advice re: naps

We've transitionned to one nap and it was SO the right thing. They now go down so easily and don't fight their nap at all. My only concern is that I've tried moving the nap earlier (1045) or later (1130) and they are only sleeping about an hour-an hour and a half. We got two hours ONCE. THey are cranky by the end of the day b/c they were getting longer sleeps combined with their two naps. One day we saw they were tired so we skipped bath and they were asleep at 615pm. They slept through until about 645am. Then today we were out for a walk after dinner and they were sleeping at 7pm (their usual time) with little trouble. I can't seem to find any trend with them.

Any advice to get them to sleep longer? We've been on one nap for about 3 weeks now.

 

Have you tried making it even later? I have been playing around with my girls nap time too as Amélie has gone back to doing an hour or an hour and 15 min TOPS which is just not long enough. I am now putting them down at 12:30 instead of 11:45 or 12:00 and today I got 2 hours out of both of them. Makes the afternoon shorter too since they were up at 2:30 today which is closer to when DH gets home than 1:00 or 1:15 .

 

[quote name='E's 3' date='07 April 2011 - 07:27 PM' timestamp='1302218878' post='1777005']
Have you tried making it even later? I have been playing around with my girls nap time too as Amélie has gone back to doing an hour or an hour and 15 min TOPS which is just not long enough. I am now putting them down at 12:30 instead of 11:45 or 12:00 and today I got 2 hours out of both of them. Makes the afternoon shorter too since they were up at 2:30 today which is closer to when DH gets home than 1:00 or 1:15 .
[/quote]

I agree with this. I think it's good that you are putting them to bed earlier on the days that they don't take a good nap. It took my kids a couple of weeks to stretch their nap out from 1 to close to 3 hours.

 

We just went down to 1 nap about 3 weeks ago as well, but the earliest that we put them down is 12:30 and they sleep for about 2-3 hours each time. Try putting them down after lunch?

 

It's been a while, and I'm forgetting... but (1) yes try a little later, and (2) I remember that it took a little while for them to start sleeping the extra hour.

We had been getting 2 2-hr naps then it ended up being 1 3-hr nap.

It might just be that they need to get into the next sleep cycle? they say those are every 45 min. or so... maybe extending from 2 to 3 hrs is just them sleeping another cycle?...

 

We have been on one nap for quite some time now, and my boys are still inconsistent. Some days they sleep 45 minutes (yes, 45 minutes, the whole day!) and other days they sleep up to 1.5 hours. I just try to accept it - sometimes that seems to be enough and they are just fine, but other times they are cranky. I do not adjust their bedtime, though, because I have found, at least for them, that that throws them all out of whack going forward. They are only going to sleep 11 hours at night, period. So if their bedtime is an hour earlier, then they wake up an hour earlier, and I do NOT want to get up at 6am. :lazy: And then if they wake at 6am that day, they can't make it to naptime, then bedtime gets earlier again, etc. etc. I think most kids aren't like that, but it seems to be the way it is for us, where it just snowballs and gets worse and worse.

If putting your kids to bed earlier works for you and doesn't make them wake up super early, that is what I would do in your situation. It just doesn't work for us.

The last couple of days, our guys have really wanted to nap at 11:30-12 instead of their normal 1pm.....I'm not sure what is going on, but I'm trying hard to keep them on the 1pm....if it lasts another few days, though, I may have to give up and do an earlier naptime. I hope not because 1pm works way better with our lifestyle, but I guess we will see.

 

Yep, I think you need to slowly work them towards a bit later nap. My girls started out at 11:30 because they just couldn't last any longer, but then we worked it so they went down at 12, then 12:30. Now its usually 12:30 or 1:00, which works the best. We usually get close to 2 hrs, but a lot of times its 1 1/2 hrs only. Not sure what makes the difference somedays. Bedtime is 7pm and wake up is usually 6:45/7am.

 

Agree with the pp. We started about 11:30 with our single nap and pushed it later gradually. Now they go down about 1 and always sleep for at least 2 hours, sometimes 3. We did the early bedtime until they started sleeping longer and then let them slowly push it back a little. They currently go to bed about 8 and wake up around 8 AM.

 

When my girls went down to a full one nap it eventually was as late as 1:00. They just seemed to be able to stay up longer during the day and lose it at night. So, I started their naptime around 1 and they slept until 3 or so most days. This was the norm until they dropped naps completely.

 

My kids had to start going to bed a little earlier once they dropped to one nap (which is nice all the way around). They normally sleep 2 hours, but sometimes less. If I recall with my first, it takes quite a while until you get a predictable full 2-3 hours in the middle of the day.

Ps if it helps, my kids go down for their naps about 5.5-6 hours after they get up (they get up at 6, and go down around 11:30-12:00

 

We did 12-2 for a long time and now, at age 2, it's more like 1-3. I remember that it did take awhile (a couple of months) to get that nap to start at Noon. We did lunch at 11:30 and the nap started right after lunch.