12 month old taking 45-60 mins to fall asleep

[laujyou]

My LO has gone from falling asleep within a matter of minutes to taking almost an hour to fall asleep, much of which involves crying until he can’t cry anymore. Does anyone have any tips on how I can get him to sleep quicker in order to reduce his distress?

At the moment, he naps twice a day for around 2.5 hours in total. Should I be cutting down? He tends to sleep through the night.

TIA.

Many babies move to one nap at this stage. Aim for a 12-2 nap and put them to bed for the night by 7. It might take a few days to work.

I think it’s still too early for 1 nap unless he’s able to easily stay awake for 5 hours at a time. 2 x 2.5 hour naps seems like a lot though,

Sorry, 2.5 x 1 is fine. How long is the second nap and how long is it between waking and going to bed in the evening?

He has a total of 2.5 hours through the day split into 1.5 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. His final wake window is on average 4.5 hours. He has such a great nighttime sleep on the whole (goes all the way through til after 7am), so I really should be celebrating that, but this one hour of crying beforehand is surely something that can be avoided somehow… I hope…

This was the number 1 sign DC1 needed to drop a nap- all kids are different of course but it's worth ago. DC1 has now stopped napping at aged 2, which everyone told us was TOO EARLY, but lo and behold they stopped taking ages (crying) to fall asleep and still sleep through.

If he's not quite ready to drop the nap then he might need a later bedtime for a while until he is ready, and then it moves earlier again.

Also, are you comforting him when he cries? Separation anxiety is common at this age too and night time is a big scary separation, he may need some hugs and cuddles to reassure him!