Nap craziness

Hi all! Here is my question...
My girls are still napping by 9 am following a 6:30 wake up. They sleep for an hour to an hour and a half. Their afternoon nap seems to be getting more challenging. Two days neither one napped, today they both napped but it took them at least an hour to fall asleep. What gives? The falling asleep by 9ish tells me they still need both naps. Any experience?

 

We have nap craziness here too...some days BUT my sister (only singletons, no twins) swears that when they start skipping afternoon nap, you need to keep them awake a bit longer in the morning, maybe feed an earlier breakfast and then put them down for afternoon nap. She says a few days of that consistently and they will be on the track to a BIG afternoon nap. Even though it may take them a while to get there, eventually a good 2-3 hour nap will evolve!!

I, on the other hand, even when I keep them awake, seem to get crabbier, nasty babies who still only take a one or two hour nap for the day and then are crabby til bedtime. It's like the less sleep they get, the less they want...the more they get, the more they want. At least, that's my kids!! It drives me crazy!! I'll be happy when we are with the rest of the world on 1 big nap and we can get out and do more with them AND they are satisfied with that!

If anyone knows of a miracle nap formula, please post it NOW!! LOL :BDH:

 

I remember that time...I hated it because I could never go anywhere because of their mid-morning nap! I tried to wean them off of it around their first birthday, but wasn't successful until about 18 mos. old. Then I started putting them down for their afternoon nap around 12:30 p.m., right after lunch. In time it crept up to 1:00, 1:30. You will be able to tell when it's time. Only you know if they can live through the morning without a nap!

 

How old are they now (your ticker has stopped at their first birthday)?

My girls had nap disruption around 12 months but I stuck with putting them down twice a day, whether they napped or not, for an hour each time because they were definitely not ready for just one nap. I had to toy with the timing a little bit, by a 1/2 hour each way. At 15 months they began the transition to one nap.

 

OOPS! Better change my ticker. They are 13 months today!

 

We went through the same thing at the same age. The afternoon nap became increasingly difficult while the morning one seemed to get better and better! So at 14 months I decided to switch to one mid-day nap. Now the boys nap at noon and sleep about 2 hours (sometimes 3! once 4!). It took some time to transition but I am really happy we made the adjustment. I was SOOO sick of nap wars. Now they go down like a dream (phew!) and we actually have some time to get out of the house in the morning. You can always experiment and go back to 2 naps if necessary.

 

As I was reading the responses, I became overwhelmed with dread :huh: My 3 year old's rest/nap time coordinates with the girls' nap right now and I can't bare the thought of giving up the overlap! My husband is deployed and I need the daily break so I can reboot before dinner and bedtime. However, it is worth a shot if it makes happy, better rested babies! Thanks! Any other advice is appreciated!