16 mo transitioning to 1 nap but sleeping less and less!

[Hadley12]

Hello-

I have a spirited 16 mo toddler who I think is trying to go to one nap...she's been refusing her afternoon nap for 2 weeks. She sleeps 11 hours at night and used to take 2, 1.5 hour naps during the day. I have been pushing her AM nap later and later...we're now at about 11:45. The problem is that she's taking shorter and shorter naps everyday. We started about 10 days ago and she would sleep 2.5 hours. We're now at 45 minutes!! She's still in a generally good mood but can be hard to handle around dinner time with the lack of sleep. Even more of a mystery is that no matter what time we put her in her crib she won't go down at night until 7:45 and she's up at 6:45 every morning on the dot.
Did we make the transition too early? Will she eventually start sleeping longer? I just know my child and 11.75 hours a day is just not enough.
Thanks!!
Caitlin

[KathrynK]

Hi Caitlin
to go from 2 1.5 hour naps to 1 nap is a heck of a jump for a lo- from roughly 3hrs A time to 5/6 hours in one go. The short nap is probably due to being overtired.
We're currently transitioning from 2 naps to 1 also. There's a bunch of us on the 2-1 Nap thread at the top of this board- come & join is! Most of us there have started by cutting down the morning nap, ranging from 20-45 minutes, to ensure a good afternoon nap. Those who have started trying 1 nap a day are finding that their lo's can handle 1 nap for maybe 2-3 days, then they need a 2-nap day to catch up on some sleep.
It seems your dd is definitely ready to start the transition, but maybe it needs to be more gradual for her.
hope this helps
kathryn

[Hadley12]

thank you so much for your reply. it hadn't even occured to me to shorten the am nap in order to get the m nap to go longer. her AM nap has always been the good one so I was trying to hold onto that one and just make it later. if i can get her to go for a short AM nap and a long PM nap do I start shifting the PM nap earlier and eventually do away with the short AM? who knew this could be so stressful!!??

[KathrynK]

if i can get her to go for a short AM nap and a long PM nap do I start shifting the PM nap earlier and eventually do away with the short AM

That's pretty much the theory. Some choose to hang on to the long AM nap and push it later whilst getting lo to take an afternoon catnap. I think the reason many choose the other way, is that this way you run the risk of lo refusing the catnap as they are still too rested from the long AM nap, and then they have to last from the morning until bedtime without a nap.
Stressful? You just wait!  Come join us on the 2-1 nap transition thread