18 Mth / 1 nap Transition advice needed

[Wingingit07]

Hello,

I am looking for advice on transitioning my little one to 1 nap.

DS has always slept 730pm to 7pm on 2 naps, 11.5 hours. He started to refuse 2nd nap, fight going to bed, waking up at 5am and only having 9/10 hours sleep. I held off for a while to make sure it wasnt anything else first. Transitioned him to 1 nap, but hes still waking at 530 am!! At best 6am. Usually our day looks like this:

Wake 545
Nap 1045am
Wake 130pm
Bed 7pm
Wake at 545.

Hes losing about 45 mins to an hour each night in comparison to what he had before. He still reaches 13 hours sleep within 24 hours but Id like him to sleep 11 1/2 at night and less in day ie 2 hour nap.

Ive tried to wake him from his nap early it resulted in crying and tiredness. Ive put him down for his nap earlier and thats still not worked. I cant push his nap any later brcause hes falling asleep in morning. He is filled up on food before bed each time.

Do i need to accept he now sleeps 10 and a half hours at night or anyone else got experience of lengthening nightime sleep?

Side note - I appreciate my LO sleeps well compared to others.

Thank you

10.75h at night with a 2.75h nap is towards the top end of average sleep for this age group (11-14h). I suspect you are getting an early wake because he’s tanking out on a massive amount of sleep mid morning, which is then compounded by a relatively early bedtime. The amount of sleep is fine, but the timings are a bit off.

If you can be bothered with changing things, I’d gradually push the nap later by 15 minutes or so every few of days and keep it to 2h max. Aim for it to start no earlier than 11:30, potentially more like 12. Inch bedtime back to 19:30 and you might just find the slightly later night and the sleep deficit from a shorter, later nap means he sleeps a bit longer in the morning.

Thank you @AliceW89 thats really helpful ☺️

I agree with the above, his nap is too early. Shift it back gradually by a bit each day. You might not need to change bedtime. It will probably take a couple of weeks at least for the altered naptime to have any effect on morning wake time.

I agree too. Though i would potentially move bedtime later too. If my lo goes bed to early we get early waking. I normally do 730pm bed, usually asleep by 8pm. Up between 6am and 730am.

Any changes you make can take up to 3 weeks to see a difference as its resetting their internal clock.

Thank you @ChittyBang1987 @SnackSizeRaisin @AliceW89 Its much appreciated. Please can I ask if you use wake windows? My son is 18 mths. Thank you :)

I don’t use wake windows as such, no. At 18 months, DS had a pretty set pattern of awake at 6:30-7, nap 12:30-14:30 (14:45 at latest) asleep by 20:00. So we had 5.5h awake time in morning and 5.5h awake time in afternoon. It wasn’t planned that way though, it’s just what fitted our routine. I never change the nap or bedtime for random fluctuations in awake time.

He’s very nearly 2 now and we still goes to sleep at 20:00, but he wakes at more like 7/7:30 and naps 13:15ish to 14:30ish. The nap is definitely becoming a bit more challenging, but it’s (so far) translating into a bit more night sleep, which is a plus.

I'm no use for wake windows as my lo is 14 months old, and we're switching between 1 and 2 naps atm. Though my lo can do up to about 5 hours sometimes 6 if needed. She has nursery where she only naps 1.5 hours in day if we're lucky. So sometimes she has to do that long. She's not to bad just extra clingy.

It's a really tough transition to make and it took us about 6 weeks of going back and fourth between 1 and 2 naps to get there.
If my son would wake early I'd give him 10-15min nap at 9ish or 9.30am then a 2hr nap at 12.30pm
If he woke at a decent time then I'd try and have the nap around 11/11.30, in the early transition I'd let him sleep for 2.5hrs if he wanted. Then over time gradually push the nap towards 12.00.

He is now 21mo and his perfect wake windows either side of the lunch nap seem to be 5.5hrs but he often needs to do longer than that with his nap being a bit later on nursery days. I cap his nap at 2hrs now.

Good luck, you will get there!!

Well... I gradually pushed his nap back to 1130 and he started waking at 5am This is horrendous, im so tired 😭 he falls back to sleep at 5 15 to 545 then he is up.

Its now
5 45 wake
1130 nap
1 30pm/2pm wake
7 30 bed

Im guessing a 2 hour nap is too long, but ive tried capping it to 1 hoir and 1.5 hour and it caused multiple night wakings on the hour because i think he sas so overtired 😭

How on earth do people do this nap transition 😢😩😢😩

When my lo wakes at 530am it usually means overtiredness, but u know your lo.

It's been about a week? I would either stick with it for another week, and see how it goes. And move that nap later to say 1230 or 1pm cap. I wouldn't necessarily cap it unless it gets to 330pm as it may be lo being overtired. But then I'm one of those that try not to cap the afternoon nap too much.

From what I read it's the hardest. Have your tried something a bit different, which I think someone mentioned. I'm doing it with my lo atm.

At about 9 to 930 I put my lo into her cot (time depends literally due to wether she's had nursery day before or if she's simply tired) then i give about 30 mins. Always up at 10. Never give her more then 45mins unless she's extremely tired.

Then I pop her down again about 1pm ish. Asleep by 130pm latest up at 330pm latest.

Bed at 730pm. Asleep by 8pm. She likes to faff in her cot 😆 🤣

Also another tip. What time do you give dinner? I give my lo dinner about 530pm. Sometimes later on nursery days. I read something when you give dinner. From 12 hours from there they be waking hungry. Also my lo snacks a bit after her dinner too if she's still hungry and about 5 to 8oz of milk.

Another tip. Is it pitch black? I have blackout blinds all upstairs or doors closed firmly, and white noise blaring as those bloody birds have a lot to answer too 😆 🤣