Transitioning to one nap (15m)

[Exworrier]

Any advice please…
DS is 15m, has been walking a month and has just finished cutting all his first molars at once.. full set of canines now coming. He was sleeping ok doing 7-5.30 with no wakes but since teething he is waking in the night for a bottle again and sometimes is awake for 1-2h just sitting up and talking. I feel he is ready to go to one nap but worry about the transition.

Today was the first day I tried it out. He woke at 6am and my plan was to keep him up until 11.30/12 so he could eat lunch and then sleep but we only got to 10.30 and he was very tired. Put him for a nap and had to wake him at 1.30 after 3h! Then put him to bed at 6.30 but tbh he was ready at 6.

Will it take him a while to adjust to staying awake longer? Any advice on wake windows or tips with this would be hugely appreciated.

I found with mine there was several months of transition - so she first dropped a nap at nursery around 14 months but retained it several days a week at home.

My little girl dropped to 1 nap at 10.5 months. At around 14/15 months she started waking in the night for a bottle - I think it was a mixture of growth spurt and molars cutting?
With regards to one nap a day our general routine in wake at 8am, nap 1300-1500, bed at 8pm. Having 5 hours either side of the nap seems to work good for us but I do know of others the same age that have a big nap earlier in the day.
I know it's easy for me to say, but seems like you need to follow his lead for now and figure out what works best for him?

It took us 2-3 months to drop from 2 to 1 naps and she only consistently made the move to 1 at 18 months. It was a real faff to be honest and we had lots of days where she would get overtired when she refused first nap and then wake early the next day so would be back to two naps. And then other days when she wouldn't nap well in the second because she had the first, again ending up overtired. We kept bouncing a bit between 1 and 2 until she started flat out refusing the 1st nap and then rode out a few days of crankiness to make the permanent shift to 1 nap. We did the same as you and with her up 6/6.30 would try and get to 11.30 for the nap so 5 hours ish. She's now comfortably making it to 12/12.30 without napping and then sleeps for 2-2.5 hours.

21m DS here (19.5m corrected) and he primarily has 2 naps with the occasional day of 1 nap if he’s woken up a bit later ie 6.30 so can reasonably get to the 12/12.30 mark for a 1 nap day.

Lots of friends / NCT group etc seem to think this is madness and he should be on 1 nap a day as theirs seems to be. I would counter their argument with the fact that DS sleeps through the night typically / unless ill etc as he’s well rested in the day and therefore able to eat properly as isn’t hungry from not being able to eat as too tired! Theirs with 1 nap are forever waking in the night and always seem to be tired IMO.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is there’s no set age that you child “needs” to drop their naps from 2 to 1 - if they need 2 and you’re in a position to give 2 then maybe try and roll with it for a bit longer.

If you do need to get them to 1 nap due to nursery or whatever then as @MGee123 says is true - in that it can take months to make the transition in full and can be a bit hit and miss until that time.

Theres a poster - FATEdestiny who if you Google this I’m sure the thread will come up who has / had great advice on sleep and napping. I believe she’s a sleep consultant and has 4 children so lots of experience. I’ve read a lot of her advice and it’s pretty sensible!

I would let you child lead you :) My DD who is now 20 months, went down to one nap around 18 months though on some days still does take a second nap (usually if she's ill or teething and had a bad night). Though we're still in the transitioning phase as she doesn't always cope great with one nap but most days we can't fit in a second nap so we just ride it out and go for an earlier bedtime

I literally just left mine to decide. Even now my youngest is nearly 3 some days he naps most days he doesn't.