2/1transition, at what age and how did it happen?

[FifiFerusha]

My DS is coming up to a year and I am noticing he Is taking ages to get down for the usual naps and showing less sleepy cues. He normally naps in the morning at 9.15 ish and in the afternoon at about 1.30. Each nap used to average at just over an hour and fifteen. He is an early riser at 5.30, BT, 7.30, although I try earlier and keep trying, it just isn't happening.

I was capping the morning nap but he loves this one and have noticed this is when he gets the most sleep so leave him to it now. At present he has been napping for nearly an hour and a half so will presume he will take a short afternoon one ( although he resists it). Thing is I need to fit it in before school run at three so not sure how to do that. But summer hols soon so I have the freedom to play around a bit. How should I start the transition, will it solve the EWs( live in hope), or is he just too young. I know that at the cms he will sleep only half an hour to hour in one day but settles better for BT on these days. It does not affect night time sleep, he still sleeps through.

So what are your experience, and how do I do it x

My son is just over 12 months and when he started nursery, I think because he's quite tricky to get to sleep they just kept him going until noon at which point he was shattered so he was easier to get down. I then just instigated it at home too as I also have a toddler who naps and was dying for them to nap at the same time and he's been fine with it. He wakes around 6am and now naps 12-3pm. So in essence we just went cold turkey and stretched him massively from the off rather than pushing back morning nap by an hr but that is something else you can try too...

Three of my children were around 12 months when they moved to one nap. But by the time my 4th child came along, she kept two naps until 20/21 months old.

Like yours, DD used to prefer her morning nap and would sleep easily 2 hours if I left her. But this caused problems with the PM nap because she'd be difficult to get to sleep and it also wasn't convenient with the school run.

So I limited AM nap to a wake up time of 11am (which allowed for a 1-3pm nap) regardless of what time she went to sleep. As the transition to 1 nap progressed, DD would be able to stay awake longer in the morning. So she started sleeping 9-11, which became 9.30-11, then 10-11, then just a 10.30-11am powernap. All this allowed for the consistent 1pm-3pm afternoon nap.

Once she could comfortably stay awake until 10.30am, I started the process of keeping her going. So I knew she was tired and ready for a sleep, but I would give an early lunch and generally keep her busy. So we moved lunch to 11am followed by 11.30am nap. By keeping her going longer in the morning it meant she was more tired so slept longer in the afternoon.

Her naps started off as, say, 11.30-2.30 (3 hours), but sometimes she will wake 2pm and that means bedtime might be a bit earlier that night because of the length of time awake in the afternoon. In time (she's 22 months) she is sleeping 12pm-2.30/3.00. This will usually mean she goes through to a 7.30pm bedtime and wakes around 7am.

There are different ways of doing the transition, I think. One is to cap the morning nap shorter and shorter, keeping the 1.30pm nap, until the morning nap goes altogether. The other option is to slowly push the morning nap later and later, letting them sleep as long as they want, and then having a shorter nap later in the day (e.g. 3.30-4) if they need it. Another way is to give them two naps a day some days and 1 on others.

My DD didn't properly drop down to 1 nap until she was 18 mo, but from 12 mo she would sometimes have 1 nap a day and sometimes 2, depending on what was going on. I did try to drop her down to 1 nap a day cold turkey at 12 months, but it was a disaster (nap got progressively shorter each day - sign of being overtired) so we went back to 2 naps and dropped it more gradually.

I am doing this at the moment with my 11mo. He will only sleep around 12-13hrs max in total inc naps. And was doing barely 10hr at night.

So yesterday he woke at 5, he had 1.5hr from 11 to 12.30 (would have liked this to be longer) then bed at 5.45, asleep at 7. I will hopefully be able to push the nap later as he gets used to it. He woke at 6this morning which was a big improvement!

If I were you if start with capping morning nap to 45 mins and see how that goes.

Free button, seems like we are going through the same thing. My DS also seems to only get 10 hours at night and like you I try to put him down earlier but with no success. We also have those lovely early starts to the day, oh the joy. Let me know how you get on.

FATE, hi good to hear from you again! yes I think I will start trying to cap the morning one again because as you know, with school runs the most useful nap time will be a 1 until 3, and not sure how I would give an afternoon catnap. Unlike your DD though(you have been really lucky with her sleep). My DS seems to like a long activity in the middle of the day so am hoping capping am nap will help. Not sure whther to push it forward unless he starts waking later in the morning. I tried capping it before but wasn't very consistent I guess. When I had something to do I just let him be. Gotta get it sorted :) so he went down at 9.30 this morning, I will wake him just after 10 I think. I do feel I force him to sleep though as although he can SS, he takes so long no matter what the time so I gave up and decided I would just leave him to it only at BT. Otherwise I couldn't fit his naps into my day. I am kind of looking forward to one nap because I think the I will get the chance to leave him to it. I presume he will have a shorter awake time if he has had a short morning nap. Mind you sometimes I feel he could carry on all day the way he is. cM is convinced he is one of those babys that just doesn't need daytime sleep. God forbid, how would I get anything done. He seems to need sleep at home so here is hoping.

sTarfish, that is reassuring. I almost feel like some days just going for it but it is hard when you know they have woken up so early. Mind you for some unknown reason. .there is no changed variable, he woke at 6.30 this morning. ???

