anyone want to chat about the 2-1 nap switch?

[Gigismom]

nourishdesoul-i am so sorry you are having such a bad time.  have you tried just going in to his room and laying on the floor? that was you are there with him, but (hopefully) not creating a prop because you are not interacting with him at all?  so far we have found this to be the best method with gianna (and actually the easiest for us because we just lay there...sometimes i even fall asleep)

[Mom2X&F&V]

Hi!!! I am transitioning to one nap. She already sleeps from 11 30 or 12 until sometimes 1 or 1 30. Sometimes she sleeps 1.5 hours, and sometimes 1.45. Why canīt she sleep more than that? I mean she is having almost 5 hours of A time!!!!
 My question is when she sleeps like yesterday from 12 to 1:30 what do you do if she is tired and cannot hold herself until 7 pm when it is her bedtime? Do you put her to do a catnap? Any suggestions? Thanks.

[alyssa1]

Hi there,
nourishdesoul - I'm so sorry that you are having such a hard time.  I know what it's like when they won't get themselves to sleep.  Sorry to ask again (if I already did) but, what is his sleep routine?  Do you hold him until he falls asleep, then lay him down??  I have heard of the techinique of staying/laying on the floor beside their crib until they get to sleep - I haven't tried it myself but this might work?  What would happen if you tried the wi/wo - this is what we used and now it works great!  We do diaper change/books in room/say night night/make room dark/lay him down and leave the room - we only go back in if he needs us (hard cry) but we usually give him time to settle himself down.  Would it help if you stayed in the room with him - put your hand on his back then slowly worked your way out??  I'm so sorry I don't have many suggestions.

Ximena - I would keep the bedtime consistent unless she is really really tired - and if she is, just put her to bed a little early.  She might still sleep to her usual wake-up time.  Sometimes they just need that early bedtime during the transition.  We are not able to put our son down early  because he will only sleep 11 hours a night so we try to keep him up till 7pm.  If she will sleep to her usual then put her down early.

[Gigismom]

mom2ximena-ditto what alyssa said about the bedtime.  it is a rough transition at first, but it should (hopefully) get easier.  we had to put our dd to bed just a little bit earlier (maybe 15-20 mins) for a few days.  (we tried putting her down an hour earlier than usual and she totally freaked!)

[micah'smom]

hi everyone,

lol at the empty ketchup bottle!! i guess fostering their independence is more important than having a clean kitchen. altho a clean kitchen would be nice one of these days.

i'm sorry i haven't replied yet. after posting about how ds would take an early am nap and no pm nap, he took TWO naps of TWO HOURS EACH for several days. he must have been so pooped from the one-nap days. i had to wake him up at 5:30 and he'd still zonk out at 7pm.

well that was last week, so i guess this week is the one-nap thing again. he absolutely cannot stay up past 10am, wakes at noon sharp, and won't go down for another nap. i hear him in his crib talking and groaning, and he'll be completely quiet for about 15 minutes, then groan again. so maybe he's in and out of consciousness? better that than out playing and getting overstimulated i guess.

for us, earlier bedtimes have worked like a charm. but only b.c i used that in the past with his other nap transitions.

how many days does it take to keep pushing the am nap back? what's the "ideal" time for a nap if ds' wake up time is 7am or 7:30?

this may be a little off topic, but how are you all feeding your los' in the afternoon? I'm almost positive that ds won't take a second nap b/c he's so hungry. he won't sit still long enough for lunch and he's burning calories fast. i feed him while he's playing but it's only a little here and there.

[Gigismom]

selena-well, there aren't really any hard and fast rules as to how many days it takes to push back the am nap.  i guess it depends on what you think your lo can handle.  just try pushing it back as much as you can each day.  i would always take my dd outside when we were trying to get her to stay up longer because she loves going outside and would forget she was tired.  if he's waking at 7ish, i'd say aim for 11:30-12 for his nap.  then you can move it back even more in a few months.  as for the eating...my dd eats lunch at 11:30 right before her nap.  then she has a snack after her nap.  then dinner at 5 or 5:30. 

