Switched from 2 to 1 nap ...

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

and couldn't be happier, for now.

For 2 or 3 days, DS had been getting hard to put down for his 2nd nap, then finally on the 4th day, he babbled and played the entire nap time.  The next am he slept right through until 7:30 am (usually up at 6am ish  :roll: )  So for the past few days I've been switching his routine completely.  He used to nap at 9 or 10 am through till noon-ish.  His 2nd nap was between 3 and 3:30pm for about an hour or so.

NOW he goes down at 12:30 just after lunch.  Today he woke after only 1.25 hrs, so I made him go back to sleep .. pat/shuh (PU/PD stimulates him way too much for naps) and he ended up getting about 2.25 hrs of sleep. 

Hopefully he keeps waking up between 7:30 and 8 am.

Thought you'd all like to know.

Beth

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

Thanks Beth - that's great to know! My dd is almost the same age as Hunter and still takes 2 naps.  But she's starting daycare next week and I know they plan to gradually move her to one afternoon nap.  Very reassuring to hear that it's working for Hunter!

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

:lol:

Just to update you all ...

He woke this am at about 5:30 ish, but I got him back to sleep again.  He didn't wake again until 7:30  woo hoo.  I put him down this afternoon shortly after lunch, as he was drooping over his fruit  :roll:  :lol:

Hopefully he sleeps 2.5 hrs or so today.

More later
Beth

[Laura~Cooper's Mom]

The same thing is happening with Cooper.  It is so nice to have a 2 1/2 hour nap in the middle of the day (12:00-2:00) give or take 30 minutes and he has been (knock wood) sleeping through the night with no wakings or only one waking since we started.  He did the same thing and fought his pm nap for a while and I just gradually extended his morning and here we are.

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi There,
Would you ladies mind posting what your new daily routine is like? DD is still on 2 naps but has been changing them a lot over the last few weeks so think we might be on the way soon, well in the next few weeks or so.
Many Thanks,
Fiona

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Here's Hunter's new schedule.  He never adapted to EASY, so I adapted it to him ... lol.  I extedned his am wake time to 5 hrs or so rather than just drop either the am or pm nap.  Seems to be going well.

7:30 am     wake up and out of bed
8 am          breakfast - 5tbsp baby cereal, then cheerios to keep him
                 happy
10 am        sometimes toast with us, and 6 oz bottle formula
12 pm        light lunch ... today cut up pears with cheerios (definately
                 gets enough fibre)
12:30         4-6 oz formula and Nap
2-2:30        awake from nap, remainder of bottle, or snack (fruit, veg,
                  cheese whatever is handy)
5 pm          Supper, whatever we are having with fruit for dessert.  He
                 had Jello yesterday and loved it
7pm           5 tbsp baby cereal
8pm           8 oz formula and bed time.


He snacks through the day too, usually whenever I snack.

HTH
Beth

[Laura~Cooper's Mom]

Here is our routine as well

7 am wake and drink water and eat cheerios
7:30 breakfast--4-6 oz oatmeal or cereal & 4 oz yogurt
9:30 8 oz bottle (rarely finishes it all anymore)
11:30 lunch 8 oz solids and some finger foods
12:15 ish nap
2:30 ish up and at em
3:00 8 oz bottle
5:00 8-10 oz solids
6:30 bath/get ready for bed/wind down
7:00 in bed

Hope this helps.  It is really (knock wood) working well.

[griffmonkey]

I read this thread with great interest as your children are around my son's age and you are moving to one nap.  I can't tell if I need to do the same.  After you read all this, you'll probably say it is obvious.  However, there are so many issues going on (new sitter, just started crawling last few weeks, sick this week) that it is hard to tell.

The last few days, my almost 11 month old son has played/fussed a little through(in his crib) what used to be his morning nap.  He has been sick with a cold this week and is out of his normal routine of waking at 6:15 to go to Grandad's for the day while I work. I've let him sleep until he wakes naturally (around 7:15)

Just last week he was sleeping 2-2.5  hours at naptime 9-11:30 and 2:00-4:00 or so.  This is after long months of barely hour long naps at the previous baby sitter. Last Friday, he took two 3 hour naps!!! NEVER before has he slept that long during the day.  He has since birth fought sleep.  He has been sleeping through the night quite well though, for about 5 months.

Any suggestions? 

Thanks so much! 

Beth

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Hi Beth (I like your name!! :wink: )

I would continue with the 2 naps until he refuses to sleep at all for one of them.  He seems content with them, and with just gettingover a cold, I wouldn't change anything until he's really well anyways. 

