11 months - too soon for one nap?

[mummaroo88]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else has transitioned to one nap and how you did it? Little one is now 11 months old and has gone from sleeping okay (has never been a baby who sleeps through but that’s okay) to waking a lot again. Could this be because he needs to transition to one nap? He’s also been waking super early, sometimes for the day too (we’ve been awake from 4:30 some mornings).

I’m tempted to trial one nap as everyone always says it’s trial and error but the problem is, he wakes up so early that it’s difficult to trial because it would mean keeping him awake for so long.

He still goes down for his naps fine...the first one is 3 or 4 hours after waking and the second is four hours after waking from that. He did refuse his afternoon nap yesterday but I managed to get him to sleep in the pram an hour after he usually would.

Not sure what to do as don’t want to transition him too early and not even sure how to transition him when he wakes so early.

Also, is 11 months too early to transition?

Thanks so much in advance.

Mine has been on one nap since 11 months. It seems to work for him. Usually sleeps at 11ish for an hour.

Mine went to one nap at 9 months, on the advice of a sleep consultant, as he simply would not nap twice anymore whatever we did. He started dropping his bap altogether by 15/16 months and any naps he did have were an almighty battle until napping was gone totally at 22 months. I envy my friends with 2.5 year olds still happily napping, although my son has always been a champion night sleeper. If I rember right be slept a bit later in the morning once on one nap.

Mines not much older than that and is definitely transitioning. Give it a go

Thanks everyone. For those of you who have transitioned, what time is the nap? For how long and what time is bedtime then?

Oh also...any advice on what I do if I'm trialling the transition and he wakes early tomorrow?

Hi - my other DC (just posted on another thread about the other) dropped to one nap at 10m. Just refused to sleep in the mornings.

At your DS’s age my DC2 had one nap for about 1.5/2h from 1200/1230 every day (so it always started within that 30m period). Lunch was at 1130. DC2 always got up between 0645/0700 and is always in bed by 7pm. Now the same routine applied except the nap time starts in the 1230/1300 period. It took about 6w for DC2 to transition to the later start time (which fitted in well with DC1 who also napped at the same time).

If your DS wakes early tomorrow I’d bring forward the nap start time to 12pm if absolutely essential. If you think he can go to bed at 1230 without being too overtired, stick with that time.

Thank you.

Hi everyone,

He woke at 5:50 today, what should I do if we're trialling one nap, stick to 12?

Oh by the way, last night went okay.

The beginning of the night was really unsettled, he woke a lot in the first hour and a half...he only needed me once. Then he slept for over 7 hours (his longest stretch in ages) and woke at 4:10 and needed me, then slept until 5:50 when he woke for the day.

Hi - that’s good news. 0550 is quite early - because he is still young and adjusting to one nap I’d aim for 12 but put him down slightly earlier if necessary. He will be tired because of the adjustment. On the assumption he sleeps for 1.5h or maybe more, I’d aim for a 7pm bedtime - but if the nap is shorter than that and/or he is struggling put him to bed earlier at 1830.

Thank you so much. Can I just ask what you'd do if he only manages 45 minutes of sleep which can sometimes happen?

I’d leave him for up to 10m to see if he goes back to sleep himself. For DC1 I’d give them give a bit of milk to see if a full tummy helped resettling. That didn’t work most of the time though so for both DC1 and DC2 I’d give a dummy which quite often did help. If you don’t use one and/or that doesn’t work, I would just get him up and prepare for an earlier 1815/1830 bedtime. Do attempt to get him back to sleep but don’t stress about it too much if he won’t - bedtime can accommodate bad napping. Sometimes they just don’t want to go back to sleep.

Great night!!! He slept for over 10 hours straight, he did wake a few times but he never needed my help. My only problem now is that he woke at 5, which I know isn't that big a deal after a great night but now I'm wondering how to approach naps today. The one nap is obviously working for him but something isn't quite right and is causing a slightly early wake up.

So, yesterday he woke at 5:50, he napped 12:00-1:50 and was asleep by 6:45 at night.

The previous night he woke at 6:48, he napped 12:15-2:00 and was asleep by 7:00 at night.

Any suggestions on how to help him sleep a little longer in the morning? Not really for my benefit because I don't mind an early wake but more for his and to make sure we can stick to one nap.

Also, he is struggling atm with the long awake times in the day...how long did your lo take to get used to it? He's starting settling in in nursery next week.

Hi,

That is good news.

I’d try a few more nights without doing anything in particular to see if he sleeps a bit longer having got used to the change in routine. He needs a few days for his body to adjust properly - if he woke at about 0650 the night before last he is capable of doing it. In testing this, I’d just bring the nap time forward a bit and try to keep to a 1830 bedtime.

If the very early wake ups don’t change then first I’d make sure he has eaten enough solid food (might be worth offering a Weetabix after bathtime alongside the usual milk), second get the room dark enough if it isn’t and third use a dummy, which is what we did.

The dummy was great overall. We only really used it to help through the early waking stage - it worked really well for our first but less well for the second. They have different personalities though and the second is much less calm overall, and is also a lot hungrier in the mornings so less likely to be persuaded to sleep more, and which is why the food intake was more relevant with DC2. Ours just found it relaxing, and the first one in particular would just drop off again more often than not.

We used it in conjunction with no attention except to go in give the dummy and resettle. Then we left. If either slept again we didn’t wake them until about 0730 to make it worth going back to sleep but to preserve the routine.

I think it took a couple of weeks for DC2 to adjust to losing the morning nap. Just adjust nap time accordingly and bedtime is your friend.

Don’t worry - I have zero interest in getting up at 5am - it is okay to think that!