How do you know it's time to shed a nap?

I am REALLY not ready to drop a nap but man oh man my kids are giving me a run for my money in terms of getting them down. They do go down but with quite some effort and sleep for about an hour or sometimes more. That's why I think they are still in need of that sleep. Maybe it's the teething OR the fact that in the last few weeks they have really grown up and doing A LOT more stuff and can't fit sleep into their busy schedule

Just wanted to know how you knew/know that it's time to switch things around.

Thanks and happy last week of 2010!!!

 

My girls decided to give up the morning nap on Christmas Eve!!!! Seeing as how they are almost exactly the same age as your LO's might be time for them too .

I think I was in denial that the time had come to go to one nap and I certainly wasn't planning on doing it over the holidays but they gave me no choice so here we are! Here's how I knew it was time...

The last two weeks it became almost impossible to get them to go down, they would talk and play instead of sleep and when they finally did fall asleep after 30min-1hr they would only sleep for 30 min or so. The afternoon nap was the same but once they fell asleep they would usually sleep for longer. Then on Thursday I put them down in the morning, they slept for about an hour and then would not go down at all in the afternoon (they were up from 10:20 until bedtime at 6:30). I left them in their cribs and they talked and played but would not sleep. So, Christmas Eve I decided that we were done with morning naps and have started only putting them down for one after lunch. They still look tired around 10-10:30am but if I keep them busy they push through and then sleep after around 12pm (the same routine I have for DS). Today they actually slept for 3.5 hours this afternoon, they have never slept that long before so I think they're getting the hang of one nap/day.

I am not a fan of transitions so I was dreading this coming change. Now that we're here it's actually kind of nice. I don't feel as rushed in the morning to try to get everything done before their nap and I was able to get out with all 3 kids to a 'kid friendly' coffee shop on Christmas Eve and hang out for a bit. It will give me more freedom during the week with the 3 of them and on the weekends when DH is home so while I will miss my morning coffee break it will be nice to have a little more time to do things during the day.

Good luck if you/they decide it's time .

 

For my guys it was when they either played through their morning nap OR if they did nap, they wouldnt nap in the afternoon anymore. They were young though, 9.5-10 months. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

My three older kids were the same exact way. What I did to help the transition was keep them really busy during the morning, have lunch, and then put them down. Usually they were falling asleep at lunch. It usually only take a fews days to get used to the new schedule and then everyone is happier.

 

I am thinking my kids are getting ready for this, too....it is now taking them 20 minutes or so to fall asleep in the morning (after playing, talking, etc.), and then they sleep about 30 minutes. They have pretty much always been catnappers, though - a "normal" day for them is two 40 minute naps - every once in awhile they will sleep longer, but it is rare.

We are going off of bottles this week, and then hopefully switching to milk (they had previously been lactose intolerant, but have been eating yogurt okay the last few weeks, so I'm assuming pedi will green light us to try milk when we go on Wednesday). So, I am probably going to keep pressing forward with the two really short naps until we get through those transitions - I don't want to change too much at once.

 

That's what I do. I keep them busy in the morning, give them lunch usually around 11-11:30 and they are in bed by noon and 9 out of 10 times sleep till 3.