With Hunter, his morning naps were always great 2-3 hrs worth, however, his afternoon naps, on hindsight, were getting shorter and shorter until he finally refused.

We're going strong though with the one nap, and he's really ready for it when 12:15 comes around.  Yesterday he woke after 1.5 hrs, but I got him back to sleep and he slept for another hr, for a grand total of 2.5 hrs ... yay!

HTH
Beth 

[Laura~Cooper's Mom]

Cooper slept for 3 hours yesterday and only 1 hour today for his nap.  I can't figure him out.  Yesterday he napped 2 times and today only once.  I am now questioning my decision to go to one nap.  BUT--since he has been taking only one nap he has slept all night.  Is it just a coincidence?  I'm so confused.

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Laura,
Hunter is wishy washy too from day to day.  His night sleeps, for the most part, have been better with the one nap.  I read somewhere else on the board that it may take a while for them to get used to it.  I say keep with it and see how it goes.   :wink: 

HTH
Beth

[Laura~Cooper's Mom]

We are still keeping it up but you are right...he's so wishy washy.  One day he can make it till noon and others he is crying by 10.  It's a guessing game for sure.
How are things with your lo?

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Not bad all in all.  When I can get him to sleep longer than 1.5 hrs for the nap, he's great during the night.  Last night he was fantastic (his nap was 2.5 hrs    :shock: ), he woke for a diaper change at 6am (normal) and then slept for another hour afterwards!!

He's definately ready for this.  When he gets crabby during the day now, I know he needs something to eat or drink as per the old schedule.

He's growing up so fast, and I start a new job on Thursday (fingers crossed) if the training all goes well on Tues and Wed, so I'm glad that I have more time with him right now.

have fun with the change, they're only young once as a friend reminded me today
Beth

[MyBoySpence]

Thank you for posting your schedules ladies! I believe Spence may be going throught the same thing.....but he goes back and forth between the two so I am at a loss as to what the issue really is. I do know he just cut his two top middle teeth which I am sure disturbed his sleep a bit these last few days so I guess I will have to see if he levels out again. 

[griffmonkey]

Thanks, Beth for your tips.  I like your name too!  Griffin slept for 3 hours during his one nap yesterday, and did fine at bedtime - he went a little early and was very tired. 

Today, he awoke at 6 (an hour earlier than usual on weekends - I wake him at 6:15 during the week) and talked/cooed/dozed for an hour before I got him up.  He acted sleepy about 8:30 (his usual naptime is around 9).  He only slept for about 30 minutes, and I waited to see if he would go back to sleep.  He didn't. 

He stayed up until about 11:00 and slept until 1:30.  He was okay until about 4:30 and started getting really cranky - I put him down again, and no sleep!  I left him until about 5:15 and then got him up - afraid a nap would mess up his nightime sleep. He stayed cranky until we put him to bed after our routine.  He was so tired! He is normally not a cranky baby - but so funny because he was making this "EEEE"  sound like Mini Me from the  Austin Powers movies.

I hope this is not a transition to one nap - his signals are so few. By the time he rubs his eyes it is too late, and that is about all the signals he gives.  Thanks all for sharing and listening.

[Colleen]

Sorry for interrupting without any real advice (I fought B on the 2-to-1 nap issue for 2 months but don't remember the details, and G did it on his own at 10 mo) -- but I just had to say that I love your username Beth! Griffmonkey totally describes my DS2! :lol: I may just have to steal it as his new nickname! :lol:

[LisaM]

I am also struggling as to know what to do for the best.  DD is 16 months old so is really at the point where she should take one nap but has been taking long naps twice a day.  I started waking her after an hour for each nap as she started night wakings and that seems to have helped with that.  The problem is she sleeps about 11 hrs at night so if bedtime is 7pm ish she is awake by 6 - this for her normally means a nap about 9ish (gets really cranky).  What I am worried about is if I put her down for nap later in morning how will she make it til bedtime, even if I make it 6pm bedtime she would struggle to make it to this if she woke from her nap any time earlier than about 2pm.  Also if I give her an earlier bedtime she might start waking at 5am after 11 hrs sleep or have you noticed any improvement on that if only taking one nap a day?  Very confused, have held off for a long time with this as she seemed really content with the two naps but has had about 3-4 days this week of taking ages to go to sleep for pm nap (although has always gone in the end and mostly still needed to be woken up after an hour).  Today she went for her nap at 10am (was too tired really and cried a bit for a few minutes).  Now I don't know whether to let her sleep for as long as she wants and just see how bedtime goes or whether to wake after an hour as normal!!  I hate dropping naps - we have always had a struggle with it as she is such a grump without enough sleep!  Good luck to you all as well.

