Nap transitions

rdonovan · February 2014

When did your toddler transition from two naps to one? My 13 month old has fought her afternoon nap for about a week now. She goes down in the morning great but will not take her normal nap in the afternoon? Is this about the normal time or a bit early? She has always been such a great napper. Thanks ladies!

pb_bride · February 2014

Most books and websites I have seen say the transition usually occurs between 15-18m, so 13m is a bit early. But I know my friend's son transitioned when he was that age and is much happier with 1 nap.

DS is 15m. About 2 wks ago he started to resist his 2nd nap, or would just take a very short one. After a week of that, I tried to transition him to 1 nap. It was an epic failure so we are back to 2 naps.

Having said that, I am putting DS down for his 2nd nap a bit later than before. He needs about 3.5 hrs of awake time between 1st and 2nd nap, otherwise he is not tired enough to go down for his 2nd nap.

minervacullen · February 2014

DD has been down to 1 for a while. She just turned 14 months. She usually wakes up about 7, give or take an hour, goes down for her nap between 11-1 and sleeps 2-3 hours, then she goes to bed around 8. Some times she's ready for bed by 6 if she got up early or I had to wake her up from her nap to pick DS up from school.

shannm · February 2014

We transitioned at 12 months. Both kids. There is some adjustment and the afternoon nap moved earlier in general but they did fine.

LorMor · February 2014

She transitioned at about 11 months. It was messy while it was happening, but it's been wonderful since then.

The books I read said it would be any time from a year, so I don't think 13 months is too early.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

The user and all related content has been deleted.

twinkletoes3126 · February 2014

We transitioned at 16 months and I think it was too early for him. We are just now falling into a good 1 nap schedule and he's 18 months old. Every kid is different though so your LO may be ready.

jnnfrrose6 · February 2014

DS transitioned at 12 months. His DC doesn't do AM naps after the infant room, so we didn't have much of a choice. We'd still do some on the weekends if he needed it, but he's been one afternoon nap after lunch for several months now.

MomIn2013 · February 2014

DS went to one nap at around 10-11 months. It was the afternoon nap he started fighting, too. Now he naps from about 11:00-1:00 every day.

momofmanyinthemitten · February 2014

We're going through the same thing at nearly 13 mos. His afternoon nap is hit or miss, but he still needs his morning nap 2 hrs after he wakes for the day. This makes evenings unbearable sometimes.

hilsy85 · February 2014

We are currently going through this at 16 months...he will take a morning nap, but refuse the afternoon nap. but he has a hard time staying up past 1030am, so he takes 1 early nap that isn't very long...it's pretty miserable.

BLPL101 · February 2014

DD moved to 1 nap at 13 months. She was fighting that second nap so I moved her first nap back and dropped the second.

Litgirl77 · February 2014

What's working for us is limiting the morning nap to an hour, so he fights the afternoon one less. And we've started pushing the morning one back - we've gone from 9am to 9:30am most days.

MarinsMom · February 2014

this is a great way to decide if your LO is ready to drop to 1 nap or not: https://www.hellobee.com/2012/06/05/dropping-to-one-nap-when-is-it-time/#comments

pb_bride · February 2014

hilsy85 said:

We are currently going through this at 16 months...he will take a morning nap, but refuse the afternoon nap. but he has a hard time staying up past 1030am, so he takes 1 early nap that isn't very long...it's pretty miserable.

@hilsy85, have you tried waking him up early from his first nap? Say wake him up after an hour? May be easier to get him to go down for his 2nd nap? I know the saying is, "never wake a sleeping baby," but worth a try. I feel like DS currently needs 1.5 naps. 2 naps is too many but 1 nap isn't enough.

hilsy85 · February 2014

@pb_bride yup we have...I've tried waking him after an hour, and he will still refuse his 2nd nap! It is infuriating. We have had some success the past few days with letting him take a 15 minute stroller nap in the morning, and then he'll take an afternoon nap, but I don't know if that's actually good, since yesterday his afternoon nap was only 1 hour, so he only napped 1 hour 15 min all day

And then woke up early this morning! It has just been a painful process for us thus far...

pb_bride · February 2014

@hilsy85, that's tough! My friends told me that if they plan an activity in the morning and get out of the house (be it library storytime, or play date etc), they are able to keep their LOs awake until 12:30-1pm; though they said it took about 2-3 weeks to get to a stable schedule. Otherwise, can you try for either a stroller nap or car nap in the afternoon? It is stressful and frustrating, I'm sure. Right now I"m just happy to be back on a 2-nap schedule, as the 1-nap schedule produced major meltdowns twice a day!

hilsy85 · February 2014

@pb_bride: I miss the 2 naps!! I loved our 2 nap schedule. I do try to do morning activities, but it's been tough because winter has been awful, and he is honestly miserable lately when he is tired--usually by 10 or so. I think he is also teething molars now though, which is making it worse. The tough thing is that even if he is absolutely EXHAUSTED, let's say if I did keep him up til 1230, he will still prob only nap 1.5 hours. And still be tired when he wakes up. Today he made it til 11 and napped til 12:40, so I counted that as a win!

pb_bride · February 2014

Didn't mean to hijack @rdonovan's thread... one last thing, @hilsy85, my mom friends also said that it took a couple of weeks for their LOs to get into the rhythm of a LONG nap. Their LOs definitely have had short 1-nap days (one day it was only 15 minute total!)... unfortunately it's just something we all have to tough it out. Now that they're settled in the 1-nap schedule, they are really happy with it. I still think I'm going to miss my morning "break," OTOH, all the toddler activities around here start around 10:30a and we haven't been able to go to any b/c of DS's morning nap. GL!

Smiley-1980 · February 2014

DD actually transitioned herself at 8 months. She always took a 3 hr morning nap an then she would fight her afternoon nap and if she did take it then it would only be 45 mins max. One day she just didn't fall asleep in the afternoon no matter what I did, and was still happy the rest of the day. The next day was the same and I even tried driving her in the car because that ALWAYS worked and she just stayed awake and looked out the window. I moved her morning nap a bit later and she's been napping from 12-2 or 3 for months now.

Want a personalized experience?

Nap transitions

Re: Nap transitions

Choose Another Board

Search Boards