Going from Two Naps to One -- Any Rest for Mom?

I think you just have to let some of the things go until someone is around to help. I work full-time now, but when I was at home with my babies, my husband would sometimes come home to an unshowered wife and a mess of a house! Sometimes, I napped with the kids, still do on the weekends :). I know it sounds stressful, and it is at times, but the house being messy is fine when you have a little one running around and need some sleep and rest too! Good luck!

You will adjust. I used to lay down with my daughter for her afternoon nap. I would doze off for a bit. Then get up before she did with renewed energy. AF

I remember being bummed out by this also but there are a couple of perks to this situation. The first one being that you don't have to have your daily plans revolve around two naps. My son is 2 1/2 and he is still napping and they are LONG naps. They went from two one hour naps to one big one in the afternoon that can go anywhere from 2-3 hours. It's nice because my day is no longer divided and I can get everything done in one full swoop...

I personally think one nap is better than 2. Your child should sleep from 2-3 hours during that one nap if she is tierd when you lay her down. I always found there was more stuff to do and more time to do it. I also take a shower at night when my child goes to bed. As to laundry and anything like that I do 2 loads on Friday and 2 loads on Sunday. The dishes you can do when she is sleeping or ocuping her self in a safe pot for a few moments. I hope this works for you!

C., yep...it happens to all of us. Going from many naps as an infant down to two naps, down to one nap and than none at all. And some kids skip over one or more of the steps above anyway! I remember how that felt though, losing our 9am nap and only having our one 1pm nap. It was refreshing in some ways, that I could actually go out with our son in the morning, without having to rush back home. As far as getting errands done, I started getting up a bit earlier in the morning (like 30 min-1 hour early) and that seemed to help get more accompished. Or, just fitting in chores during the day or at night when they go to sleep. And if it takes an extra day or so to get something checked off your list, don't get on yourself! Good luck. :)

Every child is different so your experience might not be the same but I found that the length of my son's one nap equaled the length combined of his two naps for a total of about 3 hours. While transitioning, he would often take just one nap Monday-Wednesday but by the end of the week would still need two naps. It was a lot of reading of cues and trying to help him get as much sleep as possible for the sake of both of our sanities. Now that he'll consistently take one long nap, I nap or veg for the first hour and still have at least another hour if not two to get housework done.
Good luck!

So couple of suggestions, one is you may have to let things go, don't keep things a clean as you used to, they still have to be clean, but lots of us have standard well above what they need to be. Then what I always did was to schedule a certain time in the morning and the afternoon, maybe 30-45 minutes each where I did stuff while my son was awake, we did it together, while I was putting one load in the washer he played with the other or when he got interested I cleaned out an empty spray bottle I used to use to clean with, put some water in it and let him "help" pretreat. As he got older, I added some dish soap to it, he loved to help. He also LOVES to vacuum, he's even asked the babysitter to do it with him, now, he asks you to plug it in and then he goes around by himself, because when he was a toddler and i vacuumed once a week, i would carry him and dance around or put him on the couch and have him dance while i danced with the vacuum. So you can make it fun, then after he went to bed, I did a bunch of things, usually the dishes, etc finished the laundry, swept the day of his food of the floor. I ALWAYS either took a nap at nap time or read a book, I still do when I'm home, I need it as much as him to keep my patience and be able to have fun with him. I just made sure cleaning fun was kept to the time limit, just like tv time or anything else. Good Luck!!

The beginning of the end! LOL! Be thankful you have one nap to still rely on. Chances are the one nap will end up being a bit longer than previously when split into two. Take it from another old new Mom- you have to let some things go and just rest when you can. When my now 5yo started ditching nap time, I put him to work! This is when I started instilling the 'everyone has a job and works together' theory. He became a master sock sorter and now is head towel folder. I started to make him straighten up his room at this point and make his bed-you just have to be okay and supportive of the sloppy part until they get it. It does actually make clean up time take a bit longer, but eventually she will turn into a great help and enjoy the 'help Mommy' time. Not to mention getting her to be responsible for her own 'stuff'.
You have time before that though, you still have one nap to recharge. We transitioned out of that at three, but I still made him do 'downtime' for a while. He didn't have to sleep but he did have to rest. I hooked him up with a small bedside lamp, a box of books, and his DoodlePro. If he got tired , he was supposed to turn out the light- it totally worked. He still had to lay down for an hour, but he had quiet time things to keep his mind occupied. This method still works at bedtime-two books, then lights out! So, good luck! Naps eventually end for most kids- take atvantage of your downtime now, no matter how dwindling it may be!

