I borrowed Heathy Sleep Habits, Happy Child from a friend a few months ago, and it helped DD sleep and get naps down. I loved that book! but since I borrowed it, and someone else has it, i can't refer to it now that we're having sleep issues. DD usually has a 2 hour am nap, and a 2 hour pm nap. however the last week or so, DD sleeps great for morning nap, and will not fall asleep at all for her pm nap, just cries in her crib. I know i need to protect the pm nap, but she's beyond exhausted at 9:30. how in the world do i keep her up til 12 or 1 for just one nap?!? HELP!
Re: 2 naps to only 1 nap...help
What happens if she doesn't get her pm nap? If she's ok without it, then I'd say who cares what everyone else's kid does. If your kid needs a nap in the morning and not in the afternoon, and it's possible for you to work around that nap schedule, then do it.
Otherwise maybe you can check out the book from the library? Or just buy it?
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Our daughter is mostly on one nap--every now and then she will sleep in the car in the afternoon on the way home, but mostly it is pointless.
She takes her AM nap around 10ish-12ish. Then she is up til bedtime around 6-6:30pm. What I do when we are home on the weekends and stuff (and my MIL does)--just for us to get a break in the afternoon and get things done, we have a mandatory rest time. I put her in her crib around 2:30-3:15/3:30 with a few books and her stuffed animal and she really is happy being in the crib at that time.
I can give you some thoughts based on how I transitioned DS1 from 2 to 1 naps. For us it didn't happen until almost 18 months (when he started fighting his PM nap just like you mentioned) but a lot of his "friends" dropped from 2 to 1 at about 12 months. One thing though I would say is that it may be a phase. Holden would have a week where he fought nap 2 but then go back to the 2 for a couple weeks. This happened for at least 2 months before I bit the bullet and went to 1.
The advice I got was to push the morning nap by an hour and a half first and move up the bedtime during those first few days (from 7 to 6ish). Then each day push another 30 minutes in the morning. Even at 18 months Holden went down so easy for that AM nap so I thought it would be impossible. But for that first week or so, once we got through the 9:30-10ish time where he was tired and grumpy, he would get a second wind and make it much easier until my 11:30 or so goal. You do not have to make it to 1 btw...my 2.5 year old goes down for his one nap at 12:30 every day (pushed from 12 which he did from 18-24 months). It helps to go play outside during that nap go down time as a distraction. I also avoided the car so he wouldn't fall asleep there. It sounds like a big pain but really it was one of those that I thought would be much harder than it was. GL!
But also if you are feeling like it is too soon, she may just be going through something (about to walk maybe?) and so it may be a rough week but next week she may go back to a happy 2/day napper.