How do you know when they're ready to drop a nap? or merge them as HV suggests????

[bluesmile10]

Ds i 13 mo - generally has 2 naps a day - morning one about 10ish for up to an hour and pm one around 2.45 again for hour or so. He goes to bed between 7 and half past, but lately this is edging later - he doesnt seem tired and messes around. Also had odd nights of waking during the night?

A little while ago, HV suggested merging naps!!!!!!! I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to do this - if I make one later, surely the other will get later???

Or is he just ready to drop a nap? If so, which one?? There are the odd days when he drops one, but not consistent in either am or pm!

hi there, my 15 month old has being on just one naps for months now, he naps for 2 hours between about 2-4pm, we then get him ready for bed at 7.15ish and he is in bed by 8 but normal doesnt get himself off to sleep til about 8.30 then awake at 9 the next morning, maybe if you put him to bed a bit later, he will wake later and you can draw the nap out so maybe after lunch if that suits you. my guy just stopped himself napping in the mornings and now by after lunch he is tired.

hope that helps, best of luck

Most babies drop the morning nap first. You can always bring lunch forward a little and let him sleep for a little bit longer after lunch.

I think what the HV is suggesting when she says merge the naps is that you drop one and make the only nap he has a longer nap. My DS does that some days and other days has two naps depending on how he feels and what we are doing.
So one day he will be tired around 11am so he goes down for an hour and then he will probably have another 1 hour nap about 4pm. But some days he isn't tired at 11am, or we are out doing stuff so he won't nap until about 2pm. Then he will usually sleep for about 2 hours, and then doesn't need another nap until bedtime.
Just try not putting him down for a nap at 10am and seeing how long he can go until he gets grizzly and unbearable, then put him down and let him sleep until he wakes up naturally - ie don't wake him after one hour. He will probably have a much longer sleep and then won't need another later on.

Hi there, my (nearly) 13 mo DD sometimes gets tired around 10ish but i try and distract her to wait til after lunch and then give her 2 hours between 12.00 and 2.00 then shes nice and tired for bed around 6.30/7. i sometimes give her a mini snooze at ten (like 10/15mins) and then a slightly later nap at lunch (i.e. 12.30/1) but if its anything more or later than that then i find she doesn't go down well at night. trial and error until you work out whats best for you and your little un :)

p.s.i think you know if they are ready to drop a nap if they aren't getting to sleep so quickly at night, so i would suggest your DS might need to drop one.

DD1 went down to one nap at around 14months. She had been taking longer to get to sleep at night for a week or so, then simply refused to nap one afternoon (but was mega-cranky by bedtime)

We moved lunch to 11am so she could be in bed by 12, and I think we might have also started the bedtime routine a bit earlier for a while to avoid any bedtime meltdowns!