When to drop to one nap?

[FebMama]

Just that really. When did others notice their LO's drop to one nap per day?

Mine started the transition at 8 months and was done with it by 10 months. That’s early. I’ve never had a schedule for him that I’ve designed but always let him nap whenever he wanted to. Once he was down to one nap the schedule became a lot more reliable and now at 20 months the nap is still at the same time as it was at 10 months, but wake up is a bit earlier and bedtime a bit later.

We dropped at about 16 months which I believe is later than most.

two naps were needed until then but then consolidated to one 2 hour approx nap

It seems like this nap transition varies so much! I cannot for the life of me remember when DS1 dropped to one nap.

Thank you for the replies.

Think both mine dropped to 1 around 1 year old- for my eldest her afternoon nap was sometimes 3 hours and my youngest it was an hour (she dropped all naps before 2yrs old). They’re all different, any cues like nap refusal, later bed time?

DD not long celebrated her 1st birthday ... one nap a day (in the afternoon) like clockwork ever since

Tried to drop to one nap at 11 months but he wasn't ready so it was about 15 months when he did.

About 13m here unless we've had an awful night or very early wake. She's 15m now

About 13m-14m it was so much easier than dropping to 2 naps. She did it on her own just started fighting her morning nap

At 7 months when he started nursery. And then no nap since he turned 2.5

He started nursery at 1 and immediately dropped to one nap there, as it was what all the babies did. At home he needed two naps until 15-16 months. It was pretty obvious when he was ready to drop, he wasn’t remotely sleepy in the normal morning slot so it was easy to push him on to an after lunch single nap. It probably took a week to really bed in.

13-14 months. It was just when lockdown started and I was trying to work at home, so going to one nap for a solid two hours was a huge relief once we properly switched!

DS was 11 months

Such an interesting mix of replies. DS2 is 11 months and sleep is becoming a nightmare with lots of night wakes but I'm not sure he's ready to drop to one nap yet. Or maybe he could be? Who knows 🤷🏽‍♀️

We had lots of night wakes until I night weaned around 13 months, his early decision to drop to one nap helped nothing! 😅 He was a terrible sleeper for his first year, and always slept less than the recommended averages and dropped every nap really early - down to 2 at 6 months and 1 at 8-10 months. Now as a toddler he has slept pretty well ever since he first slept through, except for when he's teething or ill.

In the same position now. Baby is 1 in a few weeks and we have had bad nights for a while now. I randomly caught a glimpse when he was laughing yesterday and saw 4 top teeth through so wondering if that was the cause.

from reading online we seem to be at the max 2 nap schedule of wake windows 3/3.5/4.5 (11 hours) with 2x 1 hour naps. If he naps any longer he wakes a lot. I don’t know how to transition to 1 nap as the first wake window he gets so tired. Past 2 days I have done 3.5/3.5/4.5 which I know is a lot but I’m planning on pushing first wake window every few days to have a longer nap and a small cat nap in the afternoon to gradually get to 1 nap mid day. Half the time I don’t think he’s ready but then lately he’s waking from his naps which he never did and waking a lot at night.

We dropped to one nap at 8/9 months when it was taking forever to get DD to sleep at nap times and bedtime and had lots of false starts. It was definitely the right move for us, albeit she remains a bit of a tricky sleeper overall. She’s always been low sleep needs though so she was probably earlier than most.

DD is 14, and I truly can’t remember with her.

DS is 4, and I forced the drop to 1 nap when he was 12 months. It makes life so much easier and I find that morning nap contributes to early
morning wakes at some point, so best to drop it sooner than later if possible.

He started fighting it, so it was being pushed back and then having a knock on effect on afternoon nap, which then meant leaving at 3pm
for DD’s school pick up was a nightmare.

I stopped offering it but it meant bringing lunchtime nap forward and bedtime earlier - just until his morning wake window stretched a bit.

DD is 4 weeks old and ideally we’ll start working on dropping it when she’s 11 months.

Thank you so so much for the replies.

So my LO is going to be 1 year old in just three weeks time! Because of how bad our nights are at the moment, I'm wondering whether I should try and drop the morning nap. How would I go about this?? Currently our routine is roughly as follows:

7am wake up
10am nap 1 for 30 mins (I wake him after 30 mins otherwise he could sleep for ages I reckon)
1.15/1.30pm - nap 2 length varies but if he hasn't already woken himself, I have to get him up for 2.45pm for preschool pick up for my eldest at 3pm.
Bedtime between 7-7.30pm
Sleeps well until about 11pm and then regular night wakes start and he's usually very unsettled from 4/5am onwards even when I bring him into the bed!!!

Does it sound like dropping the morning nap may be an idea?

The way mine did it was that he just on some days had his first nap a little bit later and slept longer, and on those days wouldn’t have a second nap or it would go too late. So the rough rule I followed was that if his first nap ended at midday or later then he wouldn’t have another and we would just do bedtime at 6pm instead. So I’d say just try to delay the first nap a little bit and let him sleep as long as he likes and do bedtime earlier.

He has pretty much always had his one nap at 11-12.30. It’s not the wondrous 3 hours of peace in the middle of the day that some parents get 😅 if he’s unwell he sleeps longer but 1.5hr is the norm.

Yes def drop the morning nap. I would switch up timings so he has breakfast when he wakes, lunch around 11:30 and then down for a nap at 12:30. That should give you enough time to get him up ready to pick your other child up.

I would also experiment with bringing bedtime slightly earlier, when Dd dropped her first nap it was a nightmare with early wakings and I found that an earlier bedtime (in bed asleep by 6:45/7pm) really helped.

@FebMama Is there any protesting/fighting the nap coming from your little one for either of his naps or does he go down easily for both at those times?

Mine used to nap at approximately 10am and 2pm. It slowly turned into one 12 o'clock nap, somewhere around or slightly after the first birthday - basically, when they were able to stay awake a bit longer, they did. Once they were able to walk they needed to run around a bit before they got tired enough to nap.

13 months.

@VillageFete I wouldn't say he is resisting his morning nap no. What I would say is that it's starting to get a bit later in the morning now as his wake windows are expanding and so it's been having a knock on effect on the rest of the day and pushing bedtime later.

We had a bit of an off day today. LO woke up not particularly happy. He was whingey and irritable right from the moment his eyes opened! I think it's teething related.
He had his milk as usual at 7am and then weirdly enough fell back to sleep at 8am for about 25 mins.
So from 8.25am he then stayed up until 1.15pm. We went for a walk to the park during this time and I really thought he would have his usual morning nap in the pram but he didn't.
In the end, he had just a 1.15pm - 3.25pm nap today - totally unintentionally. He's just gone down for bed now. Not expecting a massive miracle as his teeth have been causing him havoc all day but let's see. I am definitely edging towards sacking off the morning nap entirely though...

@FebMama Defo drop it. Bring lunchtime nap forward and let him sleep for a good couple of hours, if he wakes after an hour i’d try and resettle him anyway you can to get a good 2 hour’s from him. Bedtime may need bringing forward a little whilst you transition.

What’s his wake windows like? How long between lunchtime nap and bed?