1 Yr Old Going from 2 Naps to 1 Nap?

It does sound like your son is ready to transition from 2 to 1. From my expereince with my two girls, 17m and 3.5y, it's a transition you need to help facilitate. Both of them needed ditractions to get over the "hump" in the morning, generally solved with a lot of outdoor play or running errands. In fact, we are still in the tale-end of that transiton with our youngest. Initially, lunch was moved back to 11 and nap was followed soon after until 1:30 or 2:00. My 17 month old, is only now learning how to extend that afternoon nap. Also, you might have to move dinner and bedtime up a little earlier too. I have found that this transition was a bit more challenging than some others.

All the best to you!

My daughter, who also wakes up around 7:30a, just turned one last month and she's still taking two naps, but the nap in the morning needs to be kept short, about an hour otherwise she won't sleep well in the afternoon and then she too is too tired to eat a good dinner. The lengths of time that she naps also depends on how active she is during the day. If she's climbing and chasing her bro all over the house, she's exhausted.

If you think that he, and you, are ready for one nap see if you can delay the morning nap a little so it's more in the middle of the day. Maybe he will not be as cranky at night if he gets only one nap. The transition to less sleep is hard on everyone but once it gets figured out, the house is happy again. Good luck!

We had exactly the same issues and you are seeing the signs of your son getting to the point where he only needs one good (long) nap. Our pediatrician highly recommended that we keep two naps as long as possible. We finally gave in when our son was about 18 months, even though for several months, his afternoon nap was short or nonexistent.

You definitely want to keep the afternoon nap and discontinue the morning one. In the beginning (for several weeks), your little guy will get really tired and maybe a bit silly in the late morning period. What worked for us was keeping him outside playing until lunch. He had lunch around 11:30am, read a few books and then down for nap. The goal, over weeks, is to slowly (by 10 minutes increments) push lunchtime back so that he's finished eating around 12:30pm (give or take). Naps at our house are from about 1:30pm to 4:30pm on a regular basis.

Good luck to you!!

My oldest son switched to one nap around 18 months. My younger son- now 16 months- has only taken one nap since about 3 months old. My younger son has always taken a 3 hour nap, but only one. Usually between 11:30-2. It sounds like he may/may not be ready yet. How long has he been fighting the second nap? If it has been about 3 weeks, then you can try delaying his morning nap until at least 11 by keeping him extra busy. Then, let him sleep for one nap and see how he does at night. If he is cranky at night, then go back to 2 naps. He is probably fighting the 2nd nap because he has so much to explore and see and do. Has he recently started to walk? Many things are more fun than sleeping right now, but he still may need 2 naps.

Hi there,
Go and get the book Healthy sleep habits, happy child by Marc Weissbluth M.D. It realy helped me. It gives a ton of advice for various situations as wel as a breakdown by age and solotions that includes crying-it-out or no-cry method. It also has a whole bit on when and how to transition from 2 naps down to 1. Hope this helps.

My son just turned a year and dropped his second nap too. He usually goes to bed around 7pm and wakes around 6:30am-7am. He was taking really short morning naps starting around 9-10am and they only lasted for like 30-40 minutes. I would try to put him down around 2ish but he would fight it and just play and talk to himself in his crib and never sleep. Plus if he did fall asleep, it was a fight to put him down for bedtime. So i started putting him down in the morning at 10am and i would skip the 2nd nap and now he sleeps for at least 2 hours for his 10 am nap and go to bed easily. If I need a break or he is getting crabby in the late afternoon i just lay him in his crib for some quiet time and it usally does the trick. Good luck. I say just start adjusting it a bit. Their bodies tell them when they really need to sleep.