What signs did you see before dropping to one nap?

My guys take two naps, but within the last week or so the morning nap has gone from 2 hours to one hour or less. I figured they may be getting ready to go to one nap, and I'm trying to be prepared. Is this a sign of going to one nap. Right now I feel like they wake too early, and that's why they beg to go to bed only 2.5 hours after waking. The rest of the day they are up for 3-4 hour stretches.

Also...
Did you move up bedtime when they went to one nap?
Did you find they slept longer at night?
What is their wake time interval with one nap?

Right now they wake between 6-6:30, take a 1 hour nap around 8:30/9, and then I put them back down for a nap between one and two. When they go to one nap, I'd love to get them on this schedule sleep 7-7 and Nap 12-3. Is that reasonable?

 

My girls actually started fighting their afternoon nap when they started getting ready to drop to one nap a day. They'd wake at 7ish, nap at 9, and then didn't want to nap again at 2ish. So I took a week and gradually moved the morning nap later until we were finally napping right after lunch. Now our schedule is wake around 7ish, nap around 1ish until 3ish, bed around 8ish. HTH!

 

My twosome would boycott their AM naps, I waited until they did this constantly ( a week or more) before we transitioned to one nap. Now they get up between 7:30-8:15 am, nap at 1 to 3-4:00 (depending on their mood that day) and bedtime is 7:30-8:00. Hope that helps you out

 

This was us too. They fought the afternoon nap first, so we pushed the morning nap back, dropped the afternoon nap, and they were sleeping from 11:30 or so to 3 - generally 3 1/2 hours. We didn't move bedtime. This happened for us around 13 months or so. After the transition, one nap was fabulous because they'd take such a long one. Now, they are starting to wake up earlier and fight the nap a little, so I think we are going to move bedtime back a 1/2 hour and see how that helps.

 

The girls started really shortening both of their naps (45 minutes or less) so we went to one nap. It is still really tough for us in the late morning though since the girls are tired and want a morning nap. We try to go to the park or do something special from about 10:00-11:00 to get through that time. We did not adjust our bedtime because of one nap. Right now my girls wake up about 6:30. They nap from 11:30-2:00 or 2:30 and go to bed at 7:30 or 8. The girls were periodically taking only one nap in May at daycare, but we really only moved to one nap at home in the past two weeks or so. They are 18 months old (16 adjusted). Good luck. I think one nap is great because they tend to sleep longer, but the transition is rough.

 

When my girls fought their afternoon nap consistently I just did away with it. They were about 16 months old when we made the transition.

 

Thanks, ladies. I'm getting nervous about this; I've heard it can be rough. They aren't fighting naps yet, just shortening the morning nap.

 

Mine were on 2 naps until 22 months, but did go thru some napping issues around 12-13 months old. I kept to the schedule and after awhile they went back to taking 2 good naps a day. Since yours are so young, I'd just keep doing what you are doing and see if its a phase. Do they wake up happy or cranky? If cranky, can you or DH go in and soothe back to sleep for that morning nap? GL!!!

 

Today one woke the other one, and they were both cranky until their nap at 1. Unfortunately, I have the kind of kids, who go crazy if they see you come in to their bedroom. I tried to let Eli work his way back to sleep, but by after 10 minutes of babbling, he started yelling and woke his brother.

They are slow to drop naps and consolidate sleeping, so there's a good chance it's a phase. They stopped taking 3 naps somewhere around the end of 10 months, and generally I can get 10-10.5 hours of night sleep, tops, so they just aren't good at consolidating sleep.

 

For mine they just stopped falling asleep at night, staying awake in their crib and talking for over an hour sometimes.

 

At 18 months (tomorrow), we're still taking a morning nap - and some days an afternoon one, too. They wake around 6:00, nap from 9:30 - 11:30 (or 12:00, 12:30), then lunch - and sometimes at 3:30 another nap.

Mine just seem to really *need* the a.m. nap still. It's frustrating when they refuse the afternoon naps b/c they are grumps towards the end of the day - but they are even worse when we skip the a.m. nap and only do an afternoon one.

Ahh, one of the (many) challenges of The Second Year! :blink: