Transitioning from 2 to 1 nap a day

[Serides]

My DS is almost 11 months. His afternoon nap is still 1,5 hour. he has already has shorten the morning nap to 1 hour. this means that he is sleeping only 2,5 hours a day. I believe this short nap time is leading us to night wakings.

May be I should transition to one nap.

When is the correct time to transition? And how should It take place? By cutting morning nap suddenly or shorting it and longer or shorter A time after morning nap?

Need advise

[andibig]

some LOs will start transitioning around this age.around this age 2.5 hrs nap time is pretty normal so there may be other things affecting the night sleep.
I don't think he sounds ready for the drop to one nap but can we have a look at his routine and see if that shows anything
Andrea

[Serides]

Here is our routine

E 06:00/06:30 wake up and BF
A
E 08:00 Breakfast (bread, cheese and jam, cow milk)
A
S 9:00/9:30 - 10:00/10:30

E 10:30/11:00 yogurt with fresh fruit, baby biscuits
A
E 12:00 lunch
A
S 14:00/14:30 - 15:30/16:00
E 15:30/16:00 BF

E 17:00 dinner
A
S 18:00 Bedtime - bath, BF, lullaby
19:00 / 19:30 sleep at the latest

[andibig]

routine looks pretty good.we had the same one for sasha at that age.

i still don't think he is ready for the 1 nap yet though.basically he isn't fighting any of his naps,goes to sleep easily at night and doesn't wake horrendously early.

need to ask a few questions if you don't mind
When did the NWs start?How do you deal with them?
Does he settle easily for sleep?
What times are the NWs?
Is he teething?(1st yr molars could be on the way)
Anything new developmentaly?

[Serides]

sorry for not being able to answer before. I got sick

Night waking hasn't stop accept 4-5 nights. When he wakes mostly he is sleeping back easily after couple of lay downs. But if I don't go in and wait if he will sleep on his own and if he doesn't then it takes sometimes 1 hour to make him sleep.

He doesn't settle easily for sleep since his first days. He is a texbook/angel accept sleep.

Times are changing. One between 8:00 pm - 10:00pm and another between 3:00am 4:30am. But last night it was 8:00pm and 12:00pm and a straight sleep until 6:50. But 12:00 NW took 30 minutes and he slept on my breast.

He has 5 teeth and we haven't had any problem with teething.

He is crawling and walking by holding one hand since a long time.

[andibig]

Hope you are feeling better!

well must admit i'm stumped  .
looking at the way you deal with the NWs would i be right in saying that he needs you in order to go back to sleep.as in he needs your prescence to go back to sleep.
you say he doesn't settle easily for sleep.does he need you to be there until he falls asleep?how does he settle himself?
sorry asking yet more questions

[Serides]

To be honest I rarely get out of the bed. As I'm working very hard I'm not getting up but instead DH is going to DS room and making him asleep. I only wake up as my DH sleep is very deep to wake him up and I stay awake until he is back in the bed in order to be ready in case he can't deal with the situation. So it is not me only but anyone he knows or anyone who puts him in his crib for sleep is his need.

He is checking from time to time if I'm sitting on the chair. therefore I can't leave the room even after he lays down on his own and begin to grumble just before he falls asleep. However if his nanny goes out then he falls asleep. But he wants us in the room until he decides to lay down. Until he lay down, he either clap his hands or dance with lullabies or grumble or mantra cry or sit and stand up.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions, the more I tell the more you can help

[andibig]

apologies for the late reply.
I think he has worked out with Nanny she just walks out so he may as well go to sleep.
I think he has become reliant on needing a persons presence (DH) to go back to sleep.something you could try is gradual withdrawal from the room.basically for bedtime you set your chair up or whatever and each night you move nearer the door.basically you are aiming to be out of the room ,probably with the door open to start of with.
with the NWs i think it a case of being consistent with the way they are dealt with.quick lie down ,night night and walk out.we did this with sasha and got to the point where we would just go in and tell her to lie down.
HTH

[Serides]

I tried your recommendation last night. He cried tremendously. He woke 3 times and each time he slept back with my hand at his back, after 10-15 minutes try of your recommendation. I'm going to be crazy. When I read the articles, it seems it is something that can be done not easily but in a reasonable time with reasonable patience. But I couldn't come to the satisfactory point since July.
Beginning from tomorrow night I will set the rules for everyone again (DH and nanny). I will begin from scratch. First 2 days near crib, then 2 nights in between doorway and crib, 2 nights at the door. Let's see what will happen. Wish me luck.

