Danger naps and 2 to 1 nap transtion HELP!

[aabidah86]

Hi all, I am asking here as can't seem to find any advice about this particular sleep scenario on google!

I think my 14.5 month old DD is transitioning down to one nap a day. Up until 2 weeks ago her routine was:

Wake up - 6:30am
First nap - 9:00am to 10:30am
Second nap - 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Bedtime - 7:30pm(ish)

However she has been fighting the morning nap and pushing it back to the point we're now at about 11 or12 for first nap of 1.5 hours.

She then wants to go back down for a 2 hour nap at around 5pm! She then wakes up at 7pm and is awake until 10:30pm.

Even if I try to keep her awake and put her down for bedtime at 6:30-7pm, she will still wake up 2 hours later as the 1.5 hour nap in the middle of the day just isn't enough daytime sleep for her.

I'm really not sure what to do with this, I want to try and implement a bedtime routine at 7pm(ish) to help her with sleep association, but not sure how as her afternoon nap can be so late in the day that she is either still asleep at this time or wide awake after just waking up!

What does everyone suggest I do? Has anyone had a similar scenario? Many thanks

The ideal would be getting her to sleep for 3hrs for her nap at 12pm as that would get her through the day - my eldest slept 3+ hours from 11.30/12pm when we first dropped down to 1 nap per day and then started cutting down the duration from around 20months.

Another option is cutting that 11am nap short at 15 minutes so she then goes back to sleep much sooner? You would still be wanting a nap of 2+hours as the next one though.

We are at a similar point. We either go for DS having a short nap at 10ish which we wake him up from then he has a longer one at around 2 (1.5hrs), or the other way round so a long nap at 10.30ish and a short nap in the afternoon (usually on me so he goes down quickly and doesn't go for too long).

Occasionally we can push the first nap later and he will sleep 2 hours then have an earlier night instead of a second nap.

It's quite a big transition and takes a while from what I've heard!

Or have a late morning nap for just 15-20 mins that lets her power through to longer. The key is to keep the gap between the wake up time from the last nap to bedtime consistent, IYSWIM.

The key is to keep the gap between the wake up time from the last nap to bedtime consistent

I agree with this - when on 2 naps, our gap was 4 hours and it went upto 4.5hrs when we moved to 1 nap (and still is the same at 2.5 years old)

THANK YOU SO MUCH ladies! You know, I hadn't even thought about shortening one of the naps and yet it makes so much sense! I'm going to start from today, thank you once again all your advice has been worth it's weight x

If she’s not interested in her morning nap you could keep her going and have an early afternoon nap. At this age my daughter was having 3.5hrs in the afternoon.

How did you get on today @aabidah86 ?

Hi @navy123 well such is the unpredictability of children, yesterday and today she had a 2 hour + nap at midday at nursery! Usually she only has 1.5 hours. So that saw her through till bedtime yesterday and hoping it will do the same today!