How do you fit in 2 naps?

[Gemedin]

Hello,

My LO is 11 months and I'm struggling to fit in 2 naps a day. How do you guys do it? Do you have set nap times or do you go by how long he/she has been awake? Is every day different?

He definitely doesn't seem ready to drop to just 1 nap yet but I'm struggling to fit 2 in. Do you cap the morning nap?

Would love to hear your nap schedules. Thanks x

12 month old wakes up at 6-6.30.

1st nap usually about 9ish until 10.30/11.
We try and have this nap at home in his cot settled like bed time.

Usually he has a second nap whilst we are out and about around 2-3ish and then bed at 7. If we are at home in the afternoon it's pretty 50/50 if he will have that second nap though!

Hi, my little girl is 14 months now but up until recently her schedule was -
wakes up about 5:30-6:00.
She has a morning nap at 10:00 for 1 hour. The afternoon nap is then 2-3:00/3:30.

Recently she has started skipping morning nap some days and then has 2-2 1/2 hours at 1pm. But it's not recommended to drop the second nap until after a year.

Got a 11 month old and going through this at the moment. We tried one nap for a few days but he's teething quite badly so decided not to try this transition yet.

He wakes between 7-730 and naps at 950-1000 till 11ish. Then naps again 145-200 until 3. We used to have both morning and afternoon naps slightly later but found getting him to sleep at night a nightmare. So bringing the naps forward help him getting to sleep at around 715-730. Our boy needs a good 4 hours of being wake before the night

I do what the Huckleberry App tells me, because i am too sleep deprived to think for myself. I think it works out as approx 2 1/2 hours after waking for first nap, then 3 1/4 after waking for second nap, then 3.5 or 4 until bedtime.

Used to do 10am and 2pm, each about an hour. Gradually morphed into about an hour and a half at 12, somewhere between 12 & 15 months.

Gets up around 6- 7am, goes to bed around 7.30pm (now aged 18 months).

The accepted way to arrange naps on 2-nap days is using the "123" principle:

Nap 1 is 2h after waking in the morning.
Nap 2 is 3h after waking from Nap 1.
Bed is 4h after waking from Nap 2.

At that age we did half an hour at 10ish and a two hour nap at 12.30, bed at 7.

16-month old has had this (rough) schedule for several months now:

Up at 6am
Naps 9.30-11 and 2-3pm
Asleep at 6.30

We're not rigid with times though. If she wakes earlier, we'll do the first nap earlier. If the first nap is cut short at one cycle, we'll do the second nap earlier.

We've recently thought about trying to move to one nap, but she's not ready yet.

Thanks all. I always find it interesting/useful to hear other people's routines.
It's as if he's trying to move to one nap but isn't quite ready for it!

@Tambini87 yes this is what I'm finding too! I'm finding it hard to settle him for the 2nd nap but he needs one so ends up having it too late and then bedtime is completely off which then makes the next day a bit off... we seem stuck in this vicious cycle at the moment. I'll try bringing it all forward a bit x

@FATEdestiny that's helpful, thank you! X

Hi @Gemedin. Bringing forward the naps helped us. So I hope it works for you too :).

Hi,
Yes, cap the morning nap so that the afternoon nap can start at around the same time and lasts the same length each day. Keep shortening the morning nap to achieve this until your baby is ready to drop it, at which point you move the afternoon nap and bedtime earlier. Even when babies drop the morning nap they still might need an occasional 10-15 mins ‘power nap’ in the morning if they had a bad night or early wake up for example.

Mine used to have a sleep when felt like it with no prompting from me. It wouldn't have occurred to me to 'put him down' or anything like that but I could tell when he was tired and we'd have a sleep together. It was nice, no struggle involved as it just worked out naturally.

How do those whose babies nap for only an hour ever do anything, or have time alone/nap themselves? If you get rid of first nap you may find your baby sleeps longer on their second nap and are awake long enough to do stuff instead of just brief naps in car.

Mine did 9.30-11 ish and 3-4 up until just before 12 months. We did struggle to get him to bed before 9pm though but that was his routine. Hes now 15 months and does 2 hours from 11-1 and goes to bed around 8/8.30

It’s definitely becoming harder to fit 2 naps in now DS is 13 months. His routine is:
Up at 7am
Nap 1 10.15ish for 1 hour (he used to sleep for 1.5 hours but now I wake him as he wasn’t settling in the afternoon)
Nap 2 2.45 for 1 hour+ but always wake him by 4pm
Bed at 7.30pm

Some days it feels as though 1 nap isn’t enough but 2 naps is too many 🤷‍♀️

By that age I was caping the morning nap so latest the wake up would be was about 9.40 so would be ready for another one about 1ish! It’s soooo much easier when down to 1 nap!!!

@FATEdestiny that's interesting, that's what I do but had never heard of the 1,2,3.

Wake around 6.30/7am. Nap around 9am, usually wakes around 10/10.15. Nap 2 is around 1.30, I wake her at 3.3.0 if she hasn't woken up. Bedtime 7/7.30.