Transition to 1 nap

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Hello ladies, well it's been a while since I posted on here looking for help, but here i AM AGAIN.

Mia is now 9 months and I think well on the way to 1 nap.  Up until v,recently she was having 30mins in the morning at 9am and 1.5/2 hours from 12.30/1pm in the afternoon with a bedtime of 7pm.  But now, although she will take her 30min catnap in the morning she is refusing her afternoon nap and I've finally got her down at 2.45pm, which IME is too late in the day for her now as she won't settle easily tonight.

So, I'm thinking she is ready for just one nap - her morning nap of 30minutes is cut right to the bone timewise but it's obvioulsy refreshing her enough to keep going until 2.45pm.  But the problem I have is she seems to need her 9am nap because she's waking around 5.30am in the morning (been doing it for months and I've tried allsorts and it's not happening).  This means I'm struggling to push her any further than 9.30/10am in the morning as I'm risking making her overtired.

What I've thought is letting her sleep for a couple of hours in the morning and then just a catnap in the pm?  Effectively I'm switching her naps around and then hopefully try and push the am one forward as Tracy suggests when transitioning from 2 to 1 naps.

To the moms who have been through this - does this sound the best course of action do you think?  I don;t want to embark on it only for it to go wrong for some reason and have a daughter with a screwed up body clock.

TIA

[Mom to M&M]

If it were me, I'd get her as far out in the morning as possible and then let her sleep up to 2 hours and then just shoot for a late afternoon catnap. While the norm seems to be shorter morning nap and longer afternoon one, there are a good number of babies who do better with the reverse (mine being on of them lately) and if so it's better to go with it. If it works and she starts sleeping later, you can keep pushing back the morning nap until it starts at 11 or later and then just let her sleep up to 2.5-3 hours for that and no second nap - but I'd try to hold onto 2 naps for at least another month or two.

[Luke-n-Me]

Wow, this seems to be an issue coming up with several of us on this forum!  My dd will be 9 months on the 30th and she is transitioning herself to 1 nap.  If she slept any more than 30 minutes in the a.m. there was no p.m. nap, so basically, I've decided to just roll with it and try to get to one nap.  It seems too young, and if someone had told me they were doing this before this happened to me, I would have thought they just weren't being consistent enough with napping and there was no way a 9 month old could tolerate just one nap a day, but now I know better.  My ds who is 3 LOVED 2 naps and still loves one, but Annika is just not the same.  I actually kind of liked your plan, since your lo gets up so early.  I would just try it.  Eventually, it will work itself out.  Good luck and it's good to know that I'm not alone in this!

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Thanks Karen and Nancy 

Yep I'm surprised too that dd is ready for just one nap at 9months but from what I can gather although it's unusual, it's not unheard of.

I'm definately going to let her have a longer an nap now (up to 2 hours) and then a catnap if required in the afternoon.  I woke her today at 4pm and she was in a right grump and didn't settle easily tonight at bedtime.

Thanks again and fingers crossed.

[*Natasha*]

Hi Louise,

As you well know we are struggling with this issue at the moment as well. Catherine prefers her longer nap in the morning (anywhere from 1.15-2hrs) and then will only do a catnap in the afternoon with the occasional 1.15hrs. I have just decided to go with this until she just flat out refuses her afternoon nap then push for the 1 nap which i am sure will be before her 1st Birthday. We have been chating about this in the Aug/Sept chat and most of us are going through this at the moment. In fact Karita has just made the move to 1 nap and she found when she did that Kayla starting sleeping 12hrs at night. As Marisa Mum suggested perhaps let her sleep as long as she wants in the morning and try for a PM short catnap of 30-45mins. I will ask Karita to put in her imput since she has made the switch already.
Keep me updated how things go.

[Kimberly®]

Natasha is right I just transitioned Kayla from 2 naps. Kayla is 9 months tomorrow (25). Kayla started sleeping 7-7 at 12 weeks resently she started waking more and more at night to play so we made the move to one nap and now she sleeps 12 hours again. Thats not to say if you go to one nap your child will sleep 12 hours, but it may help.
She seems to be really doing well with this new napping. I think its because she's getting so much sleep at night and in the AM thats working so well for us. Although this weeks she's moved nap time from 9-10am to 11-11:30am and bedtime at 7pm. and she's out till 7-7:30am, so its a little more balenced, she just kind of did it herself. I've been really pushing to move naptime later if I can. Its paid off so far. For early wake ups I think you may find they'll stop when you go to one nap.
I have a feeling that Kayla is going to be one of those toddlers that doesn't nap  She's gonna keep be very busy.

[Luke-n-Me]

Karita,

I was thinking the same thing, as early as these lo's are going to one nap it's hard to imagine they'll still be taking the single nap as toddlers.  It's just so different from my first-born, I never dreamt that I would have one like this after my son who was and still is the ultimate napper!  Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to roll with it and enjoy our busy little ones!

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Hi natasha - a massive thank you for all your input. It was after your posting the other day that I decided to change Mias routine and go with a long nap in the morning and a catnap in the afternoon.  Today was the first day, after a 5am wake up  she had 1hour 40 minutes this morning from 8.40am and I put her down at 3.15pm for half an hour.  She's gone down tonight at 7pm.

Thanks for going to the trouble of asking Karita for input - and thank you Karita for replying too.  I've never had a look at the birth clubs but think I'll take a look now.

Karita - would you mind posting your daily routine please?  I think I'll be able to push Mias am nap forward no problem but the thing that jumps out at me is when to give her her lunch if she's asleep around 11-12, I could do with looking at a few routines for some ideas I think.

Thanks again ladies 

[Kimberly®]

I posted our routine in the birth club