Time to drop a nap at 10 months?!

[Freddie15VES]

Not sure whether my little one is ready to go down to 1 nap. The way he is at the moment reminds me a lot of how he was before we dropped from 3 naps to 2. But I don’t know whether he’s just going through a leap/teething!

He has a long nap about 3/3.5 hours after waking up. He’ll sleep for sometimes 2 hours. Then in the afternoon he really fights his last nap, he’s just wide awake - doesn’t seem over tired and max he’ll have is 30 minutes!

Did anyone else find that their baby dropped to 1 nap around this time?

I think this would be pretty early to drop the second nap completely. In my experience, long first nap and short second nap is pretty typical at this age. The 30-minute snooze helps tide them over to bedtime. Without it they can become a bit of a wreck.

I think your issue might be the really long morning nap. There are no set rules for napping so he might be okay with one…but equally they really have to be able to cope with 5 or 6h of awake time in the morning (eg wake at 7 nap at 12), otherwise you end up with a hybrid nap that’s too early in the morning with too long a stretch until bedtime. What happens if you cut the morning nap short and had a longer afternoon one instead?

3 hrs after waking could be 9am or 11am.
If 9 then awake again by 11 obviously unlikely to make to a "normal" bedtime. If up and 8 and sleeps 11-1:30/2 then it's possible. When is wake up and bedtime OP ?

Most baby I know went down to one nap not long after 1 so I would say it’s in the early side but you can always try.

My dd is 10 months old and is currently on leap 7 which I would guess yours is too, so that could be an issue! She does a morning nap about 1030 (Wakes up at 730 ish) for anywhere between 30 mins -1.5 hours and then an afternoon nap around 2 but sometimes not until 3, I make sure she's up by 4 latest, but ideally by 330.

Ohhhh yes we are for sure experiencing leap 7!!! And a tooth emerging. He just fought his 2nd nap so bad I’ve just brought him downstairs and we’re doing an earlier bedtime 😩 really struggling with this! We had such a good routine before

Sorry - so he wakes at around 6:30, first nap he’s down for 9:15 but sometimes he can stay awake until about 10am. He’s always gone to bed at around 6pm, there’s no keeping him up any later! We try pushing him until 7 but 6pm has just been the time he’s always fallen into

Could you do a shorter first nap and then try for a longer lunchtime/afternoon nap?

I'd say about 3 hours of daytime sleep is right for that age, but probably better to split it into 2 naps if possible.

But all babies are different and 10 months isn't massively young to drop down to one nap.

With a 6:30 wake up I'd say you would be lucky to get down to 1 nap. Try waking him in the morning after 45 mins, so up by 10 then try going for a longer nap at 1:30/2 until 3/3:30 ? that might even give you a bit of later bedtime.

@Freddie15VES

Sorry - so he wakes at around 6:30, first nap he’s down for 9:15 but sometimes he can stay awake until about 10am. He’s always gone to bed at around 6pm, there’s no keeping him up any later! We try pushing him until 7 but 6pm has just been the time he’s always fallen into

If he’s up at 6:30 and needs a nap by between 9 and 10 then I don’t think 1 nap will work. I’d do a power nap something like 9:15 until 10ish, then a longer nap something like 13:30 - 15:00/15:30That way you can push bedtime back a bit to more like 19:00/19:30. As he gets closer to 1, cut the morning nap away until it disappears.

We have gone with the flow and it works for us. Some days 2 naps, some days 1, some days 3. I know some people love a routine but I feel like he’s just a little person and some days he’s more tired than others (or too busy and being nosey!) he always sleeps well at night and never gets teary. Go with your instinct I think

We limit first nap and it seems to work OK most of the time. Definitely helped us with chronic early waking (8 months of wakes before 5am - yikes!) BUT we did it because we had a problem to fix. If your schedule is writing is working go with it! You can always try for a few days and see what happens.

Okay! Thanks guys. I will start gently waking him after 40/45 mins in the morning! He weirdly did used to have a short morning snooze and then the long one in the afternoon but he’s just recently switched it round!

DD1 dropped to one nap around 10/11 months - and she had a 6-6 routine like yours!

She only ever had 28 minute naps and was a horror to get down for them, so when she started to drop a nap it was very obvious; she’d just refuse to sleep, even in the car. We had to gradually push the first nap until it happened around 11am, where it stayed until she dropped naps entirely about six months later.

Weirdly, her night sleep really improved when she dropped to one nap - went from two or three unsettled wake ups to one brief one.

I know it was super early (and believe me, we mourned the loss of half an hour of peace each time she dropped a nap) but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that not all babies follow the crowd.