Just curious when your little ones shifted from two naps down to one and whether it happened gradually or more sudden? Our baby girl recently turned one and up until this morning, she was very predictable in terms of a morning nap, with the afternoon nap being more of a struggle. For the first time this morning she did not take a nap, much to our surprise! She showed all the usual signs but then babbled and ussed, on and off for a very long time, at which point I saw the nap just wasn't happening so I took her out. I know older babies and toddlers tend to do one, long nap in the afternoon and it seems she's slowly moving towards that. I just didn't think it would be so soon!
Thanks for all the helpful information! For so many months, she took her morning nap at 9 am, and now everything seems to be upside down. For example, the last 3 days she has taken morning naps between 8 and 8:30 am and then resisted an afternoon nap. Last night, she was down by 6:45 pm and up this morning at 5:45 am...that's 11 hours, but within those 11 hours, she awoke 4 times. I nursed her back to sleep each time (not my idea of fun, and I'd love to night wean). She seems extremely grumpy and irritable in the mornings and is taking super early morning naps and then up the rest of the day. Not sure what's going on...but I wonder if all the wakings during the night are affecting her in the morning.
My daughter went to one nap at 12 months. It was due to a class transition at school. She was pretty tired for about the first 2 weeks then she got use to it. I would let her take the lead.
We stopped my daughters AM nap at about 15 months. We were having a hard time getting her to go to sleep at night so we figured she was getting too much sleep during the day. It took about two weeks for her to stop falling asleep at lunch and to get used to the new schedule but after that she was fine and she started going to bed really well with no crying. We did move lunch to 11:30 and nap up to noon which worked out great because I like her napping earlier anyway.
I think typically it's around 18 months but mine did the same thing as yours, right after her first birthday. After 4-5 days of that I figured out that was what she was doing. So I bumped her afternoon nap forward to right after lunch and she just sailed right into the transititon with no problems.
My daughter was around one and it was very sudden (w/in a couple weeks).
my son was 8mnths. he sleeping habits are strange though. he sleeps though the night (13hrs) then has to have a nap about 2-3hrs after waking, then won't sleep again till bedtime. (about 6 hrs later)
My son was 15 months and it was because his new daycare only had one, so it was really sudden, cold turkey. There is nothing wrong with having one of the naps be a rest time, and if she is okay just babbling and talking to herself, I would let her be. This way you can let her have to 2 for a little bit longer and see if it is a phase, or if she is really ready to go down to one.
Hey if she's doing it on her own then let her. My son did the same thing.
He just all of a sudden decided that his morning nap was just a great time to jump in his bed lol
DS was 10mos, and it was very sudden. Out of the blue, one day, he wanted nothing to do with a morning nap. He would be mad or play or whatever, but would NOT sleep.
He wasn't ready to not have that nap, but of course you can't force them to sleep. So we just bumped up the afternoon nap time to noonish.
Now we're in the process of losing naps all together. :( Exact same thing going on.
I just asked a question myself similar to this about dropping a nap all together. My son was about 1 when he dropped the morning nap. He just would not fall asleep! And it was kinda sudden. I am on day 2 of no nap. I let him sleep as long as he wants in the morning and he is good until about 9 at night. My advice is not not force it if you notice that she consistantly does not want to nap in the morning. I remember moving the afternoon nap earlier initially because he was tired. Honestly, I liked it better when he took one nap, no need to hurry home for nap time.
Mine was probably closer to 18 mths old when she transitioned--its very individual thing though--if she seems happy and content w/out the morning nap--then let her be and then watch carefully for signs of tiredness. If she is used to a 1:00 afternoon nap- she may not make it that long. You could give her an early lunch and a noon p.m. nap or if she falls asleep before lunch let her sleep and give her lunch when she wakes up. You may want to avoid car trips in the a.m. so she won't fall asleepin the car and then wake as soon as you return home though! One of my daycare kids was used to a a.m. nap at home and mom didn't think he'd be as interested in one here because of all the kids to play with--the very first day he dropped the am nap and zonked out during lunch--been with me a couple of weeks and sometimes he doesn't make it through lunch:) It was not worth trying to settle him down for an a.m. nap when he generally sleeps in at home anyway until 7:30 and he would fight me on it since it was a new place. Just watch their cues!
When my son turned one, daycare transitioned him from two naps down to one nap. He seemed to take two or three days to adjust, but has been happily napping from 12:00 - 3:00 ever since.
