1 a day nappers

lewispm · January 2014

We have been transitioning K to one nap a day the last week or so. Our ped recommended it and he had been showing signs of no longer needing 2 naps (although this past weekend he napped at least 1.5 hours twice Sat and Sun!)

My question is, if you nap around noonish (I'm assuming that's when most of the naps are when there is just 1 a day), when do you go out and do anything?? We like to go to the science museum, zoo, mall, lunch then play at Chuck E Cheese, etc and I feel like 1 nap at midday pretty much locks us in the house for the day (which I can't stand!!) With 2 naps, its so simple to leave at 11ish when he wakes from nap 1 and be back by 3ish for nap 2.

I see all y'alls pics of outings, so tell me: how do you schedule it around a midday nap? Thanks!

britbratjf · January 2014

I

jfresh said:
We usually do morning outings. Activity from 9-11, come home have lunch, then nap. Or we go after nap around 3 if we don't want to go out early.

Yup this. Dagny doesn't go down until 12:30/1 so we usually do an activity or go out to an early lunch. We also go somewhere (errands or open gym at Gymboree) after she wakes up.

akbride25 · January 2014

Annika generally naps around 11, but if we want to do something in the morning her nap gets delayed until 12:30 or 1:00. The hardest thing is if we have something right after lunch. It is hard to get her to go down early, so I try not to schedule anything from 12:00 - 2:00. We often do things in the afternoon when she wakes up.

StokedWifey · January 2014

Bryson has been down to one nap since at least May and naps for 2.5-3 hours. He usually needs a nap roughly 4 hours after waking up in the morning, so we have time to get things done in the morning if he wakes up a little later, or we wait until after he wakes up. It really just dpeneds on when he wakes up, but usually, our outside of the house activities are after naptime.

lewispm · January 2014

So it pretty much sounds like I will just have to limit our activities outside the house to about 2 hours or so. Lately we have been escaping the house for longer periods of time considering most activities are kind of far for us to drive. Boo

can't he just stay at 2 naps forever??? 30 mins to the zoo and 30 mins back doesn't leave a lot of time for actually seeing the zoo when you have to be back by 12 for a nap!

|)

britbratjf · January 2014

lewispm said:
So it pretty much sounds like I will just have to limit our activities outside the house to about 2 hours or so. Lately we have been escaping the house for longer periods of time considering most activities are kind of far for us to drive. Boo can't he just stay at 2 naps forever??? 30 mins to the zoo and 30 mins back doesn't leave a lot of time for actually seeing the zoo when you have to be back by 12 for a nap! |)

Eh for stuff like the zoo or children's museum (40-45 min drives) I will leave to get there as soon as it opens. We stick around a while & eat lunch there. She always sleeps on the way home. I usually prolong the nap by getting coffee or reading a book in the car in the driveway. Sometimes I can move her from the car to her crib if I really need to.

reinedecajun · January 2014

We do either morning or late afternoon. Frankie is down from noon to three usually.

lewispm · January 2014

britbratjf said:

So it pretty much sounds like I will just have to limit our activities outside the house to about 2 hours or so. Lately we have been escaping the house for longer periods of time considering most activities are kind of far for us to drive. Boo can't he just stay at 2 naps forever??? 30 mins to the zoo and 30 mins back doesn't leave a lot of time for actually seeing the zoo when you have to be back by 12 for a nap! |)
Eh for stuff like the zoo or children's museum (40-45 min drives) I will leave to get there as soon as it opens. We stick around a while & eat lunch there. She always sleeps on the way home. I usually prolong the nap by getting coffee or reading a book in the car in the driveway. Sometimes I can move her from the car to her crib if I really need to.

See, this makes sense and obviously will be what I will have to do, but we have a membership to both the zoo and museum and go like once a week (well, with the zoo its been too cold lately) but its not really that rare of an outing so that would mean pushing his naps back pretty frequently. And as of now, he is pretty exhausted by 10am when we stay home and gets really cranky and I usually just give in and put him down, but then he is super cranky again by 3 ish and I usually give in again. So I feel like I'm doing a really bad job transitioning him since I still let him nap twice pretty much every day possible......

In the long run, does it really matter if he still naps 2 times a day at 18, or even 22, 23 months? I'm pretty sure it won't last forever and I wouldn't push it at all if my ped hadn't recommended we transition him soon. I'm leaning towards just keeping him at 2 naps for as long as he wants to take them....bad idea??

lewispm · January 2014

@hijinx he only attends a full day at daycare on Mondays, and a half day on W and F. They nap once at 12 there, but he typically only naps an hour or less and on his half days he goes down again when we get home at 3ish even though sometimes he just woke up around 1! He just gets so worn out there. Monday evenings when he hasn't gotten that second nap are pretty hellacious.

StokedWifey · January 2014

roo1582 said:

lewispm said:

So it pretty much sounds like I will just have to limit our activities outside the house to about 2 hours or so. Lately we have been escaping the house for longer periods of time considering most activities are kind of far for us to drive. Boo can't he just stay at 2 naps forever??? 30 mins to the zoo and 30 mins back doesn't leave a lot of time for actually seeing the zoo when you have to be back by 12 for a nap! |)

For "special" events like that, we'll usually push her nap back a bit. Then she'll usually fall asleep in the car on the way home.

Same here. We aren't on a strict schedule. We just kinda watch how he's acting and plan accordingly.

nesenotes · January 2014

I personally find the one nap a day to be way better than 2. We schedule any fun activities for after 2. And the zoo is an hour away for us. In that case I time the car ride about noon so she naps in the car. As long as she gets a little shut eye she's good. At Disneyland both kids ended up taking an hour nap while there. And we were there 9am to 9pm. They started melting down around 8 pm but it wasn't too bad. You just go with the flow on fun days and stick to the schedule the rest of the week.

britbratjf · January 2014

Yes like chipmunk and trixie Dagny is pretty flexible with her nap when we are out and about. And as long as she gets a 45 min nap she's fine. She'll be more tired in the evening and go to bed a little sooner (7:30 as opposed to 8) but she's not super grumpy or anything. But even when we are home her nap can run anywhere from 45 min to 3 hours. She's very inconsistent with naps which is why I don't worry if she doesn't get a super long nap.

lewispm · January 2014

I guess I just need to get K better at napping in places other than his crib. It is very unusual for him to fall asleep in the car and its probably been at least 6 months since he has fallen asleep in his stroller. Maybe if he is worn out enough the car will become a more frequent option for him.

michaela080 · January 2014

I was afraid of this when Robert moved to later nap. He used to nap at 10, but now he naps around 11 or 12 to 1:30 or 2:30. We still have time to go out around 2 or 3-5:30ish.

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