Naps have gone haywire!

For about a week now, our DD's nap times have gone completely haywire. They've been taking two naps for as long as I can remember and now they seem to be rebelling against both naps. Do you think they're ready to transition to one nap?

Our typical routine is:
Up at 7am, 1st nap around 9:30, up at 11:00am, second nap at 1:30, up at 3:30pm, bed at 7pm.

I thought I'd have a bit longer to go with two naps but now I'm not so sure. It stinks since I'm not quite ready myself to lose that morning naptime! Oh well. :escape:

 

Hey Lisa! My girls have a similar sleep schedule as yours, except that they don't nap as long. In the mornings they nap for about an hour and in the afternoons they nap for 1-1.5 hours. Maybe since they are getting older now they just don't need to take as long as a nap. Normally I don't let me girls sleep more than an hour and a half at a nap because I want them to sleep good at night.

I just realized that I didn't help you much! Hang in there, I have heard that sometimes it's normal for naps to be haywire at this age.

 

We went to one nap when they turned a year old for that same reason. Another idea you might want to try is pushing up the morning nap until 10:00 and see if that helps. They may just not be tired after being awake for only 2 1/2 hours. If 10:00 does not work try 10:15 then 10:30. Same with the afternoon nap.

If you end up going to 11:00 then you might as well switch to one nap. The first couple of months were hard (on me) because they would get up at 1:00 and we would have a good 6 hours before bedtime.

 

we had some crazy weeks/months with naps... typically they get 2 naps. but there a month or two ago I thought I needed to transition to 1 nap a day. well... thankfully ours seem to be pretty adaptable. IF we have to be somewhere at a certain time I try to encourage them to nap or stay up so they can nap at home. but if we're just home all day I finally figured out they needed to be up longer in the morning, and then push the other naps later.

Lately (at 18 mo) its been like this:
wake 7a-7:30a
down for nap around 10a - 12noon
down for 2nd nap 3p-5p
bath 6:30p, bed 7:30p

its funny b/c at the end of the day, they can usually go back down for the night time with only an hour or two of play ... it works for them. And 2 days this week they actually took over 2 hr naps during the day... but... I also noticed that 1 or both of them woke 1x per night those days too... so I really need to make sure they don't get more than 4 hrs of day naps.

not sure if that's helpful... only to say that each family is different, just try fluctuating their naps and see what happens...

 

I´d say they are ready to drop the first nap, or at least stay up later. I had to transition my LOs to one nap due to starting nursery. DD was ready to but DS wasnt but they both do fine now. I miss those 2 naps too!

I had a similar routine to you going but mine would be up at 8am and go to sleep 10am-12pm. They´d then have lunch then nap 3-5pm! Bed was 9pm. They were definitely napping way too much as they´d take ages to get to sleep at night plus they´d sleep less at night too. Now they´re up at 9am and go to sleep around 12 or 1pm until 3pm (they go to nursery in the afternoons). They are both in bed by 9pm and sleep 12 hours.

In your shoes, I´d try one nap and see how they go! GL!

 

Thanks all! We tried a short nap at 10am today and they seemed to be more willing to sleep. They were ready for their second nap by 1:30 and slept hard.

If things don't dramatically improve, my DH and I are going to try transitioning to a single nap. Why do kids have to grow so darn fast?!! *sigh*