Well, my goodness, better get a quick coffee in before I have to start banging about upstairs in some vague attempt to wake him. I like him to think he has done it naturally :) yeah right

DD2 has just dropped her morning nap, she is 16 mo tomorrow.

She could probably have gone without a morning nap since about 14/15 mo but we've been keeping it going as I didn't want her falling asleep on nursery pick up. The morning nap has been moving later and we have been capping it more and more, a bit like FATE describes, however the second nap also had to move later - recently it has been 2.30-3.30 which then means she's not tired enough at bedtime.

So now nursery is over for the summer we have dropped the morning nap and she is sleeping c.1.15-2.45pm and going down much better at bedtime (she sleeps 11-12 hours at night)

Actually just writing that makes me realise we have been quite lucky with her! DD1 was (and still is) an appalling sleeper in case anyone feels envious!

My DS stopped his morning nap at about 13 months. Now he sleeps 12-2.30/3.

BT is at 7 (although he regularly chats away to himself/or grizzles for up to an hour before he goes to sleep!!). Then he's up between 6.30-7.30am.

He was an awful sleeper until he was one. Prior to that he was still waking 3 times a night for about an hour each time. Then we started the supernanny method and it just worked.

Ok this confusing me now. Today He reluctantly slept from 9.20 and I woke him at ten. Didn't even seem tired by one but went ahead and tried to get him to sleep and he woke twenty minutes later. No hope to get him back to sleep. Yesterday he slept nearer to 1.30 and had a long sleep. Not sure whther he has completely changed with regards to sleep and I should just go ahead and let him have a sleep at 12 after an early lunch and see what happens. Anyone else go cold turkey with success? X very confused

I went cold turkey with my elder children around this age and it was all fine. Hard work keeping a tired, grumpy child going in the morning but they soon adapted.

Mostly I am just a fan of going with the flow and following your instinct. If you think he's ready for the change to one nap then trust your own judgement. It doesn't need to be all-or-nothing anyway. You could keep him awake in the morning and do a lunchtime nap just one day, going back to normal the following day. Give it a few days and try again. Then see if he can do two days in a row of 1 nap. Etc.

When they fight the pm nap and then only have half an hour it's so soul destroying. I too felt like I was just constantly fighting with him to get him to sleep so that's why I went cold turkey. Today was day 3 of one nap. He did well. Woke at 5.30 but fed in bed til 6, he was pretty cheery this morning although he was nodding off in the buggy st 11am. I lifted him out for the last 100m and sang and jogged him home then dos some intensive playing for 30 mins. Slept 11.30-1.30. Had to wake him after two hours to collect older pair from nursery (haven't had a two hour nap in MONTHS)! He's in great form this evening - although food/milk is slightly up the spout! I am just feeding him whenever he seems hungry rather than to a schedule.

Hoping for a slightly later wake up tomorrow and then a 12.30 nap time for as long as he likes.

The confusing thing is that by this age, they sleep they need is cumulative over several days rather than the same each day. So they can be ok with 1 nap one day but need 2 the next to catch up (and then back to 1 the following day).

Fifi I had that situation a couple of months ago. I chose to keep the morning nap going (but short, 30 mins) and have a later afternoon nap - I pushed it back to 2pm so she would do at least an hour then. I found that better than a single 12pm nap because of nursery run at that time, also because DD never sleeps more than 1.5 hours and she couldn't go from 1.30 to bedtime. You could try a 12pm nap if you have no nursery run to contend with - maybe he'll sleep for 2+ hours and be able to get through to bedtime on that.

Freebutton- it sounds like you are doing a great job. Fantastic that he slept two hours!! We both have early risers so like you it is going to be a struggle to keep him up am, as FATE said. Thing is cm really struggles to get my DS to sleep even if he has gone from 5 am until afternoon. God knows how he manages. I always struggle to work him out.

FATE I think you have a good idea. I will try and see what happens with the one nap and when I feel he needs two go for it. You are right about following instinct. I really think I haven't done that enough with my DS. I guess that is/ was an insecurity on my part, trying hard to get it right, ha.

Also, with regards to being open to some one day/ two day naps hopefully I can avoid cumulative tiredness. I see your point mini pie. I guess in this transition no two days could be the same. With regards to sleep timing. I only have the school run at three so if my DS kept a short am nap and maybe went from 1.30/ 2 until 3 , which is usual(but not always now) that would work on a two nap day. Argh, will keep persevering.

Keep me posted freebutton x

Ps oh dear I don't half go on :)

Just updating. Have gone for some one nap, some two nap days depending on how he seems in the morning. Struggling with an afternoon catnap on two nap days but he gets there. But but but when I keep him going until 12 for one nap( and that is hard) he is finally self settling for his náp in about five minutes and naps for well over two hours. He is still napping now. Ha, and I remember the days of those dreaded 35 minute naps. So am happy. He is also now getting up at 6 am for the past few days. Yay progress( better not speak too soon) x