hi everyone,
I have read all the questions regarding the 2-1 nap transition but can't seem to find an answer. After weeks of trying to adjust my now 13 month son's nap's (from longer intervals between them to shorter intervals), it became clear that he's ready for one nap last week when he flat out refused to nap during the afternoon. Since then we have been keeping him up until 12:30, but he is only sleeping one hour. This seems like it is not enough for sleep for him because by 5:00 he's ready for bed. Last night, for example, he went to bed at 6 pm after napping from 12:30-1:30 and woke up this morning at 4:30. I know this is a ten hour chunk of sleep, but it is not enough given the short nap. He was very tired when he woke up this morning . I kept things quiet, changed his soaked diaper, and thought he would fall back asleep when I put him back down. However, it took him 1.5 hours to fall asleep, and when he did, he only slept for 45 minutes because he was ready for breakfast and had another dirty diaper. Because of his inconsistent sleep earlier this morning, I am wondering if I should put him down at noon instead or if he'd sleep longer if I waited until 1 pm. This early wake up time and choppy sleep has been going on as he was fighting two naps, and is still happening with 1 nap. We also don't go in and get him right away from the naps--we wait for about 20 minutes and will check his diaper which has been dirty. I've tried putting him down right away again, and left him in his crib for another 20 minutes, but he's up. He does not want to go back to sleep.
For those who've had a successful 2-1 nap transition, how long did it take for your little one to nap well and sleep without an early wake up time? I've heard it takes time and I know every child is different, but it would just be helpful to know what to expect, what works, and what doesn't.
Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions. I've tried everything over the last two days+ few months with my son and he's just refusing to Nap, but is now incredibly cranky. Whether it's pushing his nap back or forward or going to two naps again (as we did last month after trying one nap for two weeks), nothing is working. He refuses to nap despite how tired he is. I am at a loss. As far as we can tell after talking with the pediatrician, nothing is wrong with him medically. He sleeps more hours at night some days to compensate, but it's very erratic. It's frustrating, and I am hoping that it is just a phase, even though it's been going on for the last two months.
UPDATE: I am not sure if this post might be helpful to other moms so I wanted to post an update. It's been 3 months since we've had issues with the 2-1 nap transition. My son is now 15 months old. In the last month, he has transitioned to one 2 hour nap. What helped us most was realizing he was going to fight his afternoon nap no matter what but still need an earlier nap in the day. As a result, we knew we had to put him down early for bedtime--there was no way he could stay up that late. There were days he was in bed by 5:30 pm! This made for some early mornings, but he would sleep straight through the night. We were finally able to push his nap to noon (after a few weeks of an 11 am nap) when we went on vacation-he was so stimulated all the new sights and sounds that he stayed awake. After 5 days of vacation, we came home and I have kept his routine up. I get him out of the house (library, errands etc) and he goes down for a nap at noon, waking up at 2 now. He sleeps 11 hours a night, waking at 6:30 and down for the night at 7 or 7:30.
As one response stated, it does take months to get to the one nap--and for us it was a total break away from our daily activities that finally did it.
I hope this somehow helps someone. I find that a routine really has helped our son--nothing stringent, but he knows when it's nap time,quiet time, and it's playtime. He now goes to sleep without a fight, and happily.
Thanks everyone!
Do you go in right away when he wakes up after an hour? If you do, try waiting a little - maybe he'll settle and go back to sleep.
I would put him down for nap earlier. I did lunch at 11 then nap after and she'd sleep 2-3 hours. Now she goes in at 12 or 12:30 and eventually I hope it will be a nap about 1-3. Good luck mama
It's hard for me to understand how families can be so tightly scheduled since I'm a more laid-back type and generally let my 4 kids lead when it came to stuff like this. I kept them up until pretty late in the evening so they'd sleep in longer and the nap situation happened however the day went - whether we were out or home or what. Once I let my 1 yr old stay in her crib longer hoping she'd fall back to sleep. She took off her poopy diaper and smeared it everywhere. I never did that again. It seemed to work better to let them sleep in my bed, on the couch, even on the living room floor unless the nap in the crib worked easily. Sometimes they gave up naps altogether earlier than I would've like but 2 of mine napped after school through 1st grade, which was what they chose to do. I think kids know how much sleep then need, how much they need to eat etc. That's my take on it - let the baby lead you within good limits of health and safety.
