Transition to 1 nap advice needed

Socialworkgirl · August 2013

So, DD (currently 14 months) has never been a long napper. Most of her life, her naps have been around 30 minutes a piece and I have tried all kinds of things to get her to nap longer. Now, they are still usually 30-45 minutes and every once in a while she will give me a 1-2 hour nap but I would say it averages maybe once a week that happens.

For about 2 weeks, she started refusing her second nap. I continued to try to get her to take it for those 2 weeks and was only successful about 4 days out of those 2 weeks, so I figured she was ready to transition to one nap.

However, she was waking up between 5:00 and 5:30 most days and wanting to take her nap by 9:00 am but then, she would wake up by 9:45 or so and not nap the rest of the day and she was exhausted and fussy by the end of the day. So I gradually have moved her nap to about 11:00 am. So now, she wakes up between 5 and 6 am, naps about 11:00-11:30 or 11:45 and goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 (she has always had a pretty early bed time. Moving it later has not worked well for us)

I just feel like a 30-45 min can't be enough for her for the whole day. And she is resisting going to sleep especially at night more than she used to. She has always gone through phases where she needs more or less attention at bed time and I am okay with that, but I have been having to walk around her room holding her until she gets really sleepy or she won't fall asleep. I really don't want to get stuck in bad habits where she has to fall asleep in my arms. We had to do sleep training at about 9 months because it was getting harder and harder to get her to fall asleep and I REALLY don't want to have to do that again now that she can stand up in her crib.

Any suggestions? Do you think she is still just getting used to the new schedule and things will get better within a few weeks? Do you think I jumped the gun on moving to one nap? At the time I felt like I didn't have any choice since it seemed like she just wasn't going to take the second nap anymore, but now I am questioning myself....

jnnfrrose6 · August 2013

Same as PP, during the week LO gets one nap at DC, and on the weekends he's still doing 2, though sometimes the first one doesn't happen. Could you push the nap to after lunch? Not sure when your LO eats, but we have lunch around 11:30, nurse or bottle (depending on the day), and then down for the nap between 12-12:30. He'll nap anywhere from 1-2 hours.

LO is also up around 6 am to head to DC (7 am on the weekends if I'm lucky) and down for the night at 7. He's been more vocal about bedtime lately, but we just put him down, turn on his sound machine, and shut the door. Unless he's full on screaming, we leave him alone. He can get himself to sleep.

I understand your concern about starting bad habits. As you know from sleep training, consistency is key. She may be still adjusting to the nap change, but look back at what you did for sleep training and see if you need to re-visit any of it.

lana22 · August 2013

sounds a lot like my son. he took 45 min naps until he switched to 1 nap at 13.5 months. he also woke up early and i stretched him to around 8am for his first nap. when he switched to 1 he was prob waking up between 6 and 7. i basically started cold turkey and moved him to 11/12ish. i had to take him for walks and do a lot of stimulation around 9am when he would get super tired, but it was worth it. my biggest recommendation would be to move her bedtime even earlier. it's not permanent, but will help her get more sleep while she's transitioning.

i'm lucky in that my son has never resisted bedtime so i can't help too much there, but i'd try explaining to her when it's time to go to sleep, keeping your same routine (we do bath, book, song) and don't worry about her not appearing sleepy. she is overtired by the time you are putting her in.

KarynR25 · August 2013

Yes, we're in the same boat! DD is almost 15 months and we're trying the transition again (tried a month or so ago and like PP's have said, it was a disaster). She was also not napping in the afternoon but she was clearly wasnt able to make it to bedtime without being a little crank pot! I find its differnt on the weekends too. She's at a dayhome during the week where she puts her down only in the afternoon (to jive with the other kids schedules) but on the weekends we just do what she needs. If she's tired, I try to stretch it out as long as possible and put her down when she needs it.

An earlier bedtime might be the option like other have said...even though it feels impossible to get them into bed earlier than 7 sometimes! Thats what works for us when she's had an early nap and resited in the afternoon...I just put her into bed by 630-7 and it seems to work out ok.

GL!!

alliecat531 · August 2013

Same boat. My kiddo is almost 15 months and we've been trying to do 1 nap since the beginning of August. He, too, was skipping his afternoon nap for 2 weeks before I started the transition. I generally get about an hour to an hour and a half out of him for the nap. He wakes at 6 and is in bed at 7. He is tired and cranky but I think it's just a waiting game. They don't need 2 naps but they need more than the 1.

I tried "nap training" with him for a month around 6 months to try to stretch his naps and would leave him in the crib for an hour if he woke up at the 45 minute mark - it never worked for us. He eventually lengthened out on his own for the 2 naps to about an hour for each, but it long after I had given up on the nap training. So we are not doing nap training this go around - whenever he wakes up from the 1 nap is it. I just don't have the heart to listen to him crying for an hour knowing he's never going to go back to sleep. He'll do it when he's ready. So for now we just try to get him to bed a little earlier of the 1 nap is short - like yesterday I had him in bed at 6:30. Hang in there...I'm sure they all get through it at some point.

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