Transition from 2 to 1 naps

[tinierclanger]

DS has started getting a bit confusing about his naps! He's just over 1 now.

For the past few months, he has had a morning nap around 10 in his cot, then an afternoon one around 1.30 in the pram. Typically the morning one being around an hour and the afternoon one around an hour and a half.

But - the morning one is getting longer and longer, up to around an hour and a half, and the afternoon one has been getting shorter, and last week he only had an afternoon one every other day, for less than an hour.

Trouble is, he still seems to really need the morning one when he has it, but then if he has no afternoon nap he can be getting pretty tired and grumpy by bathtime (although sometimes he copes just fine!).

I really don't know how to handle this. I thought today I might try making the afternoon one later, around 2.30. But if he still doesn' take it, what do I do? Do I just try to gradually push the morning one to later? Then when do you have meals? At the moment lunch is around 12.15 but do we have that earlier, and then try to get him to nap straight after?

Any advice and shared experience gratefully received!

[AvonBarksdale]

Hello tinierclanger. IMO he's a bit too young to drop down to one nap. What time does he go to bed/wake up? This could be affecting his naps in the daytime. In terms of a plan of action I'd focus on the afternoon nap as this is the one that he'll be continuing once he does drop his morning nap, so you have several options. You could try putting him down earlier in the morning, say 9.30ish, and then wake him after 45 minutes/1hour. This would then hopefully mean he would be ready for a nice long nap after lunch at 12.30/1ish. Or you could try making sure he has his afternoon nap in his cot rather than buggy: yes it chains you to the house but it is very important that your DS has the best quality sleep possible - maybe it is no coincidence he is wanting to sleep longer in his cot than in his buggy. If you are convinced he only needs one nap then try pushing the morning nap back to say 11.30am ish, letting him have it in his cot and then putting him to bed super early in the afternoon (5.30pm). Don't be scared, this doesn't necessarily mean he'll be up early in the morning, in fact he may even sleep for longer! Sleep begets sleep - I have a 17mo daughter and I feel as though I can happily talk about how to treat sleep after going through it all! In terms of food, feed when it's right relative to how he's sleeping: lunch at 11am/11.30am dinner at 4/4.30pm if that's what fits with his schedule. Timings of mealtimes aren't massively important at this stage. I'm a firm believer in quality sleep after going through it all with dd and so yes, we're ALWAYS at home for her afternoon sleep (she has only one nap now, dropped the morning one fully a few months ago). It is a pain sometimes and utterly regiments your day but she is so much happier for it (and sleeps very well at night too). Very much worth thinking about, even if you just try it for a few weeks or months before reverting back to the buggy. Hope this helps and good luck! x

[Seona1973]

both dd and ds gave up a nap by 11/12 months. We either had the nap around 11.30am and had a later lunch (they had a mid-morning snack to tide them over) or they had lunch around 11.30am and nap straight afterwards. I just played it by ear each day and gave them a nap when they seemed to need it.

[tinierclanger]

Hi both. Thanks for responses!

He goes to bed pretty early, in bed for 18:45 and then up any time betwen 6 and 7.

I thought I'd put him down later in the morning today but he was shattered so went to bed at 10 as usual.

Yesterday he had a short nap in the afternoon around 3 which he really needed but then he woke up pretty grumpy until teatime - maybe I should just have brought tea forward.

To explain the cot/buggy thing - he used to be a very poor napper and the only way we could get him to sleep was in the pram, which is why his big afternon nap was in it. It's fairly recent that he's started to sleep well in the cot so I guess that's something else I'm getting used to.

For the same reason I'm loath to wake him when he is sleeping as the sleep was so hard to come by! But maybe this is what I need to start doing in the morning. It's so hard to know.

Maybe I just need to play it by ear like Seona and we will just work out mealtimes in the meantime until it all settles down.

[hophophippidtyhop]

Hi, my dd gradually dropped her afternoon nap and the morning one was late morning when she was around 13 months. she went for a two hour sleep at 10 ish initially, and a month later she was going down around 11. she's stuck to this for about nine months - she's two next week and for the last couple of months she's now going for a sleep after lunch. I pretty much did the same as seona, a snack in the morning to tide her over til lunch after sleep.Now I'm adjusting to lunch before and snack after!