1 year old fighting afternoon nap

[lemonade22]

My boy has just turned 12 months. His old routine was roughly 7am wake, 9.30-11am nap, 2.30-3pm nap, 7pm bed.

Recently though he’s been very difficult to get to sleep at night (sometimes refusing to go down until 9pm!) and has now started resisting his afternoon nap.

A few times he has dropped the afternoon nap altogether and by bedtime he’s absolutely exhausted - not surprising as he’s been up 8 hours!

Is this a sign that he’s ready to transition to 1 nap a day? I thought at 12 months he was too young. If he is ready to move to one nap, how do I make that happen - should I try pushing the morning nap back? He does tend to go down quite easily at 9.30am though so I’m a bit confused!

Hi OP. My son dropped his afternoon nap at around this age. He then dropped all naps by 2. He just needs less sleep than average. We found each time we dropped a nap he struggled a bit for a week and then all sleep hugely improved. I would probably try pushing the nap back as eventually you want it in the middle of the day.

I would suggest you push his morning nap back to around 11am and allow him to sleep for 2-3 hours. He then shouldn't need another sleep in the afternoon.

Thanks. It’s hard to know if it’s just a phase he’s going through, or if he’s actually ready to drop down to 1 nap!

DS dropped to one nap at the same time. We were on holiday and it was a nightmare trying to get him down for the second nap so we just stopped it and everyone was much happier. He had a few weeks where he'd vary between the two but he very quickly moved on to an established routine of one nap (which was helpful because he then started nursery and that was their schedule too)

Even if it is just a phase and you drop it a bit earlier than he's ready for, it isn't that much earlier than to be expected so I wouldn't worry too much.

I would move lunch to c. 11.30am and let him sleep after that- was around this time my eldest would have a 1x 3hr afternoon nap- was bliss lol.
When you first transition have a v calm morning at home, no car or buggy trips where they could nod off too early etc.

For me, I would always rather deal with a tired toddler than spend an hour trying to get them to sleep

Could be 12 month sleep regression and it might pass....

Have you tried shortening the morning nap first instead of just dropping it? I’d let him sleep 40 mins then wake him, then his second nap should increase in length to compensate. It should make the move towards one nap over the next few months smoother.

Mine still needs two naps at 12 months. He naps various times but I try and limit morning nap to 1hr now and awake by 11am, then he’s ready for second nap around 3pm ( another 1-1.5 hr).
He goes to bed around 8pm
He’s had odd day when he’s missed morning nap or just a 10 min catnap in car and he’s always a misery and too tired to eat properly at lunch

You need to drop the 9 30 nap technically and keep a nap at 11/12 for 2 hours.