Meal and nap time woes

We are still in the weird transition phase of one nap to two ... somedays they could take two naps and others they are fine with just one. For the past week and a half or so it's been just one nap in the early afternoon because they fight me for the afternoon nap if they take an a.m. nap. Well here's the issue with just taking the one nap after lunch ... Our schedule has looked like this or at least that's what I'm trying for:

7 am wake
7:30 breakfast
9:30 snack
11:30 lunch
12pm nap - about 2 hours
2:30-3 snack
4-4:30pm supper
7:30 bed

The problem is that because they have such an early wake time by the time we reach lunch they are sooo tired that they don't eat a very good lunch at all (today was horrible ... they ate grapes and that was pretty much it). They will sleep the two hours, wake up and have a snack and by 4:00pm the one DS is sooo extremely hungry that we end up doing an early supper but he's a bear the whole time I'm cooking. It's not that they are unbearably crabby (okay, some days) in the a.m., they are just tired ... it's just that they aren't eating a very good lunch. I'm not sure what to do here if anything. What do you think? Today we moved lunch up to 11:00am because they were both just crabby with tiredness and they still didn't eat and the one only slept 2 hours ... the other is just now waking at 3 hours. And I'm sure he's starving and it will be an early supper. Stumped on this one. HELP!

 

We transitioned to one nap super late mostly because I thought my schedule needed to look like that and I had the same problem as you do. Well what worked for us was to put lonch after the nap and move the nap up to 11am, sometimes earlier if they wake earlier. I do the snack first thing in the morning then breakfast right before nap time. Then as soon as they wake I give them lunch.
Our bedtime is closer to 7pm so I'm not sure how that would effect your schedule. GL this whole schedule thing is tough huh!

 

how much are they eating for breakfast? might try giving them more so that they're not so hungry by lunchtime? we're in the same predicament too...transitioning from 2 naps to one in the afternoon.

mine wake at 7/7:30 and i just give them sippies with milk and a snack while they 'wake up' and watch cartoons...then they play in the play area for about 30 min. while i make breakfast (usually oatmeal, toast, cheese, sometimes baby yogurt or fruit cup)...then they go back to playing/nick jr. watching until lunch. lunch is usually pretty light b/c they loaded up at breakfast. today we had grilled cheese and turkey. xavier wouldn't eat the grilled cheese, so he had some rice pudding and chicken sticks. they played for a bit longer, had a mum mum for snack, then i could tell they were getting grumpy (taking each other's toys, etc.) so i put them down for a nap. they slept for about 90 minutes. then i gave them a cereal bar, crackers, and juice and they're back to playing/nick jr. they'll probably get another snack of fruit or cheese around 4.

our dinner routine starts around 6 with dinner and bathtime, then up to bed. might be that they're just trying to figure out they're own new routine. i would suggest more to eat in the morning (if it's a lite breakfast right now) to see if you can stretch them out until lunch?

 

one thing... we went through a stage of trying 1 nap a day around 15 months... but then went back to 2 naps. around 20 months I finally realized they were waking in the night... w/the 2 2-hr naps... so I again tried for 1 mid day nap... and had the same issues as you... when to give snacks and lunch etc. ugh, what a hassle trying to figure it out.

maybe another idea is to move the snack closer to breakfast a little and then moving lunch up earlier too like you did... maybe just trying to get them day by day to stay awake a little longer for lunch and nap. Some days mine eat a good lunch, and other days not so good... its so hard to know if I fed them too much snacks etc.

good luck.

 

I think this is the single most difficult issue of the second year (just from reading posts and my own experience!). It took us 2-3 months to really get our boys transitioned to 1 nap. I have found that a double lunch - one before and one after nap helps. But sometimes one is too sleepy to eat well - so off to nap. I try to focus on how they eat over several days rather than focus on each meal. A big snack around 3 helps get them to dinner.

My kids wake at the crack of dawn - 5:30-6:00 (any suggestions here are greatly appreciated) - snack on O's, raisens and milk until the rest of the fam is awake around 6:30. Here is our schedule:
Breakfast 7:00-7:30
Play - get dressed, etc.
Snack 9:30 or 10
More play
Lunch 11:15-11:30 or so
Nap 12 - 2 (if we're lucky)
After wake up - nursing
Second lunch or heavy snack 3ish
Dinner 5:15
Clean-up toys, bath, bed 6:45

 

Yeah, this transition to 1 nap is so weird. My boys get SO sleepy by lunchtime, but they will not go down before lunch no matter what. So far we've been lucky in that they're not too sleepy to eat well at lunch.

I agree with the PP that maybe during this transition you do a double lunch. Offer them their regular lunch before nap, and if they don't eat it all, give the rest after nap.

Hopefully this will be a short phase!