11 month old ready for 1 nap a day??

[theskywasallviolet]

Hi everyone,

My son is nearly 11 months old and has never been great at naps (has only occasionally done more than an hour) but he’s generally a happy wee soul so it hasn’t mattered too much.

He sleeps through from 7pm but wakes 4/4.30am so I give him a feed but he often won’t go back to sleep even though he seems tired still. And now his naps have gotten even worse, it’s a battle to get him down and now we’re lucky to get 30 minutes, it’s usually more like 20. He still seems tired when he wakes as well.

So I was reading old threads on here and something I thought could work is dropping a his morning nap (at the moment usually 20 mins at about 9am) in the hope that his afternoon nap (about 1pm) would last longer and that would do him. I also read that dropping a nap can help with early risers?? That would be amazing!

Anyway I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this or had any advice.
Thanks!

My little one started dropping her morning nap just before she got to 12 months but if she ever woke before half five/six she’ll still need it unless she was in nursery, she’d power through then. Now it’s completely gone and we get about an hour and a half/two hours in the afternoon and she’s sleeping in slightly later (until the latest tooth starting coming through 😩) worth a try!

DD was down to one nap a day by 12m but I can't remember exactly when it happened.

Be warned, she then dropped that one nap to no naps at 23m

Thanks for the replies. He’s been up since 4.30am but I’ve given a feed and I’m hopeful I’ll get a another wee sleep out of him before getting up for the day (he’s grumbling now but is clearly tired!). So I’ll give one nap a go today I think 🤞.

Naps have always been a bit of a battle for little reward anyway so the thought of a 2 year old with no naps doesn’t fill me with too much dread 😂! I just want a reliable routine tbh, feels like every day is a bit of a scrabble to try and get naps in and I often feel like I don’t know what I’m dping which is tiring 😅.

I could have written your post! The only difference is that DS does tend to have longer naps and was often trying to have his 1.5 hour nap in the morning, clearly making up for getting up early.

We’ve cut down to one long nap between 11.30/12 and about 13.30 in the last week. He occasionally has an extra 10 minute snooze in the car if we’re driving somewhere as I’m powerless to prevent that. It’s definitely made his nap length more reliable as he’s really tired by midday. He’s still waking at 4.30/5 most mornings but he reliably goes back to sleep until 6 or even 7 now which he wasn’t always doing before.

My next plan is to phase out his early morning feed but I’m really busy at the moment and it’s much easier just to feed him back to sleep and get a bit of a ‘lie in’ than it is to spend ages re-settling him sans boobs 😬

Yes, DC napped once a day by 12 mths. Around 1pm.
In fact, this went on for years.
We all (me, DH and DC) napped at the same time every weekend! Always after going out in the morning.
Back home and bed for a couple of hours.
We had such an exciting life! It was great!

Ugh well he didn’t go back to sleep this morning so we kept him up until 10.30am (pretty easily, he was very tired by then but happy enough). And I put him down for a nap full of hope but he’s woken up half an hour later obviously still exhausted 😞.

Feels like keeping him up all morning was for nothing I hate this. I wish I could just go with the flow and not get stressed about it but I just would love some kind of routine I feel like it’s make me feel so much better.

It is encouraging to hear that it’s working pretty well for you TinyMystery though! And family nap times sounds amazing MrsKittyFane1!

My DD dropped to one nap about 10 months, but she dropped the afternoon nap and then the morning nap moved later. It can take a good few weeks for them to adjust to a new nap/sleep routine and not unusual for them to be very grouchy!

Yeah I think I need to try and shift my mindset and just go with the flow more! My husband is laid back and relaxed so that helps. But I just need to put him down when he seems tired and not worry too much about schedules and how many hours he should be doing, etc.