My 10 1/12 mo. old daughter seems like she MAY be ALMOST ready to transition to 1 nap. Has anyone's child transitioned this early before? How did it go...was he/she really ready, as you look back on it? My son transitioned at 15 mo.
I think she may be ready b/c she's skipped a couple naps this week & last, and seems to sleep really well at night (no waking, 10-12 hrs. straight) when she's only had 1 nap. With the 2 naps, she was waking 2-3 times per night. She was doing two 2 hours naps, then they started shortening to about 1 hr. 20min. off and on. I'll see what she does over the next few days...I will still try to give her 2 naps...I just want to prepare for what may be inevitable.
T.,
My son transitioned at 12 months, only a month and a half later than your daughter. I say try it for a week. As you mentioned, it helps her sleep better at night, so she's getting more rest at night which is probably making up for the 2nd nap anyway.
Trust that she's telling you what she needs, and go with it. You can always try two naps again if this doesn't seem to be working out. :)
Sounds like 1 nap is the way to go for your daughter! Every child is different. I bet you prefer no waking at night, right?
Or... if you would like her to take her 2 naps still, make sure she gets plenty of stimulation throughout the day, in other words..wear her out and she will need that extra nap! On the other hand, if she takes two naps on a given day and you want to prevent the waking at night, wear her out! Also, make sure she eats a nice full meal before she sleeps :)
Over my years working with that age I have found that unless the baby sleeps 12 hours at night and at least 3 hours at the one nap then they are NOT ready for it.
Think of it this way, naps for kids are like oil changes. They need them to run correctly, to process the information they encounter and to have the energy to deal with life and grow. Like your car you can't tell right away that a missed oil change is a bad thing. But one day the car will just die on you. For kids it's one day they will just not be as smart, they won't behave as good, they won't retain information as good.
Yes they can survive on less sleep, but they don't thrive on less sleep.
I have NEVER in all my years met a child that did well on only one nap prior to 15 mos old. Most kids that wake up before 8 a.m. need at least two naps until they are over 18 mos old unless they are getting 13 hours of uninterrupted night time sleep.
Around 10 months my daughter started skipping one nap a day a few days a week...so we dropped her morning nap around 11 months. I did try to keep it for as long as possible, but she was only napping 45 minutes a day, and once I dropped the first nap, she started sleeping closer to 2.5. We did struggle with her falling asleep in the car in the morning for a few months, but it didn't effect her afternoon nap so I didn't worry about it.
My 2nd and 4th transitioned to one nap earlier than the other two. They slept better and all in one lump than the two naps. It sounds like she is ready to do one nap. Like another poster said you have to be careful of the morning falling asleep in the car thing, because that could affect the afternoon nap.
Good luck!
My twins started around this age to go to one nap a day. Now they sleep through the night. when they were on two naps, that afternoon nap made it hard for me to get them to sleep at night. But one nap makes them irritable around 5;00 but then it was too early to put them to bed. So here is what I do now to make my life easy and it works for them. They take a two hour nap right after a 11:00 lunch. Then in the late afternoon I put them in their crib for about 30/40 minutes for "Chill out time". I play music and give them crib toys. This gives me time to clean/make dinner. Then they can go to bed at 7:00pm successfully. hope this helps
