Ready for 1 nap at 10 months?

[Emmaaa1990]

Hi all

My baby seems to be really struggling to get 2 naps in. She will sometimes do a morning and refuse an afternoon or refuse morning and go to afternoon. I'm wondering whether to trial 1 nap after her lunch and see if that works better.

She seems young and on the odd occasion will do 2 naps but it's been a few weeks now and it feels like a fight! She sleeps well at night usually 6-6.

Does anyone have any advice/experience if their babies did the same please?

The important question is - is she refusing a nap because she's struggling to get to sleep but does need to sleep (ie she has poor sleep habits around going to sleep), or because she is genuinely not tired and does not need the sleep?

DS switched to one longer nap at around that age, maybe slightly later. It's still working for him now at 15 months. He's always slept quite well at night and he prefers one big 2 hour nap after lunch than 2 smaller ones. Doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

We've just had this with DS, he's now 11 months old and has had just one nap for a month. He still often gets very tired late morning but it works much better than before, where he'd often not be tired enough in the morning to nap longer than 45 minutes then not tired enough for an afternoon nap but a mess by bedtime!

We have lunch at 11, aim to be asleep for 12 and afternoon snack on waking to see him through to dinner. Sometimes jiggle these times depending on wake up time

@FATEdestiny I think she's not tired enough she seems much more interested in playing/crawling now she can move around a lot! She's self settled from around 5ish months always been good at that so no bad habits as such. Usually naps really well always gets herself off within 10 minutes. But this has changed last couple of weeks so I'm now thinking she could just be telling me she doesn't need as much sleep now especially as she sleeps pretty much 12 hours at night. I just wasnt sure how normal this was for this age.

@Mylittlesandwich oh that's good maybe some babies just switch earlier just everything you read says from 12 months so I wasn't sure but Thankyou for responding that makes me feel better!

@MonkeyBeard yeah that's what I was thinking she would get tired but when we have been trying she's just crawling around in her crib so maybe an after lunch nap like your little one may be what we need to transition to. All trial and error isn't it, just as you've cracked one lots of naps it all changes!

So she done a 30 minute nap this morning so I thought I'd try her again this afternoon as it was short and she done 35 mins this afternoon too! I know she's tired tho but I just think this is another sign of maybe 1 nap and this will hopefully be longer?

What does her day look like? My DD is 10 months and our routine is this:-

6/6:30 - wakes
7 - bottle
8 - breakfast
9:30 - 1st nap (usually until 11)
12 - lunch
1:45 - bottle
2:30 - 2nd nap (usually until 4)
4:45 - dinner
6:15 - bedtime routine & bottle
Asleep between 7 and 7:30.

Maybe you need to adjust her wake windows?

@Vicky1989x pretty similar to your day really! But she's just suddenly not sleeping or cat napping! She gets up at 6 normally naps at 9 but would only ever go to 10/10.30 then usually naps again around 1/1.30. Can't handle life and wants to go to bed around 6.

Today was particularly bad she was so tired this evening she downed her bottle then threw up we totally skipped bath and put her straight to bed at 5.30 🙈🙈 she just couldn't do it. I really want to help her get the sleep she needs and I do really think maybe it's extending her wake windows so she eventually does 1 bigger lunchtime nap. Felt so sorry for her tonight

DS has been on this routine (ish!) since 10 months

6:30ish up
8am breakfast
11am lunch followed by bottle
12 nap, usually 90 minutes sometimes 2 hours
2ish afternoon snack
5:30 dinner
6 Bath, bottle, bed
7ish asleep

He does struggle in the late morning, but it works so much better than an early nap and then nothing until bed. If only they were all the same so we knew what to do!

@Emmaaa1990 is she teething atm? Could be why she’s fighting her naps? Try her first nap at 9:30 instead of 9 and see how she does? Even if my DD wakes at 6, I put her down at 9:30 for her first nap.. she does get whingey beforehand but if I try any earlier she fights it! 🤦🏼‍♀️

My DD dropped to one nap at 10m. She kind of needed 1.5 naps really, at that age. She started waking a little early when we switched, and when she did that I think I went back to two naps for a couple of days when she needed it, but she has been napping 12-2 since 10.5m and it works well for us. You may as well try it as two naps doesn’t seem to be working for her. You’ll soon find out if she’s ready for one nap.

@MonkeyBeard

DS has been on this routine (ish!) since 10 months

6:30ish up
8am breakfast
11am lunch followed by bottle
12 nap, usually 90 minutes sometimes 2 hours
2ish afternoon snack
5:30 dinner
6 Bath, bottle, bed
7ish asleep

He does struggle in the late morning, but it works so much better than an early nap and then nothing until bed. If only they were all the same so we knew what to do!

My DS (now 19 months) is in a similar routine and has been since about 10 months too. He dropped the second nap while we were on holiday so that was fun.

I always found that bedtime moved around significantly when naps changed. So when nap was dropped our bedtime always went earlier for a bit. You already have quite an early bedtime though. Could she still need 2 naps but a bigger gap between the 2 and a later bedtime. So afternoon nap maybe have a 4pm cut off and bedtime more like 7/7.30pm?

@MonkeyBeard so helpful seeing others routines so Thankyou for this! It's so hard deciding if she needs 2 or 1 naps! But yeah I may trial it!

@Vicky1989x I think so yeah she's really dribbly and has flushed cheeks, maybe I should try later nap times first before dropping one out completely wish it was easier!

@Dillybear yeah it's a weird stage isn't it they are like in between naps! I hate seeing her struggling so it's been a real battle I just feel like I'm not helping her and I really want to! Think I need to do abit of trial and error see how we go! Thankyou

@MrsL2016 yeah she has a really early bedtime that's just because she can't handle it! It's been like this for ages she just has had enough by this time and that was even when naps were good!

Maybe the bigger window is what is needed it's just a minefield I don't know what's best at this point! Everyone has given such good advice/experience I really appreciate it! I need to try a few different things I think! See where we are again in a week or so.

My first dropped down to one nap at around that age. Partially down to the routine at nursery. Interestingly she went from 2 x 35 mins to a 2 hour nap after lunch.

@Emmaaa1990 How’d you get on today?

If she sleeps 6pm to 6am, that's a long time, I'm not surprised that you can't squeeze in 2 naps (especially if they are long-ish as well, i.e. longer than an hour). I would say 10months is a bit too young (our DD transitioned at 14 months, but she only slept 9-10 hours at night). Also depends on how tired she is during the day. I remember our DD wouldn't last till midday at that age. But you should try and see how it goes ;)

@Vicky1989x sorry Vicky completely missed this! We've been trialling it for a couple of days. We've been keeping her up and she seems to be dealing with it quite well. First day she went to bed at 12.30pm was asleep by 12.37 and up at 2.10pm so hour and a half and today she done an hour and 15. So we are getting longer naps from her. Going to keep going and see if it keeps happening, I'm wondering if she wasn't tired enough for the morning one! Seems okay and sleeping at night still so we shall see how we go :) xx

My DD started having one nap about that age, but now at about 12 months she seems to have gone back to two! I'd just try it out and see.

@Keha how strange!! We've had one day this week where she randomly woke up at 3 was awake til 4 and got up at 5.30 so she had 2 naps that day but we've been doing the one nap and she's sleeping so much better for this nap. Longer deeper sleep, and actually this morning got up later so thinking this may be the way forward... for now anyway 😂