2 naps or 1... Help please!

[Marsha101]

Hi.

Some of u may have seen my posts last week about early waking! We have since had some success and another v early start today although it could have been the wind that woke him!

Anyway on days with an early start (4:30-5) I feel that we should try for two naps as we seem to be in the 2-1 transition (got to the point that he would have a good morning nap but continually refuse the second, so made the move to one) DH thinks that 1 some days and two others is confusing and we should just stick to one or the other.. Easier said than done!!

My worry is over tiredness kicking in and causing more early wake ups! He is v happy and when he gets up he doesn't seem untested but does seem v tired later in the day yet if we go out in car or buggy he doesn't fall asleep!

Any experience of this? What do u think?

Thanks.

How old is he? It depends on this mostly.

Our 3 dc never dropped a nap all at once. It took 1-4 months to settle into the new routine, because some days they would still need the nap, and some days not.

I don't think it's confusing to respond to the child's needs in the same way. What you are doing makes perfect sense to me.

Perhaps make the two naps shorter (it's OK to wake a sleeping baby!) and the pm one longer when it's the only nap. But always try to end the pm nap early enough for him to go to sleep at the right time for you. For us that was about 4h before bedtime.

He is 14m!

I have always tried to be led by him but this is hard cause I'm not sure he realises he needs more sleep that he is getting!!!

We had this problem. We coped with the transition by planning an activity that meant a walk in the buggy or drive in the car for 10-20 mins at about 10am. Even if he didn't fall asleep it gave him some down time and provided a bit of a break between early and late morning. If he did fall asleep we would wake him after about 15 mins.

Ds had a 2-2-1 pattern, then a 2-1-1 pattern: basically if he wasn't tired enough to settle easily then we got on with our day. He didn't seem to be confused

long morning nap (10-12ish) and no afternoon nap worked for us, we then pushed the nap forwards slowly so 10-12 became 11-1 became 12-2

We're in that transition phase with our 16 month DS too. DH tends to favour 1 nap on the days he looks after him (3 days a week) while I tend to favour 2 naps on my days (2 days a week). When we're both there (the weekend) we make it up as we go along!

Essentially, for us, he seems to be fine with 1 nap on some days as long as he has a few days with 2 to 'catch up'. Today, for example, I put him down for his morning nap at 9.45am. He messed about in his cot for about an hour then nodded off until 12! Put him down at 3.15pm for his afternoon nap and he just played in his cot until I got him up at 4.30pm. At least he had some quiet time! Took him upstairs at 6.15pm to wait for his Dad to get home before putting him to bed and he asked to get in his cot, so in he went and was asleep within about 10 mins

I'd recommend mixing it up according to how things feel on any given day - as long as there's some quiet time once or twice a day, the dozes will sort themselves out eventually.

we've recently got to that point (refusing second if taking 2 naps) with DD who has just turned 1. I've experimented and it's happening every time now so I'm convinced she's ready for 1 nap and I'm deciding it WILL be when her brother takes a nap at 1pm, simply because she cannot take a decent nap when he's around, the instant she hears his voice she is done sleeping even if she's not IYKWIM. anyway I digress , my understanding is that if your child wakes early and you let them have an early nap essentially all they're doing is catching up on the lost nighttime sleep which in turn reinforces the early waking - this may or may not be true but I have always found once they get to a certain age (DS was nearer 14 months) they will only take one nap easily and so if putting them down early means they then don't nap later they become overtired by bedtime, take ages to wind down and then often wake early. of course it depends on your baby's temperament whether you feel comfortable keeping them awake until you decide they are good to have a nap (never thought I would having had a baby who just would not nap easily at all) - personally I think it's fine to have one nap some days and two on others, whatever your baby needs is pretty much my philosophy, with a few minor tweaks to make everyone's life happier. so at the moment it's a struggle to stop DD falling asleep in the morning but I'm managing it most days and so she roughly has 1-1.5 hours at 1pm ish (depends how long she takes to go to sleep and how soon DS wakes), goes to bed at 6.45-7 ish and was waking pretty much at 6.45 every morning until the clocks changed, I'm hoping to get back to that when it all settles down. I hate the transition between having naps and dropping them - dropping that final one terrifies me but they get through it and when the storm has passed you'll soon be back into a pattern that feels comfortable for you both, until the next stage at least

oh my word just read that back and I think this time change is catching up with me, it makes no sense at all! I'm sorry, hope you can make out what I was trying to say...must. sleep!!