Question about Early Bedtime when going from 2-1 nap

[Ivoryangel]

I am going to start my almost-13 month old son on one nap but I am so confused about the early bedtime you are supposed to use when taking away a nap. I understand the reason for it, in order to prevent OT since he will be going so many hours since sleep, but my confusion is that if he takes one two hour nap...that's about all the sleep he normally does during the day, so if I put him to bed early to compensate, wouldn't he then be getting TOO much sleep in a 24 hour period? He sleeps about 11/12 hours a night, so I am just confused that he'll be getting too much sleep with an early bedtime if he takes a nice long nap. Thanks!

[jana224]

Hi there,
I'm not sure what time he normally goes to bed, or what time you're thinking of doing for an early bedtime, but the reasoning I can see of an earlier bedtime on one nap is that he is waking from that afternoon nap earlier than he would wake on two naps, so if you keep the same bedtime, that may be too much A time for him.  I don't think he'll be getting too much sleep, unless you're putting him to bed way early, in which case he may start waking early in the morning....
But... if one nap means a much earlier bedtime because he can't handle the A time to a normal bedtime, then... you may still want to do a small morning nap and a proper afternoon nap.  The consolidation of naps into one nap should coincide with when baby can do longer stretches of A time, I think 4.5/5 is the "typical" window. 
Something like this:
7am - wake
11:30 or 12 - sleep for 2 hours
7pm - bed

The 2-to-1 transition, from what I've been reading, can take a long time to implement.  We're planning to gradually shorten and shorten the morning nap, from 1 hour, to 30 minutes, to 20 minutes, until we gradually phase it out, then bump up the afternoon nap (which is normally around 1:30-2pm) to just after lunch.

[Ivoryangel]

Thanks. He is not going down for his afternoon nap easily, making me realize that he is not tired enough at that time. I tried shortening the morning nap for a longer PM nap and it didn't work for us. I'm going to try letting him sleep as long as he wants in the morning, and if he manages to sleep 2 hours, that's really enough daytime sleep for him. However, of course it would be way too much awake time before bed. So I understand the early bedtime, I just fear that it means he would be having too much sleep in a 24 period. He goes to bed at 7:30 and really does 12 hours. He may wake up earlier than I know and just play for awhile, and doze back off to sleep, but generally he is in his crib for 12 hours. So I"m just afraid that if he sleeps 2 hours during the day, then goes to bed early to prevent OT, it's going to be either way too much sleep, or he'll wake up so much earlier in the morning...

[jana224]

You could try the approach of gradually pushing his morning nap a little later every day... until it gets closer to noon-ish.  I don't know what time he naps, but if he naps around 10-11am, and sleeps till 12-1pm, you are probably right that he'll be OT by bedtime, even if you do it at 6:30pm...  which could make it harder to put him down at night or make him restless sleeping at night/night wakings.

If you can push his nap back by 10-15 minutes each day, maybe you can consolidate to one nap that way? 

[Ivoryangel]

Well, I just tried a later morning nap, letting him sleep as long as he wanted to to see how it would go if I didn't intervene. He slept from 11:45 to 1:15, so exactly 90 minutes. That is obviously not quite as much daytime sleep as he needs, but I fear that even a late afternoon catnap is going to interfere with his ability to go down at bedtime, but the alternative risks a definite OT by 7:30. I'm thinking no afternoon nap, and a 6:30 bedtime???
This is so hard!!

[my3girlsjde]

I'm reading this as I hear my 15 month old twins running in their cribs upstairs instead of having their afternoon nap. I've just returned after going back up to change poopy bums for the second time (I swear they hold it until they're in their cribs - time to potty train lol). Soothers are being fired out of cribs and walls are getting slapped in all attempts to get me back in there. Sometimes waiting them out works in the afternoon, but usually not. I never have any issue with morning naps except they're only 45 mins long. That's just not enough sleep for the girls!

I'm finding the hardest part is that some mornings they just don't make it anywhere noon and other days they could. They seem to feed off of each other energy-wise, so I still put them both down at the same time. The only way I've been able to function with twins is to keep them on a pretty firm schedule, so I'm having a bit of a challenge with this one. The schedule seems to constantly change.

