Nap drop 2 to 1 .....advice please!!

[nadine6301]

Hey all,
My little girl is nearly 12 months in a couple of weeks and this week suddenly refusing morning nap...other than thinking it's a little early (although some say not) can it happen overnight? The last few weeks her afternoon nap has been getting shorter and shorter to approx half an HR but suddenly overnight the morning one just appears to have been dropped..has this happened to anyone else??
I am putting her down now at about 4.5 hrs after waking in morning but her nap is still only 1.5 hrs tops so getting her through to bed is tricky and last few nights we have wake-ups and crying probably due to overtiredness ?? just when we were starting to get somewhere with night sleep too..
I am trying to put her down at her usual nap time ( just to see) but nope a definite no no so I get her up and try again later. Will this one nap naturally extend ??
Any advice greatly appreciated, thank you x

Switch it to one nap after lunch, they adapt pretty quickly

Yes it will extend well either that or she'll get used to the less slepp during the day

Like a PP said, one nap after lunch!

My little one started nursery at that age and that was their nap schedule . He transitioned quickly and started sleeping better and longer at night and ended up getting more sleep overall with just one nap after lunch .

We did a 7:00/7:30pm bedtime , wake up was around 7am and nap was after lunch ( around 12) and he would nap 2-2.5 hours .

He’s 19 months now and pretty much on the same schedule and it’s been going strong for the past 7 months .

Thanks all but can I ask if you did a gradual move to that later nap...? or did you just move it cold turkey as such?
It just seems so sudden for little ones. Thank you

@nadine6301I did it cold turkey . My poor little one was sooooooo cranky for the first few days but adjusted quickly .

Our daughter decided it was time to drop to one nap at around 11 months. We tried to delay the transition as most things said it was too early --- I definitely don't recommend that, as all it got us was a few weeks where every single nap/bedtime was a struggle (no doubt because it's hard to fall asleep if you're not tired)!

We gradually moved the one nap later (wee one would have fallen asleep in her lunch otherwise), brought bedtime slightly earlier for a bit to limit the crankiness, and in the first week or so, there were one or two days when she did have two naps, and we just rolled with it.

Oh it's a relief to hear it's not unheard of then ...phew! Sorry to bombard you with questions but approx how long did it take you to transition fully to one nap? And when you say gradual did you put little ones naps back by half HR every few days ..it's just I'm a little confused how it should be done. All I'm getting these last few days in wakings in the night and now early wakings...
Thanks so much

[quote MichelleOR84]@nadine6301I did it cold turkey . My poor little one was sooooooo cranky for the first few days but adjusted quickly .[/quote]
Yep my little girl starts nursery two days a week not long after her birthday so I'm sure if I haven't got it sussed by then I'm thinking nursery will. 👍👍

And naps are ridiculously short too, I'm getting half HR if I'm lucky.. sigh...
This is definitely harder than the 3 to 2 nap
Please tell me they adjust quickly ..

My DS switched from 2 naps to 1 from 11 months as I struggled to get him into his night sleep which took forever for him to fall asleep. I decided to move his morning nap and combine his afternoon nap to one whole nap and it worked out better where he now just naps at 1pm for 2 hours. First few days he was really tired until his bedtime but got used to it. I thought it was early too but I guess every baby is different. I recommend you try it for a couple of days and see how it goes. Good luck x

@nadine6301 My DS was in nursery 3 full days a week . He started nursery at 12 months old .

At the time he was taking a shorter morning nap and then a longer afternoon nap. At first we still put him down for his morning nap on the four days he wasn’t at nursery as he was so cranky without it . Nursery days were a disaster as he couldn’t keep his eyes open and would fall asleep on his way home and then wouldn’t settle at night . In retrospect that was the wrong way to go about it as he wasn’t in any set routine .

Three weeks into nursery we were still doing this but that’s when lockdown started . We were now at home for the next three months and we were back to two naps because that’s what was easier . It was during this time my DS suddenly was struggling to settle for naps and bedtime . I’m not sure if it was lockdown/lack of stimulation or his age but suddenly he just wasn’t sleeping. He was getting 10-11 hours of sleep every 24 hour period instead of his usual 14 hours. We knew he would be going back to nursery again ( eventually, whenever lockdown finished ) and decided to get rid of his morning nap cold turkey in hopes it would help him sleep longer at bedtime .

When we dropped his morning nap officially, it wasn’t easy . My DS was cranky every morning when it was time for his nap and would pass out completely by 12 for his afternoon nap . At first he would only nap an hour or so and then be cranky and tired every evening before bed but wouldn’t settle for an earlier bedtime . After 3-4 days though his body seemed to adjust and he started napping 3 hours for his afternoon nap . He also started sleeping in every morning a bit too and once this happened his day time nap dropped to 2-2.5 hours . He was back to 14 hours of sleep a day and was a much happier baby .

Overall it took about a week to get to this point . It was a quick adjustment. I felt horrible forcing him to stay up every morning and it didn’t feel natural to me. However once he adjusted and was back to 14 hours of sleep and was much happier, I knew it was the right decision .

Like other people, we found most of the adjustment was done and dusted within a week, so if they're ready, I think it's a pretty quick transition.

We didn't really have an exact plan to gradually move the nap back – the general idea was to move it back half an hour every few days as you describe, but if she was really struggling to keep her eyes open, we brought it forward slightly that day, or pushed it back a bit more if she was still wide awake and happy. The theory was that it was getting her down easier that way, and she'd be more likely to nap longer, but then she's never been one for a precise schedule and we were all sick of difficult naptimes at that point.

The time adjustment did take more than a week, but was pretty painless. The overtiredness and tricky evenings were over much faster. And yes, the one nap gradually got longer as she adjusted.

@MichelleOR84 oh this is such a good breakdown of how to go about this (we have a soon to be 12mo as well). Thank you for the clear explanation, this really gives me hope :)

Thank you so much for the detailed replies, it's so helpful especially as I'm finding it quite stressful. Yesterday we had two naps as awake early and today we have another early wake...uurgh....
Can I ask in these situations ( assuming you're little ones woke early too) did you keep them up still until the later one nap..?
I can't see how to break the cycle of early wake then early nap..
Thanks again so much, you're all so helpful!!

I nearly always just keep him up even if he wakes early . Although occasionally I do put him down for a morning nap like when he’s sick.
What I often do when he wakes very early is adjust his lunch and afternoon nap . So instead of a 11:30 lunch and a 12:00 nap, I do an 11:00 lunch and a 11:30 nap . It just gets him down for his afternoon nap slightly earlier but it doesn’t mess his schedule .

Honestly you have been so helpful, thank you so much for your insight, it really has helped make it clearer and gives me hope that we can navigate through this awkward phase ( another one!!)

No problem :)