Dropping to one nap | ExpatWoman.com
 

Dropping to one nap

2782
Posts
EW EXPERT
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 16:11

Last week my one year old refused to take his normal afternoon nap at 1pm (normally sleeps until 2:30), and we had to go to a birthday party so at 2pm I gave up trying to convince him (he was jumping up and down in his cot laughing at me :( ), he slept though that night for the first time in ages so I've been trialing him with just a morning nap all week with great results.

It seems a bit weird to keep the morning nap rather than the afternoon but he is really ready for his morning nap at 9am and now that he has dropped the afternoon one, sleeps up to 3 hours and copes quite well from then until bedtime. I guess the alternative would have been to cut back his morning nap to just a short one and keep the afternoon, but its never worked well before and I'm a bit scared to mess with things. Does anyone else's child have a similar pattern?

77
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 04 August 2011 - 00:38
My DD moved to 1 nap a day at 14m - up until then she was a hardcore napper - 9-10-10:30 (longer if I let her) then 1-2/230 and then bed at 7pm. She just decided one day that she didn't want to nap and crashed at 12:30 and slept until 3 - bedtime stayed at 7. Then I noticed she was getting sleepy around 11/11:30 which would then mean she'd skip lunch and wake up super grumpy so I started keeping her up til 12, then 12:10 etc over a week I pushed it to 1pm and she sleeps 1-3 now which is BLISS! If she is tired at 12:30 I'll let her sleep then. Best part is that the 6am wake up has now gone to 7! And occasionally, IF I'm really lucky 7:30!!!! When we are out and she looks like she is going to doze off in her pushchair around 11/11:30 I get her out and make her walk ... even a 15min nap in the car can mean NO afternoon nap and a horrendous afternoon ahead (and a super early bedtime!)
2782
Posts
EW EXPERT
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 17:54
Good, I think I'll try to do just that, gradually pushing it towards lunchtime. Since around 9 month his previous routine has been 2 naps, one from 9-10:30 and one from 1-2:30 but his night sleep has been off (more than usual) so I figured the day routine needed changing. No way we could drop the morning nap at this stage though.
41
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 17:23
not an expert on children napping patterns... but as a mum of two do agree that one year olds shud nap jst about once evry day:-)
1861
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EW EXPERT
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 16:39
same here - DS dropped his afternoon nap and has spent the last year moving his only nap of the day gradually backwards... it's always been 2 or 3 hours long, started off at 9h30 on the dot (almost), then moved to 10h... spent a long while at 11h, toyed with 12h30-13h and now I can get him down at 14h. Once he tries moving it further back, I'm going to have to go all hard-core and stop him from napping at all, otherwise it'll mess up dinner and bed.
255
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 16:33
I think thats perfectly normal. My two did exactly that - dropped the afternoon nap and slept about 3 hours in the morning. DS is now 15 months and sleeps from 1030 - 130, I just kept extending his morning wake time when he could handle it. I'll eventually serve an early lunch and get him down to an afternoon nap.
1403
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 03 August 2011 - 16:26
Not that my DD (10mnths) has a similar pattern, but she does have a morning nap from 9am and up by 10am then her afternoon nap 1-3pm. I think she is like your LO in that she always seems ready for a morning nap. But for me, my goal - when she's ready - is to drop the morning nap and keep the 1-3pm nap. And possibly even bring that forward to 12:30-2:30 if we are successful in dropping MN. The routine I've followed since birth would normally see her dropping the MN around now but I have never tried it. We go away for a few days next week and we'll be out and about a lot. I am going to see if during this time she drops the MN and if she does how she handles it. One thing I've noticed with her is that when she is on her proper daily routine she sleeps well at night, but when I'm out and she maybe doesn't have her lunch nap, she still sleeps well at night. So this kinda tells me that maybe she can be reduced to 1 nap per day. Decisions, decisions...LOL At the age of 1 what is the 'recommended' amount of daytime sleep? Or is that a question that comes with so many different answers? Ps - I've also been told that it doesn't matter how early in the day your LO has their daytime naps, as long as they're getting good, solid sleep. So if your new current routine of a MN is working then maybe just go with it?
 
 

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