Help Me with Transition to 1 nap

Ok kids are WAY past ready but I wasn't....they are 20 mo old. Yesterday (after a week or two of them playing in their cribs instead of napping for either the 1st or 2nd nap)....they were up at 6:30 and napped at 11:30. It was hard to keep them up but we played outside a lot and we did ok. They went down after lunch but only napped for 1 1/2 hours so by the time bedtime came along at 7:30 they couldn't make it. We put them down at 7am and that backfired as they got up at 5:30/6 this am! They haven't done that in ages! (typically up at 6:30)
SO...a few questions...
We had to go back to 2 naps today as they would not make it after getting up at 5:30.
1. How long until the 1 nap goes from 1 1/2 hours to the 2 1/2 or 3 hour nap?
2. Will I have to keep going back and forth like this from 1 nap to 2 naps for awhile? Or should I have just kept them up until 7:30 no matter what so they will sleep in?
ugh this sucks

 

:hug:'s Paula, the transition is hard!! It took my two about a week of constant one nap days until their bodies adjusted and they started napping for longer periods of time. :good: I didn't do two naps once I decided we were going to do one nap, but you know your kids best and they may need it. :hug: Good luck!!

 

My kids have the same age and the same schedule as yours (although they've been on one nap for 6 months)... Wake up between 6.30/7am, nap 11.30am for 1.5-2 hours (they are often crabby by 11am but I give them lunch so it's not too bad), but bed at 7pm. I think the waking up at 5.30am thing was probably a fluke... If you put them down at 7pm and they fell asleep right away they were tired. Sometimes we put our kids in bed one hour early too and they fall asleep right away and still sleep until 6.30/7am the next day (we even got 8am last week end).

I'd stick to it for a while, they will adjust. But yeah, if they wake up at 5.30am definitely try two naps again.

 

Transitioning to one nap is hard :hug: Mine were ready to do it before I was ready for them to do so. For a couple of weeks we still had to switch between one to two naps. When they were steady on one nap, it started as an hour and gradually went to three hours for my DD, my DS usually about 2 1/2 hours.

 

I just did what they wanted to do. They'd wake up between 8 and 9am. They'd take their first nap at about 12noon. That used to only be for about 2 hours. They'd want their second nap at around 5 or 5:30pm, but both of them were restless then. So I just cut it out and kept them occupied until 9pm. They did fine. Now they sleep 3 hours their first nap. Having the earlier nap worked best for us. I just make sure we do all our shopping and fun stuff after their nap and take them along so they stay awake. So far so good and they sleep for about 11-12 hours every night no interruptions...usually.

 

When we moved to one nap a day I never looked back. The first week was hard as they were super cranky and tired in the last hour before their nap. They woke up around 7 and lasted until 12 (they have lunch at 11:00am). After a few weeks they were sleeping from 7PM to 7:30 or 8:00 and nap from 12:00-2PM (I don't let them sleep to far past 2PM as I'm afraid it will take away from their night sleep). What I do know with my girls is that 4-5 hours of awake time is their limit. You might want to consider an earlier bedtime?.

 

im not sure my girls are up at 7:30am and back to sleep at 10:30am -2 hours nap and bed time is 6:30pm--we just dropped the 2nd nap at 3pm because they wouldn't go to sleep til 9pm and its just not happening that's my time:laughing: the first few's weeks they were cranky and tired by 5pm i held on til 6pm-took my time bringing them upstairs,sleeping bag ect-zonked out by 6:15pm

 

wow, thanks for all of your replies!
We are making progress. Monday we went back to 2 naps due to the early wake up.
But yesterday they stayed up until 12, no problem and one slept 2 1/2 hours and one slept 1 1/2 hours. They made it to the 7:30 bedtime no problem and slept in until 7am
So they should be able to make it today again to 12.

yeah!
Thanks for all your help!

 

It took a week or two for the one nap to go to 3-4 hours. Of course, mine were 14 months, and we don't get as long of a nap now at 22 months. Usually, it's 2-3 hours tops. But, they seem fine with that amount of sleep. I would go cold turkey to one nap, and put them down a little early if necessary for a week or so until they get used to it.

 

I'll give you some more hope. Mine are actually FINALLY starting to get to the point where they sleep in a little. They haven't woken up before 6:30 or 7 in a LONG time, and on the weekends, we sometimes get to 8:00. :banana:

 

We are doing this right now....but I think we are over the hump!! My two used to get up around 6:30 and then have a morning nap around 9:00 and then another nap after lunch.....so when I transitioned to 1 nap a day for about a week and 1/2 I would still put them to bed at 9:00 if they went down great if they cried or were playing around I would leave them in for 15 minutes or so and then take them out, if they fell asleep I would only let them sleep for 1 hr and then I would go wake them up.....which at times was rough but then they were able to go to sleep for a nap after lunch ( twice my DD fell asleep in her highchair).....after doing this for just over a week.....one day they slept in to 8:00am and had only 1 afternoon nap for 21/2 hrs! Now they are sleeping in to 7:30am, Nap at 12:30-3:00/3:30, and are ready for bed just after 7:00 pm!!! It's great if it stays this way! It was rough some days as my DS is NOT GOOD when he needs sleep but we made it!!!!