changing to one nap

[orlasmom]

Hi,
We've been changing Orla's routine to just one nap a day for the last week. It's going ok but I would love some advice. She 12.5 months old.

Firstly, should I give her lunch before or after her nap - I've been giving it before and she's been eating fine but she's tired, would it be better to wait til after her nap? but I don't want her waking early from her nap fom hunger.
My second question is, what do I do if she wakes early from her nap?, yesterday she slept for just under an hour and refused to go back to sleep, usually shushing (sometimes patting or back rubbing) will get her back but yesterday she got hysterical and would not go back to sleep so I had to get her up, I put her in the buggy and went for a walk and she went back to sleep. I really don't want this to become a habbit but she needs more than an hour's sleep.

Her new routine is(roughly):
7.30ish wake and plays in cot half an hour (can sleep til 8 sometimes)
8 bottle
8.45 breakfast 
12.15 - 12.30 lunch
1.00  nap - (hopefully for 2 hours)
3 bottle
5.30 tea
7.30 bath then bottle
8 asleep

Any comments or advice would be great - I'd love to hear some advice on how best to do this.
Thanks!
L

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi there -

I'm going to pop this over to toddler sleep so you will get a more age-appropriate audience 

[Layla]

Hi L, yes she does need more than 1hr.

Have you tried giving her 2 naps? Shortening the morning nap say to 45mins & giving her a longer afternoon nap? I do think that at 12months they still can't manage 5hrs of A time & it sounds like she is overtired if she couldn't return back to sleep on her own. I would recommend something like this for a few weeks instead:

7.30ish - wakes
10.30-11:15 - morning nap
2.30-4pm - afternoon nap
7.30ish - bedtime

What do you think?

[orlasmom]

thanks for the reply - the routine you suggest is very similar to what she was doing until recently. We decided to change from this because she was waking early in the morning (6.15/6.30) and also was having trouble settling at bedtime so we thought she's ready for one nap.
She's been doing ok for the last few days, her nap has been at least 1.5 hours, which I know is still too short but I'm hoping it will lengthen. She's been having two naps some days also, when she seems tired, I expect the transition to one nap to take some time.
thanks again, L

[legend_018]

Well my LO has been on one nap for quite awhile. I started going toward one nap before she turned one. It was just becoming very very stressful on all of us. She is almost 16 months old now.  I don't think I'm the norm though.  I did go through some hard times, but at this point I can't turn back to 2 naps, although it has been suggested and I have thought about it when I've ran into problems.

My biggest problem WAS she'd wake early like 5:30/6:00am and would have to be put down for her ONE nap early.  Especially at that point...she couldn't stay up for 5 full hours before needing a nap. Than she'd have a LONG long afternoon and get all over tired. But now, she tends to wake up "hopefully" at around 6:30/7am. The magic NUMber for me is 5 hours. She stays up for 5 hours now and it's nap time. She takes a FULL 2 hour nap, sometimes a tad bit longer. sometimes I have to wake her up so it doesn't interfere with night time. Her nap now is approximately from NOON to 2PM. It's seems to be working out so far. Her eating schedule is a little weird though. I think this stems from her being a snacker right from the beginning when she was on bottles. Her schedule is like this.

breakfast #1: 6:30/7:00am plus 4 oz milk sippy
breakfast #2/Fruit Snacks: Between 9:30 and 10:30 usually. Plus 4 oz milk sippy
Nap NOON - 2PM. Usually putting her into crib around 11:30am ish
2:30: some kind of lunch or snacks
Between 5 and 6pm: Some kind of supper and than 5 oz milk sippy
BIG 8-11 oz sippy usually in 2 sessions before bed

[Layla]

Great to hear she is sleeping better. If she is waking up earlier & taking longer to fall asleep, you could try & shorten the morning nap even further to say 30mins, the pm nap bumped up again & she should be ok for bedtime. So something like this:

7.30 - wakes
10.30-11am - morning nap
2-3.30 - afternoon nap
7.30ish - bedtime

Alternating between 1 & 2 naps during the transition is very common. See how she is in the morning. The wake up hour will also change until she is on 1 solid nap. I have to say though that 1.5hrs is not short. I "know" the ideal is 2 & sometimes maybe even more but alot of toddlers av about 1.5-2hrs & do 11hrs at night. They only need about 13hrs all up so don't be dissapointed. We also had av 1.5hr nap (sometimes even 1hr) & then it lengthened to 2hrs (it was only 2.5hrs a handful of times) & then went back to 1.5hrs around age 2.

Sounds like she's doing great!!!
Layla

[legend_018]

oh and I remember the magic number at one time for me was either 4 or 4 1/2 hours. I have definetely gone through some tough times transitioning over to 1 nap. Especially with her always being a "early waker" and starting it earlier than the norm. It's just been best all around for the entire family though. But I've gone though hard times such as overtiredness, not letting me leave the room, taking a VERY long time to fall asleep. AT night, I still deal with taking a long time to fall asleep at times. Recently, we went through a spell where I was putting her into bed at say 7:00pm and it was taking her until almost 9pm to fall asleep. Lately, things have been working out fairly well again. I think the nap moving up from noon to 2pm has helped for sure.