No more am nap?

Beth.1212 · January 2014

Whose baby is down to one afternoon nap? I'm trying to decide what to do with my little guy. He acts tired in the morning, but I can't get him to nap. I've been giving up after about 20-30 minutes of soothing him. I get him up and then insisting on a nap in the afternoon even if he acts resistant. I'm not sure if I should try to insist more on that morning nap or totally give up, not even trying to get him to nap in the am, and just focus on one nap in the early afternoon.

(A slight aside - I'm not content to keep halfheartedly trying for the am nap. If I need to go out and he takes an am nap at, say, 10:30, then I can go after the am nap and get back before a pm nap around 4. If he doesn't take an am nap, then I need to go before a pm nap around 1 pm. If I give a try for an am nap and then give up, it's already 11ish by the time I give up and it's too late to get errands done.)

Any opinions, ladies? I'm a SAHM, btw, so I don't have to worry about a daycare's schedule.

kjsmith9 · January 2014

DD is down to one nap around noon, but that's due to daycare - she just moved to the toddler room and they all lay down for nap at the same time. At home she still typically does a morning and afternoon nap, but I think I'm going to get rid of the morning. We have swim lessons on Saturdays now which make the morning nap tough. And yesterday she didn't nap AT ALL. I don't know why. But she went to bed an hour early so that was exciting haha

kerbear135 · January 2014

kjsmith9 said:

DD is down to one nap around noon, but that's due to daycare - she just moved to the toddler room and they all lay down for nap at the same time. At home she still typically does a morning and afternoon nap, but I think I'm going to get rid of the morning. We have swim lessons on Saturdays now which make the morning nap tough. And yesterday she didn't nap AT ALL. I don't know why. But she went to bed an hour early so that was exciting haha

Neither did mine..first time ever, and man was she a bear yesterday evening...and she didn't even go to bed early

Fullcircle06 · January 2014

kerbear135 said:

kjsmith9 said:

DD is down to one nap around noon, but that's due to daycare - she just moved to the toddler room and they all lay down for nap at the same time. At home she still typically does a morning and afternoon nap, but I think I'm going to get rid of the morning. We have swim lessons on Saturdays now which make the morning nap tough. And yesterday she didn't nap AT ALL. I don't know why. But she went to bed an hour early so that was exciting haha

Neither did mine..first time ever, and man was she a bear yesterday evening...and she didn't even go to bed early

Must have been the day of no napping. DS slept for all of 45 minutes total during the day yesterday and didn't even go to bed early.
ETA - to answer your question, OP, for us, it depends on the day. If we're home, and he is acting tired in the AM, we put him down, and sometimes he'll sleep for only 30 minutes and be good to go. Other times, he'll play until noon and then crash. So, it's pretty random around here,too.

kescalera · January 2014

Weekend before last we were so busy DS barely got one nap a day and did so great I asked daycare to start working him to 1 nap a day (after lunch) last week. By Wednesday he was on the new schedule and we kept it up this weekend. He gets up about 6:30/7:00a and is up until 11:30/12:00 then goes down for 2 solid hours. It was an adjustment for us over the weekend to have this big chunk of time during the day with no toddler-terror running around. Once the rest of us adjust, it'll be so awesome! I can get in my race-training while he naps and DH doesn't have to stop his house projects. Just clips the baby monitor to his belt he can putz in the garage all day.

Litgirl77 · January 2014

I have found this article to be really helpful with the whole 2-1 nap transition. Sam is fighting his afternoon nap, so I'm thinking about starting to limit that on to an hour until he's ready to push it back. Not sure about the whole fighting the morning naps thing - maybe experiment with a longer wake time and put your LO down later to see if that helps. If you hit the right "window" of tiredness, it might work - then just limit the nap length if you think he needs a second nap to get through the day. In the end, I think it's all just experimentation until you figure out what works for your kiddo.

robyn2201 · January 2014

When DD2 resists the morning nap, I normally wait another 30 - 45 min and try again then. She will then generally pass out pretty quickly.

IMO, our LO's are still a little young to switch down to one nap a day, but there are always those LO's who like to do things their own way and not by the book per say. You could try and do one later nap for a few days and see how it goes. If it's a disaster then go back to two naps. DD1 didn't switch to one nap a day, till she was a bit older, around 16 - 18 months.

I checked out the link that @litgirl77 posted and I liked it. According to the checklist, DD2 definitely would not be ready for one nap, which I totally agree with.

ExcitedAunt2b · January 2014

Morgan hasn't taken a morning nap for about 3 months. She started cutting it back on her own, although on the weekends sometimes she'll take a small one (15-25 minutes) if we've had a busy morning. She usually naps between 2-3 hours in the afternoon though, although like most of you above she only took a 35 minute nap yesterday. She took a cat nap about 4:30 though and was in bed at her normal time.

raraavis28 · January 2014

Litgirl77 said:

I have found this article to be really helpful with the whole 2-1 nap transition. Sam is fighting his afternoon nap, so I'm thinking about starting to limit that on to an hour until he's ready to push it back. Not sure about the whole fighting the morning naps thing - maybe experiment with a longer wake time and put your LO down later to see if that helps. If you hit the right "window" of tiredness, it might work - then just limit the nap length if you think he needs a second nap to get through the day. In the end, I think it's all just experimentation until you figure out what works for your kiddo.

Definitely just bookmarked that article! I found it interesting when she talked about needing more sleep as they learn to walk; lately my LOs have been taking super long naps, and it does coincide with them walking all over the place now. Makes a lot of sense!

My LOs are nowhere near dropping a nap, even though they do sometimes fight one of them....especially if we've had a particularly stimulating outing, like today. Right now I'm watching them over the monitor....N is kicking his feet through the bars and cracking L up....I think the fact that they play together also makes it take awhile for them to settle down sometimes....even though it is adorable.:)

Beth.1212 · January 2014

Thanks for your perspectives! Thanks especially for the link, Litgirl77. You've given me some food for thought.

minervacullen · January 2014

It depends on the day, if she only takes or it's usually long. Like yesterday she did a 1 hour am and a 1.5 hour pm. Today she did a 2.5 hour afternoon.

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