Please share - your transition from 2 naps to 1

emsumm · December 2011

We are trying to transition and it is not going well. They slept for one hour the whole day yesterday, down from their usual 3 hours. I am curious how it went for others...

Why did you transition?

How long did they sleep at first?

How long do they sleep now?

How did you deal with lunch?

Any other wisdom you'd like to share with me would be much appreciated...

TIA

TriciaandSean · December 2011

We were forced to transition because of him moving to the toddler room at daycare. Basically we got rid of morning nap and he went down for nap around noon. Lunch was before nap.

For a while he was exhausted and would do this schedule just a few days a week, and the other days we would still do two naps. Eventually it got better and sometimes he falls asleep on the drive home at 5:30 for 15 minutes.

During the work week he naps from 1.5-2.5 hours and on the weekends he naps 3-3.5 hours. He sleeps 12-13 hours at night. Down between 6:30-7 and up around 7-7:30.

amykins1283 · December 2011

We just gradually pushed back his first nap, by about 15 minutes or so each week. They were doing the same thing as daycare so we did it at home on the weekends. Now has one nap that starts between 11:00 and 12:00 and ends between 2:00 and 3:00. He usually is not too keen on eating lunch before he goes down so he just eats a late lunch. When he's at daycare he eats before nap (they eat at 11:00 AM). He sleeps later on weekends so his schedule is different at home.

MNgirl326 · December 2011

emsumm:

We are trying to transition and it is not going well. They slept for one hour the whole day yesterday, down from their usual 3 hours. I am curious how it went for others...

Why did you transition? I transitioned becasue it was getting harder and harder to get him down for naps, and his afternoon nap wasn't happening until 2:30 which meant he wasn't going to sleep until 9ish at night.

How long did they sleep at first? He used to sleep 1 hour in the morning, 2+ hours in the afternoon, and then 10 hours at night, so a total of 13-14 hours per day

How long do they sleep now? 2-3 hours in the afternoon, and 11 hours at night, so still about 13-14 hours per day

How did you deal with lunch? Lunch is before his afternoon nap.

Any other wisdom you'd like to share with me would be much appreciated... When I started tranisition to 1 nap, I started with shortening the morning nap to 30 minutes.   I also moved the afternoon nap up as well as lunch. So, he would nap from about 9-9:30, lunch at 11 and nap by 11:30. I also moved bed time back up to 7ish which is where I wanted it.

Graduallly I kept shortening the morning nap in time.   There was even awhile where he was just resting 10-15 minutes or so. At that point lunch was still at 11 nap was after and then he had an aftenoon snack after his nap.

Once I cut the morning nap competely, and he was used to it, then I started pushing back his lunch by 5 minutes or so and which then pushed his nap back.

Now, his lunch was back to about 12:00 and his nap is from 12:30-3:00 and bedtime is 7:30

The thing that I found that worked the best was to do it in small baby steps and do adjust times by 5 minutes or so at a time.

Hope that helps! Good Luck!

Ps- I did this while I was at home for the summer, so I didn't have daycare invovled. If I had, I would have been very specific on the times I wanted him awake and asleep and asked for their support in helping with the transition.

stgn01 · December 2011

I'm going to try to remember because my DD transitioned to 1 nap at 10.5 months! She wasn't napping that well in the afternoon anymore. She would only sleep 30 minutes, if at all. Other than that, she would just cry for me to get her. The first week or so was rough because we were trying to figure out her schedule. She would go down at 10 or 10:30am and then again about 4 or 4:30pm. Then bed at 7:30 or 8pm.

We transitioned to 11:00am first for her one nap because she was soo tired. Then we would just keep her up all afternoon. We eventually pushed back the morning nap. It went from 11am to 11:30am and then noon. Now she generally goes down around 12:15pm and sleeps on average about 2 hours.

Her nap times have always varied depending what has been going on. We've moved (and are moving again), holidays, and what's going on with her developmentally.

I know transitioning can be rough. Good luck!

kcl22 · December 2011

Why did you transition? He did it himself. He tacked an extra 30-60 minutes onto his nighttime sleep (in the morning). He refused to go down at his normal naptime.

How long did they sleep at first? About an hour. Not long enough.

How long do they sleep now? This weekend he's taken 2 hour naps midday each day.

How did you deal with lunch? Early lunch, snack when he wakes up.

stgn01 · December 2011

stgn01:
I'm going to try to remember because my DD transitioned to 1 nap at 10.5 months! She wasn't napping that well in the afternoon anymore. She would only sleep 30 minutes, if at all. Other than that, she would just cry for me to get her. The first week or so was rough because we were trying to figure out her schedule. She would go down at 10 or 10:30am and then again about 4 or 4:30pm. Then bed at 7:30 or 8pm.
We transitioned to 11:00am first for her one nap because she was soo tired. Then we would just keep her up all afternoon. We eventually pushed back the morning nap. It went from 11am to 11:30am and then noon. Now she generally goes down around 12:15pm and sleeps on average about 2 hours.
Her nap times have always varied depending what has been going on. We've moved (and are moving again), holidays, and what's going on with her developmentally.
I know transitioning can be rough. Good luck!

Oh, and we always did lunch after naps. She gets up a little late in the morning so to do breakfast and lunch before nap seemed unreasonable. She always get snack (around 11:30am) before nap and then lunch after she gets up. She needs a little time to wake up so if she wakes at 2pm, she'll eat lunch at 2:15 or 2:30pm. She never seems starving when she wakes up and usually eats a decent lunch.

MamatoA2010 · December 2011

Why did you transition? I transitioned A down to 1 nap at around 17 months

How long did they sleep at first? I don't remember

How long do they sleep now? 2-3 hours

How did you deal with lunch? She eats lunch before she goes down

Any other wisdom you'd like to share with me would be much appreciated...

[Deleted User] · December 2011

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ablou · December 2011

We transitioned similarly to Shana419.

I moved his nap to 11am (right after his morning snack), and he'd go to 1 or 130, and wake up starving. I kept inching his naptime closer to lunch, until I was able to give him lunch before naptime.

Now, he has lunch at 12ish, and naps almost immediately after. He usually sleeps from about 1230 or 1 to about 3 or 4.

Basically, being able to properly time his food intake and his naps was the key for us.

iristony · December 2011

I just let him do it naturally. He used to go down for morning nap sometime between 9:30 and 10:30. It kept getting later and later and now he is usually ready around 12:30 ish. Some days he still needs two naps. As soon as my son starts rubbing eyes and gets cranky it is time.

emsumm · December 2011

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Today was a little better, I'm going to stick with it for now, I think, and use some of the techniques you guys mentioned.

girllennon · December 2011

I'm not going to be much help, but I will share my experience anyway. My LO used to take two naps a day, even at daycare. Around 7 months of age, he dropped to taking a single two-hour nap. He's an early riser and is a go-go-go baby from when he wakes up until he goes to bed at night.

He just natually found that he can function on one nap. The only time that goes out the window is in cases of illness or at the just before a new tooth errupts. He will sporadically nap, which drives us both crazy.

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