[Serides]

Hello again,

I have read the "2 to 1 nap chat" forum which is really long! it seems that, at least that way, I'm struggling with not being able to read my DS clues about transitioning from 2 to 1 nap. Although our routine is the one that I wrote before, it can change from day to day. And when he has short nap, I insist on putting him back to sleep and make the nap time longer. I'm trying him to have 3 hours nap time during day. May be for him it is too much.

For example today he had 45 minutes am nap and 1,5 hour pm nap. Woke from pm nap at 3:30 and slept at 7:30. There was clues at around 1:30pm but I though that it was too early for pm nap. His A time between am and pm nap is around 3 hours or 3 hours 15 minutes. 1:30pm was hitting to 2,5 hours. What I tell to nany is 'if he sleeps less than an hour in his am nap try to put him back to sleep and if he sleeps less than 1,5 hour in his pm nap do the same'. Surprisingly if he sleep a long am nap, he sleeps long pm nap as well.

In addition from time to time we can have EW like 5:15 and he catches by 45 minutes before breakfast time. For example our routine for today was

E 06:40 wake up and BF
A
E 08:00 Breakfast (bread, cheese and jam, cow milk)
A
S 10:15 - 11:00

E 11:00 yogurt with fresh fruit, baby biscuits
A
E 12:30 lunch
A
S 14:00 - 15:30
E 16:00 BF

E 18:00 dinner
A
S 18:30 Bedtime - bath, BF, lullaby
19:30 sleep.

Last night was like a nightmare. He woke for 3 times until I went bed at 11:00pm. Then he woke at 11:30pm followed by 1:00am, 1:30am, 2:30am and 5:05 am.

tonight has begun better.He hasn't wake up until now(10:00pm) which is very good when compared to last 3 days.

I need advise here. Should I work on sleeping on his own or 2 to 1 nap?

[taygensmom]

I would work on falling asleep on his own before 2 to 1 nap. It actually does not sound like he is ready to drop a nap. My LO is almost 16 months and still takes a very small catnap in the AM and a long nap in the PM. He too shortened his AM nap to 30-45 minutes, but since he is still falling asleep most days for this nap (unless we are out or around other kids where he wants to play) I know that he still needs this short burst of sleep. I could if I wanted switch to 1 nap at this point, but since he is still falling aslepp for his catnap I don't see the need to stress his system and work to keep him up till the afternoon until I see he is truly ready to drop that AM nap. But I do not try to extend the AM nap if he sleeps only 30-45 minutes, because eventually in the next few months this will be the nap I phase out anyways. If he just needs 20-30 min then that is fine, as I want the big chunk of naptimes sleep to be in the afternoon (typically 1.5 to 2 hrs). In fact, if he sleeps for more that 45 min-1 hr in the AM I will actually wake him to ensure that his big chunk of sleep is in the PM.

I would keep going with just the catnap in the AM and then the bigger PM nap. It really sounds like the biggger issue at this point is the wakings and the "prop" of needing you in the room to go back to sleep. If you address this first it will likely not only decrease the wakings at night, but will also help you to more clearly see when your LO is ready for the 2 to 1 nap switch as you will be able to distinguish better between waking due to needing a prop, waking due to too much sleep, or waking due to overtiredness. HTH

[andibig]

serides
so sorry my advice hasn't helped .
i think the point i was trying to make was that the way to get rid of NWs was about being consistent.how you chose to do that is dependent on your LO.Apologies if i didn't make that clear.
I agree with PP that i'd work on dealing with the exsisting NWs rather than trying to cut down to 1 nap.