hello everyone,
We have been having a lot of trouble with our 1 year old napping consistently through out the day for the last 2 months. For a while I thought he was transitioning to one nap, but when we tried this over the course of two weeks--he became so overtired we went back to two naps a day. Up until about two months ago, he was sleeping really well during the day and through the night. He is still sleeping through the night, but fights both of his naps in the morning and afternoon--he will literally play in his crib for 45 minutes-1 hour before falling asleep. He will stay asleep for his morning nap, but his afternoon naps seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Again, we tried one nap transition and he only slept an 1.5 hours, making him so tired we had to put him down at 5:30 or 6. This is his schedule as follows:
5:30-6 am wake
6:30 breakfast
8:30 am morning nap
10 am wake up, early lunch play
1 pm nap (now only 45-50 minutes)
3 pm snack
5:15 pm dinner
6:15-6:30 bed
He is really tired by the late afternoon--rubbing his eyes, and cranky. Right now he just woke up from an afternoon nap that was only 40 minutes after taking 1 hour to fall asleep. He also woke up crying--which usually means he's not well rested. We have tried putting him to bed later and he still wakes up at 5:30 am no matter what and will still fight his naps--due to being even more overtired.
I am not sure what to do because the one nap transition did not seem to work, but he's fighting naps all over again. I have consulted our copy of Healthy baby Happy Sleep Habits, and there's nothing that seems to be of help. Is this normal or do we need to try one nap again?
Hi Everyone,
Thank you all so much for your advice and feedback. I decided that my son was not ready to transition to one nap yet because he's waking so early--this was the problem with trying it previously. Though I know it takes time to make this transition, I just knew he was not getting enough sleep. To help him prepare for the one nap transition eventually, I tried putting him down later for his morning nap so now he is going down every 3 hours for his naps. This seems to have made the difference because he's falling asleep much faster and napping for 1 to 1.5 hours for each nap. Because he's not on the bottle anymore, I realized that he needs a mid morning and mid day snack before his naps so he does not wake up too early from them hungry--that's what the problem was when I posted the question.
As for waking up too early, that still happens and we've decided to not go to him unless he's crying, which usually means a dirty diaper for him. If he is, we change his diaper, put some toys in his crib and then let him play. This morning he played quietly without us going into his room at all for about 40 minutes and then fell back asleep for another 45 minutes. In pushing back his nap and bedtimes, we are hoping that he eventually sleeps through his 5:30 waking hour because he will be going to bed later-- we know he is not hungry because we try to offer him milk in his sippy cup, but he just wants to play.
Thanks again!
He could be teething, molars or incisors. They take a long time to come in, and could be bothering him.
He could be waking up from his afternoon nap because he is hungry. I usually feed my kids 30-60min before nap.
Your child needs to only take one nap at this point. So try to schedule one nap instead of two. And make it a 2 hour nap somewhere around noon, after lunch.
I also tried to transition to one nap around that age and it did not work. My suggestion is that you make the 1st nap shorter (like wake him up at 45 mins) and let the second nap be longer. I think that even lines up with what "Healthy Sleep Habits..." would say.
When I asked my Drs about going to one nap, they suggested trying that around 18 mos or later (again , that lines up with the "Sleep Habits" book too). My son went to one nap at 19mos, (even though I thought he might have needed to do this transition at 12 mos). HTH
I would try to make the morning wakeful period longer a little bit at a time, like 20 to 30 minute intervals. And once that gets late enough, he may naturally transition to one nap. I remember my oldest transitioning to one nap but it was early afternoon, right after lunch at first about 12:30. Then he would sleep for 3 hours and be awake until bed time at 7:30. Then as his nap got later, he usually didn't sleep as long. And my boys are early risers too (6:30 is sleeping in for us!).
My one year old is transitioning to 1 nap... SORT OF. He's NEVER been a good sleeper... now, some days he still wants 2 naps, but then he wakes up CRAZY early... the days he only takes 1 nap, he wants to go to bed too soon. I'm at a loss too!! Hope it gets better for us both :)
It certainly won't hurt to try one nap again. He might still need two. I don't let my girls get out of bed that early, even if they wake up. They can play in their bed/crib, but I'm not getting up with them and creating that habit. When they are that young I know I felt guilty making them wait on food. But now we don't do breakfast until 7 at the earliest, sometimes its 8 or 9. It helps to space out the day if your meals are consistent (which yours seem to be), so maybe try to plan things a bit later.
6:15 is pretty early for bed, but we usually do 7, unless the baby didn't nap well (she takes one 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon) or is sick.
Another thing is kids tend to nap according to their sleep cycles. If they wake in the middle of one they are grumpy. My youngest (18 months) I have to let cry for a few minuets and then start playing before I go in to get her, if I go in immediately she is very needy and doesn't want me to put her down, clings to my legs, wails, drama drama. If I let her cry a little she usually starts to play with some toys in the crib and is much happier when I go in to get her. If she wakes up after an hour or so of a nap I try to let her go back to sleep or she'll be a whiny monster the rest of the day.
Some people think its mean to let their children cry. I don't (within reason of course). Kids cry to express themselves, and its normal for about 5-15 min surrounding sleep times.
My oldest did the 45-60 min of playing before a nap as well, however that was once we did one nap a day, and it was 4 hours total.
I'd suggest trying some different things to see if there is any impact. And definitely try to keep him in bed longer in the morning. 5:30 is way too early! :)
I wish I could help, but, I still have to rock my 1 year old to sleep for naps, so that doesn't really help. BUT, I wanted to add, that if you do not think he is ready to go to 1 nap, DON'T. Especially if he wakes up crying. (that is also my little guy's sign that he's not gotten enough rest.) My 1 year old takes 2 naps a day and I know he needs them both. All babies are different, and some continue to need 2 naps until almost 2, so don't try to force him into 1 nap, it will just end up in tears for everybody if he's not ready.
Have you tried seeing if he'll go back to sleep at 5:30a? Sometimes if I put my daughters paci back in she'll go back to sleep for about 45 mins. A friend of mine gave her daughter a sippy of milk in her crib and she'd go back to sleep until 7a. Is he trying to walk? Working on molars? I would try putting him down 20 minutes later than usual (9am maybe) in the morning and see if that helps. My daughter has a similar schedule and she usually naps from 9-9:45/10 and again from 1:30-2:30/3:00 and I try to hit bedtime at 7p unless she's really cranky or slept longer in the afternoon. I think normal amount of sleep at this age is 14 hours a day total so if you are getting 12 at night, 2 hours during the day is about right.
I would agree with trying to extend the morning wakeful period and getting just one solid early afternoon nap. That is what all 4 of my kids ended up transitioning to at about one year old. The first 2 weeks or so are very challenging, but it does level out after that break-in period.
Transitioning from two naps to one is not an overnight process. There will be days baby has two good naps and days when he'll only need one. It sounds like your son isn't ready to go to one nap, but let him give the clues as to when he's tired or not. If you want to stick to a schedule, you may need to make it an every-other-day type schedule while he transitions down to one nap. Good luck!