I am a beliver that they should sleep when tired, and we all have our own schedules... my kids both get up EARLY.... and there's not much I can do to change that (we've tried). We just go to be earlier now !!! Anyway, he may be waking b/c he's wet/dirty... not that he's ready to get up. That phase will pass. Also, the transition will take time... sometimes a month or so for mine to get into a routine.
for my daughter, this transition started at daycare. but since i became a stay at home mom, i've had to adjust sleeping times. she is 2 years old. she will wake up between 5 and 7 am (i hate it, but it was her schedule for her first two years of her life). I fix her breakfast then. she plays and everything until between 10:30 and 11 when i fix her lunch. I try to get her to nap around 11:30 and she'll only nap for an hour, if i'm really lucky 2 hours. then she is up for the afternoon, and goes to bed at 7:30. i'm lucky if she sleeps all night then. but it works for us.
My personal opinion is that 12:30 is too late for the 1 nap routine right now.
When we went from 2 naps to 1... I'll just show you the schedules we followed for said transition.
When our son was taking 2 naps -
6am - Wake up. Change diaper. Have breakfast. Play.
9am - Snack. #1 nap.
10:30ish - Wake up. Snack. Play.
11:30-12ish - Lunch. Play.
1pm - Snack. Nap.
2:30ish - Wake up. Snack. Play.
6pm - Dinner.
7pm - Bath. Jammies. (maybe snack)
7:30ish - Bed.
With only 1 nap -
6am - Wake up. Breakfast. Play.
10:30ish (sometimes closer to 11) - Lunch. Nap.
1:30ish - Wake up. Snack. Play.
6pm - Dinner.
7pm - Bath. Jammies. (maybe snack)
7:30 - Bed.
We have our son in daycare now (previously with a private sitter from birth to 2yrs). The daycare is close to our original home schedule (1 nap schedule). But now that he's older (closer to 3), his nap time shifted some. It's 12ish - 2ish. But the 1 nap has always been around 2 hrs.
Are you certain that he is ready for just 1 nap? I know that every child is different, but my 15-month-old girl still takes 2 naps and sleeps an 11-12 hour stretch at night. She did have phases like the ones you stated above, but I just persisted through them as I knew she was tired and needed the sleep. Right now she goes to bed around 8 and wakes up anywhere from 710-745 in the morning. She goes back down around 930 and sleeps for 1.5 hours and then goes back down again in the afternoon and sleeps anywhere from 1 hr 45 min to 2 hours.
Side note, Linda P. has a good point. Even with my little girl in the afternoons, she will wake up after 30 minutes, take a lap around her crib and then lay back down and go back to sleep after about a minute or so. She's done it in the morning nap as well, but it was a little longer rousing. She would fall asleep for 15 minutes. Wake up and be awake for another 10 just talking and laughing and then she'll roll over and go back to sleep.
Like I said, there was a phase where she was walking around in her crib for around one hour in the afternoon and then falling asleep for one hour. She even went through phases in the morning where she wouldn't sleep and then fall asleep for 30 minutes. After one week of my persistence she went back to her regular schedule. Since turning one she has gone through this phase about every 6 weeks, but I know she isn't ready to go to one nap. I don't know if this is helpful at all. By no means am I saying that your intuition is wrong, but I just thought it might be helpful to hear from someone who has had something similar and the phase ended. Maybe try the 2 naps again and just push through it. He could be getting choppy sleep because he isn't getting enough. I know that sounds weird, but sometimes that can be the case. Sleep begets sleep a baby/toddler.
