Dropping nap at 10 months

[Samanthas mum]

I have read some of the posts on this forum re: 2 to 1 nap and how much sleep a baby needs at various ages and it had all been really helpful but I am still questioning exactly what I should do  :oops:

My dd is only just over 10 months old and has just started fussing about her afternoon nap - this afternoon she battled me all the way and won in the end!

I thought 10 months was way too early to drop a nap but it would appear from some of the posts that some babies are ready at this age. I know all babies are different but I thought it would be at least a year before we would be looking at dropping a nap.

Anyway the upshot is that I can't decide whether to slowly move her morning nap from 9:30/10am to later in the day or whether to wake her early from her morning nap so that she will want another one in the afternoon. The latter sounds a bit cruel to me but then that's maybe just because I hate waking a sleeping baby  :wink:

Her morning naps have slowly become longer - now more often than not they are 2 hours - as she seems to be elongating her morning nap on her own - maybe I should leave her be and just move it to later in the day.

Any advice?

Hope my ramblings make sense!

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Hi Sam's mom:

Personally I moved the am nap to noon-ish, and dropped the afternoon nap altogether.  However, some moms here have kept the am nap and slowly moved it into the pm, and dropped the afternoon nap.  It really is up to your child.  My reccomendation is, no matter which way you do it, keep a large supply of cheerios (or other addictive finger food) handy for your own sanity  :wink: 

[Meg's Mom]

I think 10mos is too young, but it is up to you...do you want to go to one nap?

If not i can help you with some ideas on how to hold off for a bit longer.

I'll check back.

[Samismum]

hello,,,

my ds went to 1 nap at 11mths...it took him about 10days to adjust....i gave him a snack at his normal nap time (which seemed to give him energy ) and then went all out entertaining him.I did avoid erands that involved the buggy or car during this time as he would fall asleep!!!

so...i didnt do it gradually...i think i went about 4-4.5hrs from wake time...we had a few rough days but after the 1 nap really worked for him...he also really fought pm nap..

he is now 14mths and goes 5.5hrs wake time before nap

[Samanthas mum]

Thanks for all your replies.

Ideally I would like her to keep having 2 naps for a little longer as I feel it is a little too early as well - having said that I don't want to battle against her natural inclinations if she is indeed ready to go to 1!!!

Meg's mum - it would be nice to have some tips on how to keep the 2 naps for a little longer so I can give that a bash before moving if necessary to 1 nap.

Hunter Owens mum - I will remember the tip regarding finger food for when the time comes  :lol:

[Meg's Mom]

Okay, give me a breakdown of all sleep.

Bedtime ________

Awake _________

1st nap @ _________ for ________ long

2nd nap @_________ for ________ long

[Samanthas mum]

Bedtime is 7/7:30 depending on when she wakes from her afternoon nap

Awake - used to be 7am sometimes even 7:30 - now it is more like 6:30/7am

1st nap normally around 10am (3 hrs after waking) can be anything from 1.25 hours to 2 hours - more recently it has been 2 hours

2nd nap normally around 2:30/3pm (3 hours or a little longer after last nap). This used to be about 1 - 1.5 hours recently however has either refused or only done 30/40mins especially if she has had 2 hours in the morning.

I did start to wonder whether she was waking earlier in the morning because she was getting too much sleep during the day but 3 hours is about the average for babies her age I believe?

It could however be down to a growth spurt as she has the appetite of a horse at the moment - is this common around 10 months?

Thanks for your help

[Meg's Mom]

We had nap trouble at 10mos also, so maybe it is a developmental thing and the start of the 1 nap transition.  But i was able to slow that down by:
ensuring night sleep = 11.5
AM nap = no more then 1.5
PM nap = "

So for your LO, i would shave 15min off that am nap every couple days until you either get to 1.5hr and/or the pm nap comes back (eg: she stops fighting you.   If that doesn't work after a week, i would start cutting the am nap again until you get to 1hr and/or pm comes back.

Hope that helps...below are some notes i took recently when reading on naps for this age -
Am nap s/b 1.5hr for 9mos and 1hr for 12mos
If he takes a longer nap and then has trouble sleeping in for pm nap knock off 15 – 30 mins from am nap.
Pm nap is more important and should be longer then am since this is the one they will keep.
Pm nap starts around 3hrs after am ends and should be 1.5hrs
1 nap comes around 15-18 mos – don’t attempt too early and don’t let them sleep too long in the am.

[Samanthas mum]

That's great, thanks for the advice.

I will start tomorrow and see how we go.

Fingers crossed!

[bheemeryck]

Hi Sam's Mum,
Just curious to see how you made out, we're going through exactly the same thing right now and I'm debating about if we should try and stretch out 2 naps for awhile longer or not- what did you guys decide?

[Samanthas mum]

Hi,

I went the route of keeping 2 naps and that is what we still have.

The reason for this is partly a combination of dd settling back down to 2 naps and me waking her up after 1.5 hours in the morning if she was still asleep.

I think they really still need 2 naps at this age and in addition as Meg's mom said the pm nap is the more important one and the one you ultimately want to keep so I didn't want to continue down the road of letting her get into a routine of a long morning nap and no or little afternoon nap.

I would give keeping 2 naps a go and see how you get on. I had decided that if it became a real struggle then I would just let things run as natural a course as possible and work on getting the 1 nap to be in the pm. Some babies are just ready earlier than others to go down to 1.

HTH