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

- but so funny because he was making this "EEEE"  sound like Mini Me from the  Austin Powers movies.

LMAO, thanks for the giggle!  I can just imagine him.

Beth

[AlexandraW]

My son is ALSO redusing to take his second nap. His morning on comes about 4 hours after he wakes (6:30am). But just this week he started fighting that second nap like crazy. Twice he didn't sleep at all until bedtime, just got more and more angry as I tried to get him to sleep. He just started walking about 2 weeks ago, so I thought that might be it... but i have no idea. I don't want to transition him to 1 nap, if it's just the walking that is messing him up. Isn't it a bit early to move to one nap? His AM nap is 1.5 hours and afternoon was about 40-50 minutes.

[Portia]

Hi everyone,

So glad my DH found this thread today, the posted schedules are helping me formulate a plan for my DS, whose birthday happens to be the same as Beth's Hunter...!

Andrew's been refusing to nap in the PM for a couple weeks now, but I've been faithfully trying everyday...This morning he seemed very tired, so I went to put him down earlier than normal in the AM & he refused...Then I decided to relax a little & see how long he would stay up w/o getting cranky, ran a couple errands, got home & fed him lunch & BF, he went down like a DREAM just after 1:00...I probably could've had success putting him down a little earlier, but needed to get lunch in beforehand...He woke after 1 sleep cycle, but I did PD 1-2x & he was back to sleep (almost 2 hours in total)...!

We also just transitioned from 4 "milk" feeds to 3, so there's been a lot of change in the last week...Thought it was too early to go down to just 1 nap, but if he's sleeping better I'll know it's the right thing to do...

Thanks again for sharing your experiences & schedules, wish you all the best...

  Portia

PS: Would be fun to keep in touch since our children are so close in age...

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Portia:

That's hillarius that our son's birthdays are the same day!     You do realize that their 2nd b-day is on a Friday, don't you??

Keep up the hard work
and good luck

[Portia]

Hi Beth & others,

Yeah, Friday the 13th for a 2nd birthday seems double scary...!  Hahahahaha...!

Update:

Andrew woke up quite early yesterday 5:15am then 6+am & this morning @ 6am, so he's needed an AM nap but still fights a PM nap...Guess we'll continue taking it one day at a time until the new schedule falls into place more naturally...Any special tricks for helping him cope w/ tiredness in the meantime...?

Have a great weekend all...!

  Portia

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Just one ... distraction via Cheerios ... worked wonders with Hunter

[Portia]

Thats great, Andrew LOVES Cheerios...!  He seems more needy when he's tired, so I make sure to spend lots of 1-on-1 time with him (extra snuggles too)...

He actually had a PM nap (short lived as it was) for the first time in a while today...One day at a time, my new mantra...

Have a great weekend...!

  Portia

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Congrats on the PM nap ... Hunter barely napped today ... out shopping and too much to see!!!

Thanks and have a great weekend youself too  :lol:   

[kim&savannah]

For those of you who are questioning whether you should be switching to one nap, I would be careful assuming that one or two bad nap days means they are ready.  I mean, if you want to, try the switch, but a lot of kids aren't ready until they are much older.  And it can be hard when they get so inconsistant.  We started to switch a couple weeks ago when dd was wanting to stay up longer, but now are back to two good naps since she is exhausted by 9 am.  Apparently the change in naps wasn't a permanent one.    What is?    I think its really normal for them to go back and forth for awhile before they are really ready, so you can either just pick one and try to stick with it, or go day by day and read their signals and do what seems to be working for that week   Wouldn't it be nice if these lo's came with instruction manauls for each stage?

~Kim

[Lilah'sMommy]

Lilah also sometimes totally skips her PM nap.  Like today, and Monday also.  But she has a special tactic.  She poops!  She'll be talking to herself for the longest time, and when I finally go in to see what in the heck is going on, guess what?  After the diaper change, there is just no getting her down most of the time.  Then she's totally cranky by 5:30.  But other days, she goes down just fine for both naps.  And she's definitely not ready to hold out till noon, because she's completely zonked by 9:30.  So yes, we just have to take it one day at a time!

[lil'monkey]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one going bonkers over whether or not dd needs one nap.  Kim is so right!  i wish that babies come with instruction manuals.  I guess we just have to take one day at a time now.   :roll:  Here's hoping that this phase will be short lived!