18 Month Transitioning to One Nap

Hi E.. You are lucky...mine stopped taking two naps around 12 months. I just started pushing the morning nap back by 15 minutes every couple of days. When you get it to around 11:30 drop the second nap. My daughter did well with one nap around 12....she's now over 2 and she goes down closer to one, but 12 worked really well for awhile. It's all a learning process and you just have to take cues from your little one. Don't let him get too tired or he'll get wound up and take forever to fall asleep.

One nap at this time is tough because you can kiss ALL lunch dates goodbye, but at least you can now schedule some morning or late afternoon play dates/errands now. He'll probably start sleeping for 2.5 to 3 hours once you've transitioned to 1 nap and he'll go to bed at night easier too. Good luck!

don't put him down for the morning nap. just put him down after lunch... It's kinda sad when the morning nap goes.... BUT it's normal progression! :)

I just quit putting them down for their morning nap.

Hi E.,

We recently transitioned our 20 month old - well, he kind of transitioned himself! We started pushing the "morning nap" a bit later every day until we reached 12noon. Now he naps for 2-3 hours around noon. Sometimes he still gets tired around 5, so we might just give him "down time" to play quietly or watch a movie. Good luck and listen to your child. He will tell you when he's tired. :o)

J.

I have four kids so I've been through this a few times as well :) What I did was just push back their morning nap a little at a time until their 2 naps became one nap after lunch. It took a little rearranging of my schedule at first. So I would feed them lunch around 11:00 (instead of our usual 12:00) and then put them down for a nap. After a few days I would push it back to 11:30 and then 12:00 and by then you've pretty much fused the two naps into one.

well from my experience in my in home daycare, when the moms wanted them to take just one. So I would do it aouut a half hour after lunch that way they selpt good, and if they wanted to take their morning nap they would when they watch cartoons in the morning it usally took a couple of weeks before their bodies got used to one nap.
I think he is ready though. good luck!

Just keep him up a little longer and let him sleep from 12:30-2:30 or 1:00-3:00. That's when my children have always napped and it is the perfect time; they have their little bellies full from lunch and go right to sleep.