After reading the previous posts, I think I'm going to try gradually moving the morning nap later. That way, if they don't nap in the afternoon, their afternoon will at least be a bit shorter having gotten up from their morning nap later. Any and all insight would be greatly appreciated because the 5pm meltdowns are getting more frequent!

[jana224]

I know the catnap in the late afternoon is something we move away from as they get older, but I still use it every now and then if something happens to Avery's afternoon nap (we have to go somewhere and she misses it, or it gets cut short).  I'll let her snooze for 20 minutes, a power nap really, just to keep her going until bedtime.  The latest I would do a lil power snooze is probably 4:30pm, but they do work for us.  She gets just enough sleep to keep her from falling apart, but not enough sleep to be too rested to sleep at night.

[jrmommyx2]

I have 15 month old twins too! We are transitioning from 2-1, but slowly, because these two have a hard time making it to even 4 hrs of A time in the am! Basically, I wanted to keep the 7/7:30 bedtime (knowing I may have to be more flexible some nights) so I kind of worked backwards from there. In order to go to bed then I know they need to be up by 4pm. So, we are pushing the am nap back and shortening it and moving the pm nap up/ right now they are doing a 30 min snooze in the am (going down some time between 11 /11:30 depending on what time they got up) and then going down at 1:30 and usually sleeping until between 3:30/4pm! It seems to be working pretty well! But all babies are different, heck sometimes the same baby is different on different days!

ivoryangel, mine do 12 hour nights too, and I was worried about messing with that, but has not been a problem (knock on wood). In fact, their pm nap has actually gotten longer and they are still doing 12 hr nights! Go figure!

[grahan]

Ivoryangel - I think the early bedtime is b/c when you first go down to one nap, they nap is early, like 11 - 1 or 11:30 - 1:30 so bedtime may need to be like 6:30 instead of whatever you were used to.  This unfortunately may mean waking earlier that next morning but if you keep bedtime at what it was and they are overtired at bedtime, that can spell distaster!!  ( I speak from experience ).  So, that is why a lot of moms go back and forth with one nap days and two nap days.

I have 15 month old twins too!!  How funny!  My DDs have settled into one nap and unfortunately Grace has settled into a wake at 6, nap from 11:15 - 1:30/1:45 routine while Hannah wakes at about 7:30 and naps from about 12:30 - 2:00/2:30.  My problem is that I can not get them to get on the same schedule.  Grace is an early bird while Hannah enjoys sleeping in.  This translates into very little Y in my EASY!

[Ivoryangel]

Thanks for the advice! I think we're going to try for a 6:30 bedtime tonight. I just can't wait until the whole transition is over. I am not that excited about the possibility of waking up earlier in the morning, but I guess I'd take that over night wakings. He is doing 12 hours a night for the first time in his whole life (we've been through hell for months with various sleep issues) and I don't want to ruin a good thing. But obviously....change is upon us. I thought I read that the earlier bedtime during this transitional time doesn't mean they will wake earlier in the morning, as they are just catching up on sleep?
Oh, the work we put into these kids.........

[Julianne1984]

Hey my DS is 13months tomorrow, and we are thinking of doing 2-1. He has a 1.5/2h nap and 30min nap, longest mostly AM but sometimes long nap pm. He can only go 3-4hrs A at the moment but is difficult to get to nap in pm unless in car/pushchair. We've had a few weeks of ew's + nw's so think it's 2-1time aswell!!! X

[Ivoryangel]

Well, I tried the longer one middle of the day nap with an early bedtime, and my son was up all night! Every hour, just like he used to. It was awful. Of course I can't say that it was definitely OT, but it seems to be the culprit, since we've had many many weeks of completely no NWs or EWs. He also woke up earlier today but grumpy instead of rested. I am thinking that maybe he is not ready for the transition yet. I am so confused and so frustrated....... I really don't know what approach to take.

[jana224]

It sounds like he's not ready for one nap... I know it can take a really long time to get to that transition perfectly.  Many babies are 14, 15, 16 or more months before they're ready for one nap.
Why not do a short am nap - no more than 30-45 minutes - so that he'll still take his pm nap?  I know you said you tried this, but you may need to give it a few days to "stick".