12mo refusing 2nd nap

[Mamabear04]

My 12mo has been sleeping like a dream until a week or so ago. She would go down for her 1st nap between 9-9:30am and then for her second nap between 1-1:30pm. She would usually sleep between 2-2.5 hours total in naps per day but the past week she is taking fooooorever to go down for her 2nd nap and then taking ages to fall asleep at bedtime. She is only maybe getting 1.5 hours total in naps during the day if I'm lucky. She is still sleeping through the night (around 11 hours) which is excellent. I'm wondering if she need to merge her naps? I know that she is quite young for this but she is the kind of baby that needs a lesser amount of sleep. I'm just a bit worried about messing around with her naps and then she stops sleeping well at night. I'm also worried she's doing this because she's over tired but then this change seemed to happend almost over night. She was a terrible sleeper up until 6.5mo and I have a bit PTSD from that. I'm so terrified she's going to get over tired again like when she was tiny! Any advice would be really helpful!

[Daisyflower12345]

@Mamabear04 I had the same problem with DD when she was 12months.

I realised she needed to transition to one nap only. An this made a massive improvement.

So I changed her nap time to 12pm and she would usually sleep 2-3hours.

I think maybe your LO is ready to cut down to one nap a day only.

Hope this helps xx

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I did exactly the same as Daisy. I don't think that 12 months is too young for one nap, just take her lead in this one

[MaMaD1990]

Some would say its too early before 18 months but you know your baby best and they aren't all the same!

If she is used to having her nap at 9.30ish try pushing it back in 15 minute intervals each day instead of trying to keep her awake for hours more than she's used to. You may end up with a very overtired cranky baby who won't go down!

[TooMinty]

Mine both transitioned to one nap at 12/13 months. I started out giving them lunch at 11 ish then nap at 12. Then gradually moved the nap a bit later so we had the morning free to do stuff, lunch at 12 ish then nap 1-3. Bed at 7:30.

[Mamabear04]

@daisyflower12345 and @JiltedJohnsJulie how did you both make the transition to 1 nap? Did it mess with you LOs night time sleep?
@MaMaD1990 how do you balance changing the time of the first nap while still trying to get the LO an afternoon nap? My DD will eventually fall asleep for her 2nd nap but usually takes an hour and then will do the same for bedtime!
@TooMinty you make it sound so easy! The timings sound so perfect but I have no idea how to get her there!

Thank you for everyone's support and advice Everything I've read online says 12mo is too young to drop to 1 nap but it does sound like it's normal. I would love to hear all of your experiences!

[Daisyflower12345]

@Mamabear04 I did it gradually. So usually she would have 2 naps like your LO.

So the first day I would do her usual nap time an half hour later, then second day 45mins later, then an hour later and so on. Eventually she got used to being awake and then was totally fine to stay awake until 12pm. So it's best to do it slowly to allow your LO to get used to the later nap time.

It didn't interrupt her bedtime if anything it made it a lot better and she was sleeping on time etc.

[TooMinty]

Oh, it's not easy at first! They fell asleep face down in their lunch or I had to sing at them loudly to keep them awake a bit longer 😂
And sometimes bedtime was 6:30 or 6pm because they snuck in an early nap then wouldn't go down in the afternoon then were grumpy later...

Think of it as a gradual process 😊

[mummabubs]

Our son dropped down to one nap through choice at 10 months but then kept his one nap (1.5 - 2 hours) until he was 2.5. Letting him take the lead was much less stress than trying to convince him to nap when he clearly didn't want to! He was a terrible sleeper at night right up until he decided to drop naps completely, it's only now that he's sleeping 11 hours and sleeping through reliably, so they're all different. 😊

[ViceVersa]

DD also dropped her 2nd nap at 12/13months after I went to great lengths to find a childminder who could facilitate both without disturbance!

She just dropped the 2nd nap by herself and started having a longer morning nap of around 3 hours which she still has at age 2.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

how did you both make the transition to 1 nap? Did it mess with you LOs night time sleep?

Pretty much the same as the other poster really. I kept them very busy in the morning, lots of distractions and brought lunch and the afternoon nap forward for a bit, I think we started lunch at 11am and nap straight after. And I can't remember it affecting nighttime although the days will take her a small time to adjust to

[Steezy]

My DS is 16 months and sometimes drops his afternoon one. I just follow his lead. But if he misses his afternoon one which would usually be around 1:30/2 I won't let him sleep if it gets to 3pm. Otherwise he'll stay up until 10 and be a bit ratty.

[Mamabear04]

It's honestly such a puzzle! So how does it work once you start pushing the morning nap back? Do you just give them a cat nap in the afternoon to get them through? I'm worried that if I push my LOs morning nap then she will still need a nap before bedtime. I'm not entirely sure she will have a good nap in the morning - right now she is just doing 30-45 min in the morning so what do I do if I put her down later and then she only sleeps for a short time and then come afternoon she needs another nap but then it's too late to work with bedtime? I'm worried if I just make her push through to bedtime then she'll be over tired and I'll have messed everything up!