Getting 1 Year Old Back on Some Kind of Napping Schedule

I found the book "The Sleep Easy Solution" to be a great tool with getting my daughter on a sleep routine. It is fairly flexible with the "training" part of sleep (crying it out, modified, etc) plus it has a couple of examples of a sleep schedule for each age range. It was the gentlest and most effective book I found.

My girl is now 1 year and sleeping great!

Good luck

My daughter is only 3 months so I can't give you any first hand experience based advice but a friend of mine was having a lot of sleep issues with her son and completely turned it around when she got "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Wissbluth, MD.

I got it when my daughter suddenly had trouble sleeping through the night and it really helped. It addresses different sleep issues by age and is based on scientific observation rather than random theories by people with no medical background like so many other books I've seen.

I recommend putting her on a schedule. I used a combination of Babywise (eat, play, sleep every 2-4 hours depending on their eating schedule) and independent sleeping from the Baby Whisperer for both my boys had them sleeping through the night and down for naps without a great deal of my involvement. We had a going to sleep ritual ("time to go night, night".."time to go night, night", get the lovey, read a story, turn on music, lay them down and walk out the door). They would work themselves to sleep. My oldest was a 30-40 minute napper in his first year. Some of it is him teaching himself to go back to sleep when something is waking him up after 3-40 minutes. The schedule helps a lot.

Try to make sure to put her down for the first nap about 2 hours after she wakes up in the morning. And then make her afternoon nap a specific time, say 1pm every day. Stay consistent, putting her down at the same times every day and eventually she'll sleep longer and longer (fingers crossed!).

Good luck.

Hi D.,
When my daughter turned one I started giving her just one nap which went very well. My suggestion would be to try and put off her morning nap until at least 11 or so. Sometimes in order to do this I would have to go to the library for storytime or the park or anywhere else around 930 or so before she got sleepy and just stretch her morning out. Then I'd come home around 11 or 1130 and she'd be quite tired and sleep for 3 hours! In the beginning she was a little more tired in the evening but once she got used to it she'd sleep in a little later in the morning which helped me stretch her mornings until almost noon. That would in turn help with being cranky in the evening since she had taken a bit of a later nap. This really worked well for me, I hope I wrote it out so its easy enough to understand. Write if you have any questions. Oh and by the way, she was always a terrible sleeper!!! This gave me some "me" time....finally!!

One of the best things that have worked for our kids is to have the naps set up like bed time. Have a set time, and let her pick out some books she likes or you can do it since she is so little. Then we sit in bed and read the books before our naps and bed and then when we are done we say its time to sleep. Naps have been a little harder and some times I have had to sit with my son for a little bit as he gets sleepy, but if he is really tired the stories seem to help him start to drift off. This worked with my daughters and son.

I find that it helps to have a routine before all sleep times. Try doing the same thing every single day for a week and see if it helps. For instance, at naptime I begin by telling my boys (1 and 3) that naptime is in 10 minutes. Then we go into their room, change diapers and remove shoes, sing three songs and settle down into bed. Lately I have had to sit in their room (usually about 10 minutes) until they fall asleep, and I think that this is due to the hectic holidays. But we're getting back on track and I think it's because of the consistency. Good luck!

It sounds like she is transitioning from needing two naps a day to one nap a day. From your post, I am assuming you put her down late morning and then mid-afternoon? I would try to put her down after lunch. Her belly will be nice and full and she will be ready for bed. I am a mom of three, and this same situation has happened more than once. She needs more awake time, but also needs that one solid nap during the day to rejuvinate.

good luck! :)

You know, I started to write all this info about my son. But he was always a great napper, and he's older; he'll be three in a couple days. I have always put him down awake as well. With your wee one being so young, I hope I can help you. I will tell you what I know from what I experienced with my son. I don't know if it'll help, kids are so different. But it's worth a try. Being consistant was the most important part. I always put him down for a nap at the same time every day. He always needed sleep, so he would take two naps a day-once in the late morning, and another in the afternoon. But if he had too much sleep at night, he would get tired during the day and have a harder time. Same with the naps-if he took too long of a nap, he would have a hard time sleeping at night. But he needed both. I had to find that balace for him. Of course there were situations where everything I thought I knew flew out the window! But this is what I did. Also, just the fact that they go through growth spurts and cut teeth, this all changes their sleeping habits. Just like us-sometimes day happenings affect how well we sleep. My son used to wake up at 6am, which I didn't like very much, so I put him to bed an hour later and after a few days, he slept in an hour. But it's not going to happen over night. It's after the routine has been established. Oh! The biggest thing! Babies and kids do NOT acknowledge daylight savings time! So everytime, it'll take a bit to get them to the new schedule. I really believe that being consistant is the main thing. And it might take a few days, but don't give up! With my son- if I didn't keep up with being consistant for three days, it was gone-he had a new schedule. Then it would take sometimes twice as long for him to get back on the original schedule. That's all I know! I hope any of this helps. Good luck!

My son has been a difficult man to get on a good nap schedule as well. What seems to have worked for us is putting him down at roughly the same time(s) each day. If he wakes up after 30-40 minutes we let him fuss/cry for 5-15 minutes. If he is still crying after 15 minutes I go into his room, rub his head & say "it's still nap time.", then I leave the room. He usually cries for 1-5 minutes & then back to dream land for up to an hour.
Good Luck!

My youngest daughter was never a great napper either, until she was about 11 months old (She's now 13 mos). We eliminated the morning nap, and she's now going down very easily for an afternoon nap just after lunch. She now sleeps longer than she did when she had two separate naps and is also going down more easily and sleeping better at night. Maybe your daughter would respond better to one long nap a day?

My daughter will be 1 Sat. and I just weaned her off the boob, and never a bottle. She went from awake every 2 hours to sleeping 8-8 everynight. The first nght is rough. But this is what worked for us.
She awakes around 8 and nap is 12. Put her down and say "mommy loves you time for bed I love you sweet dreams goodnight." Then I walk out. She may cry for 2 minutes. Then at 8 oclock same thing.
It really only took 1 long painful night. I was shocked and wished I did it with my older kids. The first night we went in every 10 minutes to lay her back down same speech but no picking up. But its up to you because some people can do the cry it out and some cant. ( I couldnt until kid number 3 ) I am so thankful I did because she is the best behaved out of all of the kids and kids thrive on structure and consistency. Which is hard during holidays.
You will find what works for you and good luck!

I just wanted to commiserate with you! I have a 13 month old son and we have been enduring this for over a month now. I have been told it is the ugly transition to one nap/day. I'm glad you posted this - I'll be watching for any viable advice I haven't as yet tried. Good luck.

wow! I cant wait to read your advice, my 11 month old is doing the same thing! He goes to bed at 7:30 and starts waking up at 4:30AM!

I read about a dozen sleep books, and the best was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. It's one of the only books that focus on naps. That said, when Jack turned one, it took a couple of months for us to work out a schedule again, because he didn't really need 2 whole naps, but needed more than 1. Around 12-13 months, a baby goes from 2 naps to 1, usually. I recommend the above book in helping you with that transition.