Dropping a nap?

Hi. Hopefully one of you more experienced moms will be able to help with this. My girls will be 14 months next week. Currently they are on a pretty good schedule. They take 2 naps that usually last about 1 1/2 hours each.

8:00 wake up and breakfast
10:00 nap
12:00 wake up and lunch
3:00 nap
5:00 wake up and snack
6:30 dinner
8:00 sippy of milk
9:00 bed

The problem is that over the last couple weeks we have one daughter, Lily, that will wake up screaming (the scared scream, not the just waking scream) an hour or so after she goes to bed for the night. (We have been told that it may be night terrors). She does not stop until my dh or I go in and comfort her for a couple minutes. BUT, this wakes up her sister, Grace, and then she is up for a couple hours. Also, Grace has several times been waking up in the middle of the night crying and is awake for a couple hours. I know we have a habit of taking Grace out of her crib when she does this (that is probably not the best idea) but we just get so tired sometimes that it seems easier to remove her and let the other sleep than to have them both wide awake in the middle of the night.

I guess what I am asking is are there any suggestions and does this sound like I need to try getting them down to 1 nap? Also, if we go to one nap, how have some of you done this transition?

Thanks for your help. Isn't it funny that as soon as we (parents) get used to their schedule (and catching up on our sleep) they grow into a new phase?! Never a dull moment.

 

That's almost the same exact schedule we have, only mine don't last very well to 9:00 for bedtime. I think what I would try 1st would be to bump up the bedtime & see if that helps. Sometimes (and this seems totally backwards!) the more tired they are, the worse they sleep.

 

Our babies seem to be about the same age & we have been on almost an identical schedule except they didn't go down for the second nap until closer to 4:00 & only slept 45 minutes to an hour. We have just this week gone to one nap a day which has adjusted our schedule a bit. They have adjusted really well & are going to sleep easier at night which was our problem instead of waking in the night.

 

One of my oldest, Matt, had night terrors...it sounds similar to what you described except there was no comforting him, he would kick me and scream, like he was being stabbed (the first time I rushed him to the ED convinced he had appendicitis, and by the time we got there he was awake and charming everyone!!) Hopefully that is not what your daughter has...it's awful!

As for the napping I just transitioned my 17 month old to one nap a few weeks ago, I just kept pushing off her morning nap until it was around lunch and then she dropped her afternoon nap and went to bed earlier. Now she wakes at about 6:30 am, goes down at 1:30 and wakes at 3:30-4 and goes down at 7pm. I won't lie though, it was really hard at first and she was really cranky, so I had to spend more time entertaining her and keeping her busy during that time...the key is not to let her get over-tired, so you really have to read her signs...Good luck, I always think sleep is one of the most stressful parenting tasks!!

 

We transitioned to 1 nap at about 16/17 months. Maybe you might want to try moving their bed time earlier, it could be that they are over tired. If that doesn't work then you can try the 1 nap, but if it's night terrors I doubt that will have much impact. Good luck!

 

Hi there!
My boys went to one nap at 17 months. They were awake at 6:30. Nap at 10:30. Nap at 3:30 and down at 8 pm.
We changed them right about when we went on daylight saving time- so that really helped the transition. Now, they are still up about 6 am. Nap at 10 until about 1 and down about 7 pm. They do tend to be a bit cranky before dinner- but I give them a little snack while I cook and that usually keeps them occupied! It was not a hard transition for them- it was more diffficult for me to have them awake when it is time to help my daughter with homework after school! My boys were always good nappers (2-3 hour stretches for both naps)- but we decided to drop the afternoon one as it became increasingly difficult for them to fall asleep on the second nap or sleep more than 1/2 an hour.
good luck with whatever works for you guys!!
Lanie