transitioning from 2-1 too early?

[inakot]

Hi All,
My daughter is 13 months old and up until about a week and a half ago, my daughter was on two naps, however it was getting to the point where she wouldn't go to bed at night until almost 1.5 after her bedtime.  It was also getting harder to get her to go down for her first nap.. it'd take sometimes 1 hour to get her to go to sleep..  Then there were the night wakings at 2 or 3am and being completely wide awake.
I tried cutting down her afternoon nap length to no more then 1 hour, but it still didn't help.. it seemed that she was just napping too late in the day.

So.. we decided that maybe 1 nap was the answer..
So for the past week and a half she's been having one nap (for the most part), well... she does ok in the morning.. she wakes up and can last about 4-5 hours before nap time.. but... when I put her down for the nap, alot of the times she's over tired and ends up only sleeping for 30 mins before waking up and craying. I can sometimes put her back to sleep, but alot of the times she's soo tired she just wants me to hold her while sleeping.  On average she sleeps for maybe 1.5, but hardly ever more..

She's also getting quite cranky in the evenings and has alot of night wakings and early wakings.
UGH!
Is this normal? Should I just give it time, like another week and then re-asses?  Or have I started her on one nap too early?


I truely think 1 nap is what she needs.  But I think she needs a long nap and is just not getting it.
To be completely honest I really really liked 2 naps, I could get ready for the day while she was having her first nap, and then do cleaning etc on her second nap, it was perfect!  I didn't want to go down to 1 nap, but it just seemed that it was the only way to go.


Anyone have any insite at all?

[Aussiemom]

What time is her first nap and what time are you putting her down to sleep?

[Tansy]

Hi! Just want to say i am in the same situation myself. I moved ds to one nap a day but again he never sleeps for more than 1.5hrs and has been having a few ew's too.
The advice i received is to put them down about 1030am (if usual wake time is between 6 and 7am) and wake after 15/20mins. Then put them down again for a second nap earlier, say around 230pm and let them have a long sleep. Then gradually move that 1030am sleep time back later and later (still waking up after 15 mins) until they are going down about 1130am (about 5hrs A time). Once they can handle the longer A time in the morning, then you can combine the two naps.

I personally haven't tried it yet though as i feel so funny waking ds up and not sure whether he will go down again in arvo. But apparently it helps a lot to extend their one nap sleep time.
At the moment, our routine is something like this:
630am wake
11 - 1230pm nap (still trying to extend it)
530/6pm bedtime

I understand how you feel about going down to one nap too. I always used the first nap to get everything done, cleaning etc and then the second nap i needed to put my feet up and rest myself. Now i get really tired and grumpy around 430/5pm because i have been on my feet all day and sooooo exhausted! But i do put him down early and i LOVE having the whole evening to relax and know ds is already fed, bathed and sleeping in his bed

I don't think you have started too early - it sounds like she was showing signs of needing the change. I think it is just a matter of getting used to the transition and settling in to it. Apparently it can take a while

HTH

[inakot]

hmm.. this sounds like a good idea.. My husband is watching my daughter for the next three days while I'm at work, so maybe 'll see what he thinks.

Our routine is similar to yours
6-7 wake,
11-12 go down for a nap and she'll nap anywhere from 1 hr to 1.5 hrs
7-730 bedtime

I'd like her bedtime to be closer to 8 so that she'll sleep alittle later in the morning, but we're not there yet because right now  she's exhausted by 5-6.. and probably would go to sleep if i put her down at 6.

Today I had to put her down for a nap at 1030 'cause she was exhausted, and I think she'll probably get a short nap this afternoon while she's in the car.  So far she's been sleeping for an hour, maybe we just need to be alittle more flexible..
Yesterday she did great with one nap at 12:15 for almost 2 hours, but today she definately needs two..

[Tansy]

It sounds like you are on the right track. On the days where she is having only one nap, i would put her down a bit earlier for bedtime. You could try putting her down at 6/630pm and see how she goes. I was as worried as you when we first started as i had only just got ds to STTN but that was from 830pm to 7am. And i thought there would be no way he would go from 10.5hrs per night to 12 or 13hrs!!!!!!! But he did!!!!! It's like the nap they missed is made up for at night!
And yesterday our routine was:
630am wake
11 - 1150am sleep (dog woke him up grrrrrrr!)
545pm bed
and then he slept until 645am this morning with no nw's!!!! So im glad i put him down really early IYKWIM

Anyway, HTH, let us know how you go...