Going down to one nap

[Myneaux]

DS is 14 months old and currently has 2 naps a day. The first is usually about 10am and the second about 3pm. Up to an hour each time.

He is at nursery 2 days a week now that they are moving him into a toddler room they want him to drop to one after lunch nap like all the other babies. They want DS to fall in with this routine as they all go to sleep on mats on the floor(practically he wont be able to sleep at other times as he will get trodden on !). I would also like DS to drop to one nap as I am aware a lot of babies at his age are already on one nap a day.

The only problem is that we are still having some issues with nighttimes and DS is an early waker (usually up at 4.30 for a feed and then back to sleep til 6 at the latest - we know we have to get rid of the 4.30 feed but we have only just got DS to self settle and sleep thru so no energy to tackle at the moment).

I have no idea how he is going to last til lunch time...sometimes at home he is back in bed for 9.30. I am worried that it will lead to overtiredness, mess up the night times and meal times and generally lead to a miserable baby. I am also concerned that while they may be able to do it at nursery when there is a lot going on...how am I going to stretch things out at home?

Does anyone have any experience of this?....did you try to 'make' your DC drop the nap or did it just happen naturally.

Hiya,

My DS is like this. He only has one nap in the morning though as he automatically started dropping the afternoon one.

But he wakes very early too - it is so hard to deal with - I completely understand you not wanting to mess with your routine too much.

The only piece of advice I can give is that apparently some kids who wake early and then go back to sleep very soon (like ours) are treating the 1st nap as an extension of the night sleep.

People keep telling me that if I slowly move the morning nap backwards (say 9am for a week, then 9.30 for a week etc) that they will slowly re-adjust.

And that the benefit of doing it is that they start to sleep longer in the mornings, as what they're doing now is basically waking up to have breakfast and then go back to sleep. ie treating the morning nap as an extension of the nighttime sleep.

I haven't been brave enough either to tackle it as my DD was born 10 weeks ago and I desperately wanted DS's naps to continue (he has 3-4 hours in the mornings), but it sounds like a sensible theory...

Best of luck.

Sorry forgot to say - DS is 19 months.

newmomma - I know that it makes sense for everyone...on a selfish note I hardly see my friends now because DS naps when their babies are awake !

It would be great if he would just sleep for a few more hours in the morning but i have been getting up at 4.30 - 5am for his entire life now and I am a little sceptical that it is just going to magically happen (nothing seems to magically happen as far as sleep is concerned !!)

I cant imagine what it must be like trying to tackle all this with a new baby !