Daycare mamas: Infant to Toddler room transition

fitmama418

Jesus, take the wheel; as of January 3rd, Phia is moving to the TODDLER ROOM! Holy crow. I went in on my lunch break today to find out what our new rate will be and to meet her new teacher. The room is huge, even cleaner than the Infant rooms (impressive because, well, they don't call them "toddler tornadoes" for nothing), and very organized. When I went in, though...it was naptime. They had their little cots out and each kid was asleep (except one...our neighbor's kid, actually...she's a ham). I asked the teacher about that and she did confirm that they only take ONE nap a day in Toddlers. And it's at the same time. Every day. Lunch at 11:15. Naptime from 12-2.

Shit.

So...I guess since she fully transitions in 2 weeks we should probably work on getting her down to one nap a day at home on the weekends, huh?

I see @karadee1 asked about this about 2 months ago, but I wanted to start the conversation up again since we now officially have toddlers! Any advice and best practices on how to go about moving from one nap to two are appreciated. Thanks guys!

73jewels

Our day care has a "pretoddler room".   They go in there anywhere from 10.5 months to 13 months, depending on the milestones reached, the census, etc.  And they are only there till about 16-18 months when they go to the toddler room.  

Anyway, we moved up at 11.5 months, and I was FREAKING out about the 1 nap a day, as my son was very much a 2 nap a day kid.  They told me if he got really tired he could take a morning nap, but that they don't encourage it.  Well fast forward a month, and he has never had a problem with 1 nap a day during the week, and about 1/2 the time he still takes 2 naps on the weekend.  I am still surprised at how easily he transitioned and how little trouble it was!  

So I'm sure she'll adjust quickly!

Kfran84

We transitioned to toddler room 4 weeks ago. I love it! He gets to do and learn so much more now.

They do one nap a day. He still naps twice at home on the weekends. I just can't keep him as busy as they do!

Don't worry about the nap transition at home unless you just want to.

Karadee1

I was a giant stress ball about everything. I can say it all happened fairly smoothly.

Our DC takes a gradual transition approach, where G was spending time in the toddler room for weeks before the official transition. So he started with just an hour or so here and there, until he was spending more time there than the baby room.

Gabe went to one nap very easily. He does go to bed earlier these days. So he is up for the day around 7am, naps from 12-2 (ish) and then bath time starts around 6:45pm. Sometimes he is up later, but he is asleep for the night by 7:30-7:45pm more often than not.

cagoldi

Our DC won't transition until they are at least 15 months so we have until the end of January to work on it.

A has naturally been dropping down to one nap about 50% of the time. DC is going to start sending him to the toddler room for an hour a day after Christmas. He's already been doing outside playtime with them for a few months as they start letting the infants out on the playground once they are steady on their feet. Our plan is to push his first nap back about 15 minutes each day until he's late enough to be on their schedule.

Sounds simple enough. : ) good luck!

UntaggableKatie

I was totally in the same boat and your DC sounds a lot like ours.

They do one nap between 12-2:30.  They will let him have a small nap in the morning if he feels like it, but he has transitioned so well with the naps that at home we can kind of plan our day around it on weekends which is nice.

We lucked out because LO and 3 other of his friends all transitioned to the same room at around the same time.  He has done so well though and only has problems when I drop him off in the morning (Oh the tears...)

The new teacher suggested trying to hold off naps at home until that time frame and it worked pretty well surprisingly...

Little Phia will learn so much and probably sleep really well at night... at least LO has slept like a log since he's transitioned.

They still have at least one crib that he naps in, I'm more nervous about the cots than anything still

UntaggableKatie

This makes me feel better @LJGS1010!!

At first I was like, "He's gonna fall off!!!"

But they're only like an inch or two off the ground and they place them on mats.  I suppose we can tell them to give it a try..

fitmama418

They were all on cots today, too which at first I was like "OMG! She's gunna roll off" but they had one teacher watching them all like a hawk on one side of the room and another teacher on the other. That made me feel a whole lot better.

mskatiep

Layla transitioned to a cot and one nap the day she turned one. Granted she never slept more that 30 mins max prior to that. Now, on the cot, she sleeps 2 hrs solid since she can go to sleep on her belly. We still do 2 sometimes 3 naps a day on the weekends though.

This is all still in the infant room, she won't transition to the toddler room till around 18 months.