Please answer some 2 to 1 nap switch questions...thanks!

[JulieNG]

Hello,

DS is 8.5 months. It seems that every other days he is fighting one of his naps. I don't think he is 100% ready for the switch, but he was early with dropping the catnap and I'm thinking he is going to be early with this switch as well.

What is the earliest you have heard of successfully dropping this nap?

Some days DS is not ready for am nap till 10 and today he slept till 12:30. Of course he was not ready for a pm nap at all and I put him down at 3 and he didn't fall asleep till 4. I didn't think he'd be ready but he was a bit fussy so I tried. He played in bed for an hour.

Yesterday he napped from 9-10 am and 1-3:30 pm. The last 2 days he has been waking at 4:45am and he never does that. He cries for about 10 minutes and fusses and then puts himself back to sleep.

Any suggestions?

[brenda2]

hi!  i definitely think he's too young to drop to 1 nap.   but you're right, he may be early to switch.  you want to delay it as long as possible.

have you read this:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

yesterday's naps sounds good...was it just that he fought going down?  what time was he up in the morning to have a nap at 9?    it's ok to wake them up early from one nap to either allow them to take the 2nd nap or put them to bed at the regular time.  essentially one of the naps becomes more like a catnap.

my 9 mo usually wakes up 6 to 6:30, naps 9:30 to 11 and 2:30 to 4  and bedtime is 7 to 7:30.  she gets 2.5 to 3.5 hours of daytime sleep in a 12 to 13 hour day.

HTH

[Melej]

It's funny you should ask whats the earliest a LO has switched from 2-1, I've been wondering the very same thing.

My DD is also 8.5mo and sounds the same as your LO, only with less daytime sleep! Naps have become a nightmare and our routine is shot to pieces, so I will be following this thread with interest.

[JulieNG]

Thanks for your help.

Yesterday he woke at 6 and napped from 9-12:30. Then I selfishly put him down at 3 b/c I was having dinner guests at 5 and needed some time to prepare. He played in bed till 4 and finally fell asleep from 4-4:30. I have a 2 year old that naps from 1-3:30 or 4 so ideally I'd love him to nap longer in the pm. I tried waking him from the am nap after an hour and he was really cranky an hour later and only held out 2 hours till the next nap, which was fine, but he was cranky those entire 2 hours! Maybe I'll try waking him from the first nap again to get an earlier afternoon nap. We'll see.

[brenda2]

he slept from 9-12:30!!!  there's your problem.  no wonder he wasn't ready for a nap at 3, he'd only been up 2.5 hours after a huge nap!  wake him up after 1.5 or max 2 hours.  then he'll take a better afternoon nap for you.  for nap #2 i always wake my Lo at 4 too even if she's only slept an hour, to keep the 7:30 bedtime.

[JulieNG]

Hey,
Sorry! I meant he slept from 10-12:30!! But obviously that was way too long in order to get the pm in. I'll try waking him after 1.5 or 2 max.

He has also been waking at 4:45 in the monring a lot. It happened 3 times last week including this morning. Any idea why? It could be teeth, he just started crawling too. Last week he fell back alseep on his own once, one time I had to give a bottle and today I don't think he fell back asleep and I got him out of bed at 6. I'm not 100% sure if he didn't fall back asleep b/c I was in and out of sleep the entire time but I know I heard him babbling for a long time. He was not crying, just talking in the crib.