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September 2015 Moms
kmcshane0211
member
Does it sound like we need to drop a nap?
kmcshane0211
member
Does it sound like we're ready to drop the first nap?
I know average age to drop the morning nap is 15-18 months, so I didn't think it may happen so soon at 13 months!
Here's the details: My daughter...
-is sleeping 10.5-11 hours consistently at night for about 3 weeks -for the past 1.5ish weeks she is taking a really short morning nap (between 30-50 minutes usually), which is very atypical for her! -twice now she has completely SKIPPED her afternoon nap too and does not seem ANYWHERE near tired. -when she has skipped that nap she was up like 6+ hours, didn't seem crabby and slept fine at night
As I am typing it out, I think I've convinced myself that YES she should drop. I'd still love wisdom from my lovely mom friends on the matter! Thank you!
Here's the details: My daughter...
-is sleeping 10.5-11 hours consistently at night for about 3 weeks -for the past 1.5ish weeks she is taking a really short morning nap (between 30-50 minutes usually), which is very atypical for her! -twice now she has completely SKIPPED her afternoon nap too and does not seem ANYWHERE near tired. -when she has skipped that nap she was up like 6+ hours, didn't seem crabby and slept fine at night
As I am typing it out, I think I've convinced myself that YES she should drop. I'd still love wisdom from my lovely mom friends on the matter! Thank you!
Re: Does it sound like we need to drop a nap?
I used to put the boys down for a nap 2 hours after they woke in the morning. They would only sleep for about 30-50 like your LO and wouldnt want their afternoon nap but by 630 they were really sleepy and fussy. So now i lay them down 3 hours after they wake in the morning & they sleep 1.5 -2 hours & once in a while 3 hours. So its usually from 10am-12pm and they are fine until their bed time @745pm....if they dont sleep those 2 hours theyll sleep maybe 15 minutes around 230 and it helps them be okay until bedtime.
There are days like these lovely mommas mentioned, that are different if we are out & about they nap later or dont sleep as much & bed time is earlier. We as moms know what our kids need &I say do what you feel she needs.
At this age, kids usually need about 12-14 hours of sleep total per day between nighttime and naps, so if your kiddo does great with just the one nap, I say go for it! We'll be keeping two naps until it's obvious LO is ready for just one, but right now he seems to love his nap time and still needs both of them!
It can't hurt to give it a shot, especially if naps are crummy anyway. I'm seeing signs that DS2 is getting close, although he still does okay going down his morning is closer to 6 am than 7 am now. I've done some playing around and some days put him on a one nap schedule. Looking forward to one long nap midday since it makes planning activities a bit easier
Ok, so wait...would you do the incremental thing where you push back about 15 minutes each day until the AM nap is later? With a 7-7:30 PM bedtime what Naptime (for one nap) is said to be ideal for toddlers?
Everything Ive read online (which is too much that I'm overwhelmed and why I'm asking here!) says 4 hours awake MAX before bed. Does that stay the case once they're on one nap, from your experience?
Thank you!
No, when you are on 1 nap the 4 hour wake before bed will be extended. Most babies this age need 10-12 hours or so of wake time every day, give or take so you are probably looking at 5-5.5 hours. The timing would depend on a few things, like what time your little one typically wakes in the morning, how much total sleep she gets on average and how long you would expect the nap to be. Bedtime may need to shift a little earlier. In a lot of cases a bedtime that was previously 7:30 pm for example would move a little earlier, maybe to 7 pm.
Just as an example, a 7 am morning wake would probably mean a nap around 11:30 am or 12 pm and then bedtime 7-7:30 depending on how long she napped for.
One good thing to consider is that once you get a good time and nap established you can likely switch to a by the clock schedule rather than wake times which will be really nice! The transition may be a little back and forth for a bit while your daughter gets used to it.
To answer your other question I wouldn't worry about the incremental thing in this case, especially if some days she is refusing it in the first place. Maybe pick a time 4-5 hours after she wakes in the morning and see how she does. There is no reason you can't move back to two naps and try again later if she has a hard time with it. Good luck!
I don't think he's ready for 1 nap yet because he gets so cranky on these days that he is refusing one of the naps. Today he woke up at 6:10, took a one hour morning nap, and has refused his afternoon nap. So we usually put him into bed at 7:00 for bedtime, he will have been awake for EIGHT hours. Not good.
Not really sure what to do right now except continue to put him down at his normal nap times and ride it out. Hoping it's teething related and he'll go back to his normal nap schedule soon. He's not very fun to deal with when he's lacking so much sleep.
@lmbrandt just throwing this out there. One of my plans to deal with really early wake ups is to let DS2 take a morning nap but to keep it short so he isn't sleeping to much. I plan to wake him after 20 or 30 minutes, something like that could help to deal with an afternoon nap refusal too possibly.
ETA: Really missing my 7 am wake ups right about now
LO is 13 months and is in dayhome. We have an early drop off time at 7am so we would like LO to wake up about 6. Unfortunately, since he has started dayhome he is super eager to wake up and has been doing so regularly at about 4:30am (*yawns*) Somedays I can get him back to sleep but only for about a half hour and then he is raring to go again. We start our bedtime routine at about 5:45 and he is usually in bed about 6:30. So he is getting about 10 hours at night. We were telling our dayhome provider to continue with the 2 naps. His morning nap is about 45min-1hour and the afternoon nap is about an hour as well. So he is hitting his 12 hours of sleep but this working mama would really love to start sleeping in!! We took a few cracks at the one nap at dayhome. She said it was easier for him to fall asleep but was still sleeping about an hour to an hour and a half with just the one nap My guy has never been a long nap baby. An hour for him is considered long. So it makes it hard to drop the morning nap when he's been up at 4:30! Not sure what to do... Would you continue with 2 naps???
If I start capping that first nap, what time increment? 30-40 min? I'm REALLY hoping that will help give us an afternoon nap! I just can't see how I could push that morning nap back anymore right now...don't think he can handle it. But, the afternoon gap before bedtime is huge, like 7 hours! Eventually, when he is 100% on one nap, I'd really like it to start maybe around 1ish?
Oh how I hate that sleep patterns are always changing!! Thanks for your suggestions!!
I have noticed that since I've started our big nap usually starts between 1 and 2 which is ideal for our schedule. Just as an idea this is what I am hoping to move to:
7:30 am Wake
12:30-2:30 Nap
8:30 Bed
He isn't there yet but I'm hoping within a month or two this will be our new schedule. You may have to play around and see what suits your family best. My little guy usually hits 13 hours total sleep so I've found that if I'd like an 11 hour night then I have to limit day sleep to about 2 hours. Maybe if you have a 6 am wake you could try for a 9-9:30 nap another from 1-2:30pm. That would hopefully set you up pretty nicely for a 7:30 bedtime. In my experience capping the first nap has definitely made the second nap easier to make happen (though I hate waking him just because I miss that free time in the mornings!).