17 Mo 1 Nap Transition Not Going Well

just a quick suggestion: try moving is PM nap to a bit later - like 1PM... try meeting him in his bedroom when he wakes up, play his music that you use to put him to sleep, give him a milk bottle, cuddle with him or rock him (whatever you do to put him in bed). at some point he might ask to go back to sleep, or he might at least relax a little more... for the evening bed time, try putting him 30 min more early, specially now that he is super tired. it might help...
good luck!

That sounded exactly like us (except about 6 months older), but instead of waiting until after lunch, we do a late morning snack and he goes to bed at 10 or 10:30 and usually sleeps until around 2, then to bed at 7 as usual. Some days he still needs two naps, at 9 or 9:30 and then 2/2:30. He just needs to eat IMMEDIATELY when he gets up from the one long nap or he gets really hungry and is hard to calm down.

Hello there. This sounds much like my daughter around that age. The transition from 2 to 1 naps takes a little time and I think the biggest thing is to be consistent. I had the exact same thing going on with my daughter and after a little over a month she finally just dropped her morning nap and she can go down as early as 11 or stay up as late as 1:00. I usually gage on how she seems and sometimes base it on what we have going on that day. Before the transition she took naps twice a day for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes and now she sleeps for about 2-3 hours depending on how tired she is. I think you just need to be patient and maybe do any activity in the late morning, eat luch and then lay him down for a nap. I find that if they play hard before nap time and get some food in their tummy, they usually take a good nap. :-) I hope this helps! Your doing great!!!

Well, I will start by saying that I also have had great sleepers (knocking on wood), and I believe in keeping 2 naps as long as possible. However, your son does sound typical of transitioning to one nap. I have an 18 month old who is doing that right now.

If I were to guess, I would say that you are putting him down to late for the nap. Even if he doesn't need two naps, you are basically keeping him up 2-3 extra hours in the morning, and now longer since he is getting up earlier. Watch his signals closely and get him down before he gets overtired. My older daughter napped 12-3 when she went to one nap. I would do lunch at 11 and get him down ASAP. You can always move it later if he doesn't sleep. But I bet if you put him down at 11:30-12:00 he will sleep three hours.

You need to try to establish a time for several days (like 4-5 days) for him to adjust to consistency. If that doesn't work after several days then go the opposite direction and try to put him down later at 2-3. But inmy experience, one-year olds start at 12 noon, and by age three they are going down closer to 2-3pm.

It takes awhile but it will shake out. My oldest napped for 2-3 hours until she was four.

MT,

You are right, he is not getting enough sleep. The fact that he wasn't sleeping well, or at all in the afternoon is a sign that they should transition to one nap. However, you have to do it gradually. You can't just push him back to 12:30 right off the bat. Both my kids (4 and 18 mos) switched to one nap early...around 13 mos. But it took a good month and a half to transition...and it can be a painful process. If he was normally napping in the am around 9:30, you should start by pushing him back to about 11am. It's kind of screwy with meals, but give him a good filling snack and then a bottle before nap and a good something to eat afterwards. He's not sleeping very long for you right now b/c he's going down when he's overtired and he not getting into his deep sleep. I'm sure you're thinking 'what do I do with him the rest of the day?' if he naps at 11am....it means you have to move bedtime up to probably 6:30 for a while. Also, as they transition, you may have to let him cry for a bit if he wakes in the middle of the nap. 1 hr and 15 min is not long enough for him to be rested. My little guy did the wake up thing for a while..you have to let him cry for bit (time it..seriously...if you don't you'll think 2 minutes is 15 minutes when they are crying). I would let my kids go for a solid 15 min before getting them up. 99% of the time they'd fall back asleep. My little guy now sleeps from about 12:30-3:30 and he is 18 mos. Then start pushing the nap back by about 15-20 each week until you get him to 12:30 for his naptime (then you'll be able to have a much more normal day, schedule wise).

Hope that helps!
L. M.
Mom of 2 in Reston, VA

Has anything changed recently? Young children sense change. Bottom line, it sounds like it's time to go to your pediatrician. It sounds like you've varied nap times, but if he has circles under his eyes and is more prone to become upset easily, there may be something more going on. All the best!

Dropping that nap can take a long time and can be very difficult....while he is transitioning, you may want to start the nap a but earlier and also put him to bed a bit earlier to compensate for the loss of the sleep during the morning nap. Eventually, both the nap time and bed time will shift back to later, it is only a temporary move to help him transition....

All I can say is that, in reading your post,it sounds like you are describing EXACTLY what I just went through with my son (16 months), as he transitioned. Every step was exactly the same. The last part was that I would put him down for one nap right after lunch, but it wouldn't be long enough. Then he'd be tired so early and he'd wake up earlier in the AM than he used to.

The good news is, that I just hung in there and he was a little tired for a while, but eventually that afternoon nap started to stretch out a little longer over a period of time. Now he sleeps about 3 hours in the afternoon (around 1-4, give or take) and then sleeps from 7p-7a, give or take. It was just the transition until he could figure it out and get it all straight. Hang in there. Your little guy will get it too! :-)

B.