13 mo old: Not ready for 1 nap, but increasing A time

[klindsey11]

My DS just turned 13 mo old.  He is still taking 2 naps per day.  I tried consolidating to 1 nap per day but he never slept beyond 1.5 hours.  He is happy with 2 naps, sleeping on avg 1.5 hours each.  But he is starting to increase his A time so it is pushing his bedtime way back!  I have tried waking him up at the 1 hr mark but he is extremely cranky and often falls asleep in my arms.

Typical sleep schedule:

7:00 wake
10:30 nap
12:00 wake
4:00 nap
5:30 wake
8:30/9:00 bed

What should I do?

[Layla]

Well you have 4 options:

1. wake him up from the morning nap & then bump up the afternoon nap. Start with waking him up 1hr into the morning nap & over 3-4 days reduce it to 45mins & then 30mins until its non-existant & the afternoon nap is around noon

2. let him sleep in the morning & allow for a catnap in the afternoon. So that would mean waking him up so that his nap ends around 4.30pm... but again do it slowly so his body adjusts

3. Put him back on 1 nap & do an earlier bedtime. 1.5hrs is actually quiet good for 1 nap... alot of babies start off with a 45min nap when they go down to 1 nap & then it increases to 1.5-2hrs long

4. Let him sleep as long as he is sleeping at the moment during the day & accept the later bedtime

He is at the moment sleeping 3hrs during the day & 10hrs at night so thats just about right for his age. I understand he is cranky at the moment when you wake him but I think if you do it at least 3 days in a row, hopefully he will start making up for sleep at night & his body will get used to sleeping less during the day & more at night.

hth a little & let me know how you go
Layla

[MommaHolmes]

I seem to be on a mission about this 2-1 issue at the mo - don't know what that's about, but have posted a long diatribe on the Naps board that might have some useful stuff in it, link here

Best advice is listen to Layla, she's never put a foot wrong for me 

[Grace's Mom]

What worked for us was giving Grace a short (30-45 minute) morning nap and a longer (1.5 hour) afternoon nap.  For her it got to the point where if she had more than 30 minutes in the morning she wouldn't really nap in the afternoon.  As she got more and more ready for the one nap that first nap got shorter and shorter and shorter until her A time was 5 hours long and she was ready for 1 nap.

Now that she is on one nap, she sleeps on average 1-1.5 hours long. 

Good luck on the switch.

-Melissa