Down to one nap-- a question

lindseychase06 · July 2011

My son seems to be only taking one nap now, I try for two but he will refuse to sleep and its a long fight. Anyway, it seems he prefers his morning nap , somewhere between 9:30-12:30, about a 2 hour nap). He is always up by 1, at the latest, and then doesn't go to sleep again until 7, 7:30 for the night.

I thought when a nap was dropped they should still have an afternoon nap, but does it have to be an afternoon nap? How do I move the morning nap to afternoon nap? He is always up by 7am, and is exhausted by 10. Sometimes if we are super busy I can get him to power through the nap, and then he will sleep one nap in the afternoon.

I hate to alter it because he seems to want the morning one, but is not tired at all in the afternoon.

Should I shift it? Suggestions please!

Also, he has become a nightmare to put down at night now that he is down to one nap, he seems to want to keep on playing and not slow down.

dragon_chica · July 2011

No, the one nap doesn't have to be an afternoon one. How long has this been going on? If it's been going on for weeks/months then he may have decided to make his one nap in the morning. You can always play around with it and see how far you can push it. Transitioning tends to be difficult so if you push it back 30 minutes at a time you might be able to get him to nap at noon.

DaisyFull · July 2011

I have never heard that any nap needs to be an afternoon nap. A nap, is a nap, right??

I mean, it's a nap.?

(I think it's fine.)

kcisthebombdotcom · July 2011

DS dropped down to one nap at 13m. It has always been from 11-1 (roughly-we're not strict nap schedule people). He never waits until afternoon to take a nap, though.

In terms of getting him to slow down at night, are you opposed to a little TV? We let DS watch 1 show in the evening at around 630-7ish so he will stop moving. After the tv show, we read books for about 10-15 minutes/cuddle and he goes to sleep shortly after.

rebeccaontherocks · July 2011

My DS gets up at 5:30/6am, naps from 11 to 1, and goes to bed at 7:30. This has been his schedule since he dropped to one nap around 16 months old. It works for him.

wtiger9 · July 2011

DS wakes up at 7, naps from 11-1 (or sometimes 2:00) and then goes to bed around 7:30.

smitt2619 · July 2011

DS2 is over 16 months, and about a month ago we switched him to 1 nap/day. He may have been okay with it sooner, but I was waiting until DS1 was done with preschool so his nap wouldn't get interrupted. Anyhow, he was a great morning napper. Going down at about 10/10:30 and sleeping for 1.5-2 hours. His afternoon nap was the one that was harder to get him down or he often wouldn't sleep as great during. During the transition, we gradually put him down later. The first couple of weeks he rarely took a good nap, even though it was just 1, but he at least wasn't super crabby or anything. We then discovered that his molars were coming in (although that didn't affect his night sleep). Either his teeth weren't bothering him anymore, or he finally got used to the new routine, but now he's taking much better naps, going down about 1/1:30.

With DS1, although my memory is a bit foggy, I believe his morning nap just gradually got later and later, with his second nap being a short late afternoon nap. Bedtime got kinda late, and when he dropped that late nap, he want down for the night earlier.

There's nothing wrong with him taking an earlier nap, but it seems surprising that he could then make it to bedtime. I would say to try pushing it back and see how he does.

lindseychase06 · July 2011

Thanks for all of the advice ladies! The morning nap works for him, but I'd like to eventually get him where he would need to be for a daycare eventually. It seems like most (from what I've heard) will do the one afternoon nap for his age or older, when he'd be going.

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