm nap the same?

DD onl dropped to one nap at 16mo (not that this means anything)