one morning nap only

[MomToMatthew]

Does anyone know if it is common for a baby going through the 2 to 1 nap switch to drop the afternoon nap and keep the morning nap? My son is 1yr 4 months, and he is clearly ready for a nap in the morning about 3.5 hours after he wakes up. He'll sleep at least 1.5 hours, usually 2. But then he FIGHTS an afternoon nap. He's not really ready to take an afternoon nap until 4 or 5pm, but that is way too late because if I put him down then he'll sleep at least and hour and a half and not be ready for bed until 9.He usually sleeps about 11 hours at night. My pediatrician said the common thing is for them to fight the early nap and push it off until later. Has anyone had experience with the child still needing the early nap and not the late one?

[vadensmommy]

No experience whatsoever, as dd is 6mo, so this may only be worth a grain of salt (if that hehe).  What about limiting that AM nap, in hopes of getting a better pm nap?

[Shdef]

That's exactly what DS did at that age. I'd recommend a very slow transition. We didn't transition slow enough with the result that the one nap he had was and is, short.

[MomToMatthew]

That's exactly what DS did at that age. I'd recommend a very slow transition.

How would you recommend transitioning?  What would it look like?

[Brandonsmom]

We also had to transition slowly because our LO was ready for a nap at 11am after waking up at 8am. I signed him up for daycare twice a week when he was about your LO's age. The hours were from 9-1pm so I wanted to push that nap time back. I did it in 30 min. increments for about 5 days until I got it to 1 pm. During those days of transition when he was pretty sleepy I would let him do something low key to get those extra 30 min. in before naptime began. It worked for us pretty well.

[Shdef]

Slow transition means that the morning nap... say you put him down at 10 am...

Day 1: 10:10 am
Day 3: 10: 15 am
Day 5: 10: 20

and so on... The second A-time they can usually stay awake longer and happier, so it won't be THAT hard if  done slowly... after a few weeks it could look like this:

7 am wake up
8 am brekkie
9.30 am very small snack
11.30 am lunch
12 pm nap
2 pm awake
3 pm snack
6 pm dinner
bedtime routine
7 pm sleep

[traineeparent]

Hi there

I've had exactly that same problem. She would still go down for the AM nap but then fight the PM nap.  And that's after going down fine for both naps for several months.

I've been advised to cut short the AM nap to one hour then you should get a PM nap happening. If that doesn't work then try 45 mins, 30 mins, 20 mins etc.

If you try to just move the AM nap later, it might work, but they could also end up very overtired because it'll be a long time from that nap till bedtime even if you bring it forward.

I'm in the middle of this process and it's not easy!!!

See my post (had other issues as well):
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=94867.0

This is also very useful :

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0

Plus there's a 2-1 nap support thread

HTH

[Shellha]

My DS is 14mo and has been on one nap for about 1 mth with great success. We didn't transition but just went for it and we haven't looked back ( he resisted naps both morning and afternoon for a few days as a indicator) . It just depends on the child I think, although that said my DS used to go down after 2.5hrs A time before we switched and now goes 8-12.30 without a problem (he is ready for a nap by that tiem tho). We do lunch at 12 and then straight to bed. We have gone to 1 nap of 2.5hrs, whereas we used to have 2 naps totalling the same amount of sleep.

You might just be surprised if you push your LO that he can go till midday without spending days/months transtioning.

[Layla]

At 16 months, most toddlers can handle more than 3.5hrs A time. So I agree with Steffi in that you should start adding 10-15mins to his morning A time until that nap is close to noon & he is not awake for such a ling time before bedtime & not getting overtired. I don't think you should do the short morning nap/long pm nap. I think its better to push the nap.

Most do 11hrs at night & 2hr nap so ultimately your day would be something like this:

7am (if he wakes at 7, that is)
12-12.30 - nap
2-2.30pm - nap ends
7-7.30pm - bedtime

The av A times for toddlers is 5-5.5hrs.

hth
Layla