[alyssa1]

Selena - we're the same.  Our lo will wake 6-6:30am and have the 1 nap at 11:30ish - right before his nap we give him his lunch and a bottle.  When he wakes we give him little snacks here and there (crackers/fruit/cookie) whatever he will take to hold him off until dinner.  If he doesn't get a great nap then the afternoon we try to give him a cat-nap (20min.) in the car/stroller - but this usually doesn't happen, he usually just goes to bed at 7pm.  If you're finding your lo can't make it past 10am for that nap just push it 15min. every couple days - and if it's 2hours plus, I wouldn't worry about your lo not getting that afternoon nap cause 2 hours is great (I pray for that but never get it!) Good luck!

[*Natasha*]

Ok i have been following this post since it started knowing we would be doing the transition over the next few months i always knew it would be by the time she was 12months as she did the transition from 3-2naps at 5months with no problems over 3-4days. A bit of background from 5.5-8months my DD was sleeping 12hrs at night 7-7 and 1x1.5-2hrs AM and 1.5hrs PM. Then at 8-9months she got 4 teeth, started crawling and pulling herself up and cruising and got her first cold. So between this time we started with 6/6.15am wake up and short naps  Then at 9months she went to doing 7.30pm-7/7.15am having a decent AM nap 99% of the time (1.5hrs on average) but still only 45mins PM. However she is now fussing with her PM nap and only doing 30mins (usually asleep within 5-10mins). If i limit he her AM nap she is very cranky and will generally still only do a short PM nap (sometimes 1.15hrs never longer than this). I can't put her down later than 3pm for her PM nap as and let her sleep longer than 4.15pm otherwise it interfers with bedtime.
So anyway did anyone else go through this before they did the transition is she to young for 1 nap? She is 10months in a few days and i though if i try the tranistion slowly over the next month.
Sorry for the long post hope someone can give me some advice 

[Mom2X&F&V]

That is exactly the way Ximena was just before the transition. But just sfter that routine (long am nap and short pm nap or refusing) she did 45 min AM nap and 30 min PM nap. That was all her 11th month, over and over again until finally last week we made the transition. I will write more tomorrow, but I will try extending her A time for the morning every week 15 or 20 min. Her afternoon nap keep it the same it doesnīt matter it is short. Just try. I f not just continue working with a long am nap and a short pm until she definetely tells you it is time for the transition.
Seems like you were talking of my dd as she was just the same!!!

[Gigismom]

natasha-if it were me, i'd just keep putting her down for both naps until she finally flat out refuses the second nap.  if she is willing to take it, even for only 30 mins, that is great.  i think a short nap is more preferable than trying to transition her maybe too early and end up with a super cranky baby on your hands.  just go with her cues like you are doing now.  keep giving her the naps til she says no more.

[*Natasha*]

Thank you so much Lindsey for your advice. I totally agree and will perservere with the PM nap for as long as i can. I was hoping to wait at least until she was 11months until we did the transition. 

[mom2william]

Hi all,

I am really frustrated with naps right now!!!!  I haven't posted in a while still trying to figure things out.  I flip flop between trying to push my DS in the AM to get him to even 10:30 or some days I've limited his AM nap to even 45 min. but the PM nap is a no go still.  Urgh!  He wakes around 6:15ish usually so gets really tired in the AM.  When I have kept him up 'til 10:30-11:00am (usually naptime around 9:30am) he will only sleep like an hour 15min. and wakes up distressed and still tired.  He doesn't fall back asleep so I get him up and we go on with our day.  I really don't want him napping past 3:00pm or so because I want him to go to bed early since he wakes so early.  So, I usually just put him to bed extra early and he accepts this and sleeps 'til usual morning time. 

My question is: 

- Is it even worth my time to let him have an AM catnap?  Should I just slowly keep trying to push him in the AM???

I am just worried about him being overtired but I've read this is a hard transition and they do get overtired and that's just the nature of the beast. 

Any tips?

