Transitioning from 2-1 naps

[peeta]

I have a 14 month daughter that seems to be transitioning down to two naps.  This causes many issues.

At day care they take the other children to school from 12:15-12:30 (more or less).  Typically Lauryn can make it until about 11:30 and then she needs to crash!!...this is obviously not going to work for daycare.  When she does this at home, she maybe sleeps for an hour and then needs a second nap around 3:30-4:00.  She'll typically sleep an hour...this of course means we end up keeping her up slightly (20 min) later-because of course she's not tired.

At day care last Monday Lauryn stayed up until 12:45 (but was a bear apparently ) then slept two hours, however when she got home she NEEDED a nap so at 4:30 I gave her 45 minutes and we put her to be about 20 minutes later. 

Some days she maintains her schedule-others, she's way off.  We wake her up every day between 7:15-7:45....on weekends we've tried to let her "sleep in", but it has no impact on her naps (they're wonky...but she still needs two)

She's sleeping a consistant 12 hours at night and not waking-of course now that I've said that...)  She is getting her top cainines in and is dealing with the effects of an earache that won't go away but...what do you think?

This is her schedule when she's "on"

Wake 7:15
Milk
Breakfast 8:15
Sleep 9:30-10:30
Lunch 11:30
Milk 1:30
Nap 1:45-3:30
Snack 3:45
Dinner 5:30
Sleep 7:30 (and she's usually out immediately!)

I am looking for any thoughts/suggestions

I should mention that we've tried taking her out etc...in the morning-but by 11:00-11:30 she just melts down.  Lauryn has always been a sleeper (she kept a 3rd nap until she was 8 or 9 months!)  Personally I don't think she's ready-but apparently she's telling me she is.

I'm lost!!!   

[Layla]

14 months is right about right to start making a transition to 1 nap. My dd was also "able" to stay awake till 11ish some days and others she needed 2 naps. For us we settled for a routine like this:

6-6.30am - wake
9am - nap 1 (wake her after 45mins)
1pm - nap 2 (usually 1.5hr nap)
6.30ish - bedtime

I had to wake her from the morning nap cause otherwise she would fight the afternoon one and then was up all afternoon and would be asleep by 5pm for the night. We of course had nightwakings and major overtiredness issues when she skipped the afternoon nap and it more or less stabalised when I came to the routine above.

If she was not tired enough to take the morning nap, I would keep her awake till 11ish and give her an early bedtime.  In your case (when she takes 1 nap at daycare) all you can do really is try and offer her a catnap to tie her over till bedtime OR bring the bedtime forward so that she is not exhausted by bedtime. On the weekends if she needs a morning and afternoon nap, let her have both. Tbh, its a case of 2 is too much and 1 is not enough. Until they get used to the longer A times, she may well be swtiching from 2-1-2-1 naps. For us the transition started around 12-13 months and ended around 15 months. I just followed her cues and gave her a morning nap when she seemed to have needed it. In general it all depended on how well she slept at night, how she acted in the morning and what time she woke up in the morning. If for example, she would wake at 5ish and not return back to sleep, that would most certainly be a 2-nap day.

Hth
Layla

[peeta]

Thanks, Last evening was not good-she had trouble going to sleep.  We're giving her two today and we'll see what happens this week. 

So the transition takes months eh?  Interesting *sigh*.  I like routine as miuch as she does!!

[becky1969]

I'm in the same boat as you - 1 not enough, 2 too many - and layla gave me same advice. It's now going gangbusters over here with 2 naps! So much better than 1, since he could never make it to bedtime (even if it was 6 pm!!), and we had NW as a consequence.

Now that I know he still needs 2 naps, I'm doing as Layla suggests and going to try limiting the AM nap. Sounds like on Daycare days, you'll just have to go with the flow, but you can follow her cues on the other days.

Hopefully soon our LOs will be totally ready to make the leap! Until then Good Luck to both of us! 

[peeta]

Thanks Becky, we tried that today and it seems to be working.  I'll have daycare keep her AM naps short too (it's a home day care so she'll have no problem with that).  BTW- I don't know if you remember me we met on FF and then moved onto the other board.  It's good to hear that things are going well with Owen.

[BabyBsMommy]

Peeta, there's a great thread called "anyone want to chat about the 2-1 nap switch" at the top of the Sleep Issues board - it is a very active thread and I've gotten a lot of great advice over there!  You should check it out!

[becky1969]

I do remember you now! I thought your name sounded familiar!  Have you joined the birth groups on BW? I haven't, b/c I felt like I was too much of a latecomer. Just wondered if you had, and found it helpful. I know I'm always combing the boards for posts of babes with similar ages. It's kind of nice to know what kind of minefields you'll be stepping into! 

[peeta]

Becky- No I haven't joined the birthclubs...actually I stuck with our group (after the FF debacle) when a lot of us moved.  I come here a lot to read the posts so when we have issues-usually someone else has something similar going on (sometimes it's you!)  A lot of people ask me for advice and I often refer them here as well.

BabyB'sMommy...thank you-I'll go there now.