Help with Nap Transition Please!

We pushed morning nap back a little bit at a time- when they would get fussy they would go down. We are pretty flexible so we didn't care when the nap fell. It was around 12, then 12:30 and is now getting closer to 1. She will typically sleep 1.5-3 hours(when we want a long nap it is usually short and vice versa). She goes to bed somewhere around 8(summer hours) and wakes up somewhere between 8 and 9. We haven't read a ton of books- we just watch their cues and do as they need. They really fall into a routin on their own if you let them. Your son may cut out the afternoon nap- but you might try to push the morning nap later so that he is not so fussy at night. The number of hours he is resting is good- just may get tough around 6- at least that is how it is in our house!

Hi W.,

Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child is a book I recommend to all parents I coach AND one I give to all my expecting Mama's. It's great.

So, as you know from the book, toddler's naps change rapidly in short amounts of time. Additionally 12 month + tend to lose 1 nap. When I worked with babies/toddlers as a Nanny here is the typical nap schedule I found for the 2 to 1 nap transition:

Nap around 11 am to start, a quick nap around 4 then bedtime. Over the next 6 months or so, the "morning" nap would slowly creep later into the afternoon, settling to be about 1:00-1:30, lasting about 2 hours.

Here is my suggestion. Start putting him to "morning" nap 15 minutes earlier each morning until he goes to sleep without issue. In the later afternoon try a quick short nap/ quiet play time.

Also, watch for his sleep cues. I find kids have a "nap window" and if you lay them down outside that window, they get over stimulated and cannot sleep at all.

It's a process of trial and error, but you'll get it.

Good Luck

R. Magby

Forget the morning nap. Just give him lunch and then put him down
for his one nap. This is the age they go from 2 to 1 nap. Good luck.

Nap transition can be tricky. My son is 15 months and will probably drop his second nap soon. I'd say always assume he needs another nap, give him the opportunity, then get him out if he's not asleep by 3pm (like the book suggests). He may want one nap one day then two the next and go back & forth for awhile.
If you suspect teething, giving him a little tylenol before bedtime won't hurt.

I've had the same issue with my 12 month old. What I've been trying to do is stretch out the time between when he wakes in the morning (about 7-7:30) and when he takes his first nap. He seems to show beginning signs of wanting to take a morning nap around 10:30/11 like yours. Instead of letting him nap I give him a morning snack then or early lunch. Then he's usually raring to go for another hour or so. Then he'll nap from about noon until about 2pm but that's the only nap he'll take. He is less crabby at night the longer I can put that one nap off. I think that about a year old a lot of kids start to cut out that second nap and I think this is what I'm observing in my own son and maybe it's happening with yours too.

Is he possibly teething? That always kind of throws the schedule out the window. Ear infections also seem to bother them more at night. Does he have a fever?