XP: From 2 naps down to 1: How does this work?

Tess12

So I think Madeleine is trying to give up her second nap.  But her timing is all screwy.  She wakes up early (5:30am-6:30am) and goes down for a nap between 8:30am-10am.  She almost never lasts longer than 10, unless we're out and about.  She's napping about 2 and a half hours or so, which is very long for her.  But she goes to bed at 7pm, so if she skips her afternoon nap (which she's been doing), that's a loooooong time for her to be awake.

So, if your baby is down to one nap, how did he/she make the transition?  How long is DC awake between waking up from the nap and bedtime?  Has bedtime or waking time shifted?

myduchess

Bedtime and waking time stayed constant (7 and 7). If anything, the bedtime got a smidgen earlier. What we noticed was that there were two phases of nap changes.

First, the morning nap (at 9am) got really long - from about an hour to two hours or two-and-a-half hours. And the afternoon nap got tiny. There was no way the nap was happening at 1pm, which was what was happening before, so we would do the nap time at about 3 or 4, and it was only for about 30 minutes. That kept the kid functioning till 6:30 or 7pm.

 After a few weeks of that, things shifted again. The morning nap started shrinking. So instead of sleeping from 9 to 11, it became 9 to 9:40, or 9 to 10. So when that happened, we moved the afternoon nap up to 1, or even 12:30 again. And eventually, morning naptime just became "talk to myself quietly for 40 minutes" and the afternoon nap became 1.5 to 2 hours long.

 The entire transition took us about 2 months. Hope that helps give you some data points!

Tess12

Thank you! 

I'm hoping she's just having a break from the afternoon nap.  It's been fairly sudden.

howleyshell

With Dylan he started rejecting his AM nap.  He just wasn't tired.

We started out pushing both naps back because he wouldn't go down if we tried earlier in the day.

Sleeping late in the evening due to going down late for his afternoon nap jacked up his bedtime routine.

One day we were out and about and ended up skipping the morning nap.  He almost fell asleep in his lunch plate at noon but he took a rockin' 3 hour nap and was pefect at bedtime.

We never looked back!

Tess12

howleyshell:

With Dylan he started rejecting his AM nap.  He just wasn't tired.

We started out pushing both naps back because he wouldn't go down if we tried earlier in the day.

Sleeping late in the evening due to going down late for his afternoon nap jacked up his bedtime routine.

One day we were out and about and ended up skipping the morning nap.  He almost fell asleep in his lunch plate at noon but he took a rockin' 3 hour nap and was pefect at bedtime.

We never looked back!

That's encouraging.

The problem is that she is still really tired.  She's a mess right now because she didn't nap this afternoon.  I'm wondering if maybe she'll sleep later in the morning which will mean a later nap that might last her longer.  Or maybe she's just going through a "don't want to sleep" phase.

jillybean222

Ellie did the same thing.  She dropped her PM nap and was up for a really long time from after her AM nap until her 7pm bedtime.  Honestly, it took about 3 months to make the switch completely.  I kept trying to keep her up a little longer.  I had to move lunch time a lot and add snacks in places they never were before so she wouldn't wake up b/c she was hungry and there was a lot of trial and error involved but I figured it out...eventually.  Now she naps after lunch for about 2-2.5 hours from 1-3-ish) each day.  It's nice to have the morning to go out and get things done and the nice break in the afternoon.  GL!!!! 

Dani123

We had a few shifts also.....we started

8am rise, 12 pm nap for 2 hrs., then 5m nap 40 min, bed at 8pm

Now we have completely dropped the second nap but the first nap is sometimes longer.

830am rise.....1230pm nap til 3pm (sometimes 3:30) then bed at 8ishpm.

Its AWESOME!! LOL  (so NOT looking forward to every 2 hour feedings in a few mos!!!)

TazDev

What we found was the kids were taking two short naps.  For the last couple weeks I am usually able to do 1 nap from after lunch (around 1ish) til about 3:30-4.  It all depends on when they get up.  They were getting up around 8 and doing this but when they get up at 7:30 it didn't work.  What I usually let them do now is if they are really tired and need a short nap in the morning I let them nap in their play area with their boppys and blankies for about 20 min then get them up.  We are still shifting and working it out.