My son is about to be 12 months old. He is a pretty good sleeper for the most part. He sleeps a good 10-12 hours at night (sometimes he'll wake up during that time period and play for about 30 minutes quietly in his crib and go back to sleep). He also takes a really good morning nap. I'll usually put him down about 2 hours after getting up for the morning and he'll sleep for a good 2.5 to 3 hours and as no difficulty settling or going to sleep. He'll be out in 15-20 minutes. I keep feeling like he needs a second nap about two hours after waking up from this nap because he'll start rubbing his eyes. However, he FIGHTS this nap so much. It will take him an extra hour to actually settle for it, then another 30 minutes to fall asleep, and I'm lucky if he sleeps even 1 hour. Sometimes, by the time he gets to sleep for this nap, it's already dinner time and he just sleeps through till like 3 or 4 in the morning and I have to get up and feed him and let him play in his crib till he gets tired again. So does he still need this nap? Should I maybe wait till 3 hours after he wakes from the morning or should I move his morning nap a little later to make it be a one nap a day thing? There have been a few days that I have let him just stay away through the nap time and he becomes SO cranky at dinner time cause he's acting sleepy. Thoughts on this?
Thank you everyone for your responses. I think I'll try to push his morning nap back as he usually still has some energy and see how he does for a day. I do know that at daycare they have the same problem. Sometimes he'll take one and sometimes two. The days that he does only take one, he's usually asleep by 7 and I have to move his dinner up cause he gets to cranky. I think I'll do some feeling out on moving around his schedule
@Gamma - my daycare has a transition classroom for 1-2 year olds before they go to the official toddler room. The room has cribs for children 12 months to 16-18 months (depending on if they try to climb or not) and then transition them to a cot. They also slowly transition from the infant room to this room with spending half days in both for a few weeks till they get adjusted to the new routine. It's the one thing I like is that they are structured but not SUPER structure until they hit the two year old room :)
Both of my kids at 9-10months moved to a 11am-1:30/2pm nap. At around 15-18 months that time was pushed back until after lunch around 12:30-1pm.
At 9/10mth age my oldest didn't eat lunch until he woke up--but we have a late dinner because of when daddy gets home. My youngest needed his lunch before he went down. I just adjust his nap by a 1/2 to an 1hr for a couple days and see how he does.
Put him down later in the morning or try to give early lunch and put him
down at about noon.
DS: 10 mos. He dropped on his own.
DD: currently 17mos...still occasionally takes 2.
DS wasn't ready to drop down to 1, but he just wouldn't go down for 2. So we gradually moved to a lunch time nap and moved his bedtime up to 7pm.
Took about a month to adjust, but then we were good.
Lol. I thought the question was "When did YOU." I gave up a nap-a-day after DD gave up napping altogether at age 2. :)
Ok...real answer....
Baby #1 went from 2 to 1 at age 10 months and 1 - 0 at 2 years.
Baby #2 went from 2 to 1 at age 18 months and still holding....she is age 21 months.
I also found that when they were weaning off of a nap, it would be like 1 day out of 7 that they would drop, then it was 2 days out of 7, then 3, then hit and miss of when they needed it.
We also had morning naps (2 hours from waking). Now, it's like 4 - 5 hours from waking and about 1.5 - 2 hours.
I would hold him off as long as you can for his ONE nap, but if you find he is really tired 3 days into that, let him take 2 naps....then go back to stretching him out. Just follow his cues. Good luck!!!
Kids in childcare are usually down to one nap per day by 12 months due to being moved up to the toddler room. They take one nap per day on cots and have a very scheduled curriculum. The babies would also be started sleeping on cots at the same time they started napping only after lunch. It is an ideal time for those babies to start toddler beds at home too.
14 and 15 mos but try it now, but earlier than you were doing the 2nd nap.
My son took 2 naps a day until about 15 months I think. And then there was a few weeks to a month of transition time where some days he had two naps and some days he had one.
It seems to me that your son is too young to truly go down to one nap, but I know others have done this. If you do decide to go to one nap - please only do it after being assured that this is not just a phase. You should notice him refusing that nap for at least a few weeks. Sometimes all it takes is your consistency and being persistent through his testing phases to pass through. But if it persists, know that there will be days where he needs both naps and it's fine to do that. My son literally did every other day with one nap/two naps for awhile. And EARLY bedtimes on one nap days until it's well established.
My son (now 14 months old) only takes 1 nap.... which is usually between 1-2:00 in the afternoon and is maybe 1-2.5 hours long. He goes to sleep at 8 pm, wakes up between 7-8am and will nap ONCE! I wish he would sleep more in the day, but ultimately, I'm just happy he sleeps 10-12 hours straight every night! lol! My daughter, now 6, was never big on naps either, but is a great night time sleeper as well. I have noticed though, during growth spurts, which is hard to know or predict, that a second nap will strangely happen... I just go with the flow :-)
We changed to one nap a day when my son was 12 months. He started waking up at 3 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. Dropping the first nap fixed that.
