Transition from 2 naps to 1

So my little babies are ready to go to only one nap. I'm kind of aiming for 12 as our nap time, because that is smack in middle of their 7ish-am to before 7ish-pm schedule. If I get them to sleep for 2 hours (one can dream, right?) they will be up for 5 hrs, asleep for 2, up for 5, then bed. But today they only made it till 11, and Mushka only took a 45 minute nap. Chan slept 2 hours, but by 430 they were both getting super tired but it was too early to put them down. Bedtime was 630 which is the usual time.

I just don't remember how to do this. Do I slowly get them to 12 pm? Is that even a good nap time? What do you do?

 

I was just reading on this yesterday and wondering when my LOs are ready for this. I think your girls are a little ahead of us on sleep. I'll be interested to hear responses.

I was thinking we were moving toward one nap b/c their naps have gotten short. But the stats say at 12mos 82% of kids have 2 naps and only 17% take one. By 18mos 77% of kids take one nap. My plan as of yesterday is to let the 9:00 be short (since it is) and then try to push the 1:00 back so they are more tired and hopefully sleep longer. We will see if it works.

Weissbluth (you know, my go to guy) says one way to move to one nap is to gradually move the morning nap back by delaying it 10 to 20 minutes each day until it is occuring near the middle of the day. He does not give a suggested time for one nap. As always, he says if naps are shortened due to this transition period try for earlier bed time.

Interested to hear what people who have done it say. so great to have this source to help figure out 'what is next'!

 

With my first, two naps got dicey between 12-15 months but he still needed two naps most days (sometimes they were shorter than preferred but we just rolled with it). Around 15-16 months, he clearly only needed one and started taking a long nap around 12:30 (2-3 hours). I have heard the transition from 2 to 1 nap can take time, even months sometimes. But that is generally my opinion on sleep for kids under age 2. That it is always in transition. I tend to roll with it--we do our best with a schedule and try to keep schedules/routines but we also do what is needed to keep people happy as well when they are in transition.

And all of that said, if I took him out in the morning, I'd have to make sure to be home by 11 or he'd fall asleep in the car and ruin his nap. It was very annoying. I sometimes think he could've used an earlier nap but that is the schedule his daycare had him on so we stuck with it on the days I was home (I was home 4 days/week with him and he was in daycare 3 days).

 

We had a brief period about 2 weeks ago where I thought the girls were moving towards one nap. But it only lasted 4 days or so before we moved back to 2 naps (about 1 hr each). Honestly I really like 2 naps and will be sad when they move to just one..

 

My ODD was also down to one nap a day by this age. My kids just don't sleep much I guess? Or they are getting too much at night- between 12-13 hours? Anyways, we got to the point where it was a total struggle to get them to go down for two naps, and each nap was only about 45 minutes. Today was great, they woke up around 7:30 (ummm, that is to say I heard them crying at around 7:30 from within my sleep deprived state, no idea when they actually woke up) went down easily for a nap at 11, slept for TWO HOURS, then made it till 630 for bed. They were probably really ready around 6, but I had to wait for my DH to come home, otherwise it gets really stressful. If we can keep this up, my life will be perfect!

 

that sounds like a perfect schedule to me. hope it sticks for you.
little jealous here!