Their naps lately have been a disaster! I'm at my wits end and seriously, my hair in the front is turning gray from stressing, crying, and just plain exhaustion. They aren't showing tired signs anymore so I'm completely clueless as to when to put them down. Today, for example, I put them down at 9 and they slept until 11:30. Pretty awesome nap, but when I put them down at 1:30 (like normal) they didn't sleep at all- they just sat in their cribs playing and chatting. This has been going on for a few weeks now and can either happen with the morning nap or afternoon nap. I'm just worried if I do cut them to one nap when will they eat lunch? snack? I'm clueless here, so please, (beggin' on hands and knees) tell me what I should do! :unknw:
your LOs are still quite young - it's definitely possible that they're ready to drop to one nap but i would maybe try increasing the time between their morning & afternoon naps first. try waiting 3 hours before putting them down for their afternoon nap. we also often would limit our girls' morning nap to 2 hours (unless there was a specific reason for letting them sleep longer. ex they had a bad night or were sick that day). if you're feeling confident they're ready to switch to one nap, then you can certainly give it a go. when we first switched we put our girls down for their nap around 11:30am & did lunch immediately before their nap (at around 11:00am). we did a snack as soon as they woke up. as they adjusted to the transition, we've moved lunch & their nap time later. now they usually have lunch around 12:00pm & go for their nap between 12:30pm - 1:00pm. we also found we needed to bump their bedtime quite a bit earlier for the first while & that's also gradually gotten later as they've adjusted to the transition.
I agree with Rachel. I would, if they take a morning nap, also put the PM nap later. As for the schedule if they do go to one nap, it depends on what time that nap was going to be. My kids take their one nap at 1 pm, lunch is around 11:30, so I give them a little snack before naptime. If your nap is not around a meal time, I would give them snack before they go up.
Hmmm...I tried a few times to make their second nap later, but it hasn't made a difference. I will try again tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks ladies!
the other thing to keep in mind when you make a change to their schedule is to keep with it consistently for 5 - 7 days. then evaluate whether it's working or not. it always takes some time to see if it's helping or not. GL!