Suzanne
_____________
William born 3/23/05 

[Paulsmama]

Hi, Paul is 15 mos and we have been on 1 nap for about 6 weeks.  Just wanted to share a couple of our experiences in case it helps anyone, we have had so much help from this site!  Paul does roughly 6:30/7 wake, 11:30/12 nap 2.5-3 hrs, 7:30ish asleep.  Be warned we still have nightwakings but I think those are due to teething/AP.

Before this we were struggling with the afternoon nap even after limiting the am nap.  During the 6 weeks we had 3 attempted 2-nap days when he woke before 6 am (2 in the first couple of weeks, 1 more recently).  Frankly those were worse than the 1-nap days, most recently he was even sick and woke at 5:45, took a 45 min nap at 9 am and then only a 20 min nap at 2 pm.  I think loving routine, at some point he decided it was just going to be one nap no matter how early.

The first couple of weeks were the worst, he was so tired in the morning.  He had been doing about 3/3.25 hrs A time, but with the nightwakings he was starting the day closer to 7:30 so we went straight to nap at 11/11:30.  At this time I'd still offer a nap at 9:30 but he'd refuse since he'd only been up 2 hrs.  We stretched him out by taking LONG walks in the stroller (he won't sleep there or in the car) and giving him a small snack to munch on while we walked.  He got half a lunch right before his nap and half when he woke up.

After a couple of weeks and 2 bad 2-nap days, I just figured we'd push through to 1 nap even with an early start time.  So instead of offering a nap, we'd just have quiet time around 9, reading books or dozing if he needed it, heading out for our walk/snack around 9:30.  After another week or so, our walk involved a stop at the playground where he would get out and play a bit -- playtime is getting longer now.

When we first started, his nap length was erratic, 1.5-2.5 hrs.  If he woke at 1.25 hrs usually I could help him get back to sleep if I got there fast enough.  After a couple of weeks, his naps lengthened to 1.75-3 hrs (again, assisted about half the time).  Now he is starting the day at 6:30/7 instead of 7/7:30 but his naps have been on the long side.  He has lunch right before his nap, if he is too tired to eat much before he goes down he just has a bigger snack when he gets up.

OK, hope this helps someone at least a little.  Anyone want to help us solve our nightwakings  ?

[mom2william]

Hi Cynthia!

Thanks A LOT for the tips!  I think that I will do what you've done in the AM and that is take a long walk.  He doesn't sleep, either, in the stroller but will kind of moan and act sleepy so he is "resting".  He will sleep in the car but I just don't want to do that because it can take him sometimes up to 30 min. to go to sleep in the car and then will wake up when the car stops.  So, I will soldier on and move him to one nap.  Because by limiting his AM nap, he's up way too long in the PM than he should be (because he refuses that PM nap!) and at least if I push him a bit in the AM he'll be starting the nap later in the day.  And I think I expect too much too soon about the nap length.  Hopefully it will lengthen with time.  Unfortunately, if he wakes prematurely, he's almost impossible to get back to sleep so I'll just hope the one nap will lengthen sooner than later. 

I saw on the toddler board your night waking issues!!  That must be so frustrating!  I know LOTS of other people have experienced this so maybe they can help.  Honestly, that is something William has rarely done so I have no advice for you.  I know, I shouldn't complain about naps when he sleeps so solidly at night! 

Happy sleeping to you! 

Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[squeaky's mum]

Hi There,

Just starting to think about making the switch from 2-1 naps. I was wondering why the theory is to move the am nap to the pm? DD currently naps at 915am (1h) and 115pm (1.5h) but is waking earlier and earlier in the morning (it was 5 this morning).

Having thought about this at some length (!) I would have thought it would involve less disruption to her routine to keep the pm nap and slowly drop the am one, bringing the pm nap earlier if necessary. I was planning to keep shortening dd's am nap until it was about 30 mins while bringing pm nap earlier and letting her sleep for longer, then trying to drop the am nap while being flexible with the pm nap.

However, I reckon there is probably a problem with this as most people seem to be doing the opposite, i.e. shortening the pm nap and pushing the am nap into the afternoon. So my question is, is there a reason why my idea of shortening the am nap etc. is a really bad one!?

Your experience will be really appreciated over here

Thanks

Claire