My son was always a sleepy bub. He had longer daytime sleep than most his age, and was slow to extend A time. Still, we started the transition around 13 months (had to limit his AM nap to an hour) and were fully on 1 nap every day at 16 months. We had about a month prior to that where we would do one 1 nap day, 1 2 nap day, and then two 1 nap days, and 1 two nap day,etc. Yeah, that was a super fun month!
The first week he was on 1 nap, it was only about an hour long. Then it stretched to a pretty consistent 2 hours. And now it is actually 2.5-3 hours a couple times a week, and 2 hours the rest of the time. I have no clue why his nap has lengthened in the past 6 monts, but I'm grateful that it has! We went thru a brief period around 27 months where he started skipping his nap. I thought it meant our nap was disappearing, but it turned out he just needed A time increased.
I DREADED the 1 nap transition! I looooooved him taking 2 naps so much. But you know what? 1 nap is AWESOME! It makes it so much easier to plan your day, and at the end of the 2 nap phase, your AM nap is usually skimpy -- hour or less. You can get so much done in 2-3 hours! It's a true break in your day! Plus you are so much more mobile when you only have to worry about 1 nap period. And they get more flexible about that time -- in other words, their sleep window moves from being like 15 minutes long to more like 45-60 minutes long. Lovely! AND on top of that, once they are in 1 nap, your routine doesn't vary for a good year or so. Can you imagine that? The last 15 months you've probably to adjust routines every 4-8 weeks. Can you imagine a whole year where you can predict when your child will sleep? It's so cool!
Whew! Guess I'm pretty in love with 1 nap.
Didn't expect to write such a love poem about it!
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