Dear C.,

Don't worry. It took me about 5 weeks to fully transition my son who is now 14 months to move to one nap. There were days when he wanted to take 2 and days when he wanted to take 1. In the beginning it's a little frustrating cause he would nap for an hour and wake up. Basically, that only left me with about 30 mins to do anything like laundry and etc. He wanted to transition around his 1 year birthday. He turns 14 months tomorrow and it's been about 3 weeks since he's been taking a good afternoon nap. We now have downtime from 1-3:30 or 4pm. It's great! Going down to one nap will eventually give you more freedom to do things around the house.

Good luck!

Hi C. - I know I'm late responding...I have a 3.5 yr. old and am not a young mom either! Unfortunately, you have to get used to and LEARN to do things with the child awake. Set aside special toys they will play with independently and use that time to do laundry, light cleaning, etc. (I use videos but yours is too young..maybe Elmo? or Baby Einstein?) Experiment. Then use that nap time for your own snooze if you need it. Hugs.

One nap will eventually be better than 2 naps, because the child should nap 2-3 hours in the afternoon which is such a nice needed break.

hi C.,
well, it'll be less of a transition than it was getting used to b having a baby!
:D
at first you can't imagine how you will adjust, and then you just do. and soon you'll wonder what you ever did with all that two-nap freedom.
:) khairete
S.

Well, C., I hate to say it, but it's just one in a line of transitions you get to manage:-) I really mourned going to one nap a day, too, because I used that down time for me! It gets easier (I think). Just use her nap time for your nap time and don't worry so much about the other stuff. It gets easier to do the other things when you don't have to watch her so closely- as she gets older. We did a good job of getting my (now 4 year old) to bed at a specified time-7pm to be exact, then I found it easier to do things in the evening. I now like the early mornings for getting things done, because it's the quiet time before everyone gets up. Good luck! K.

Do NOT feel bad about this, Mama. This is totally normal. And dreading it does not make you a lesser mom. The answer is that the baby's one nap should be LONGER so you will have to adjust your routine to doing it all at once instead of dividing it up.
And if you have to nap, do it! Although it may be hard to see now, your body is still coming back to reality. It's only been 15 months. The Good news is that you will need less sleep as time goes on. Trust me, I was so worried about this as you are and God has worked it all out on schedule.

Hi C.! You might have a bumpy adjustment period at first, but you'll get used to the change. Often once the afternoon nap is the only one, it will be longer than it was when there were 2 naps, so that will give you more time than you think. She might be open to a slightly earlier bedtime once she's down to one nap, too--again freeing up a little more time. And you'll learn how to get more done with your daughter awake, too. That will get even easier as she gets older and more mature. You might need to let some things slide for awhile and just work on the most important things instead of trying to get everything done. Good luck!

I can't get up early regulary either. Well I could, but I would be grumpy and that wouldn't help anyone. 6:30 is early enough for me already since I'm much more an evening than a morning person.

I actually continued to put my twins in the crib even when they gave up thier morning nap. I told them that they did not need to sleep, kept the lights on, gave them special crib toys only for "break time", and use the happy music feature of thier soother.

Break time is 20 minutes (which is the soothers time interval) and its super short, but its enough time for me to get a shower, make a phone call in quiet, or have breakfast if I haven't had a chance to do that. We do it at around 9:00 so they are still in a good mood and not tired enough to accidentally fall asleep. They know that this is quiet play time, and never had a problem confusing it with their afternoon nap time. My son was especially easy to convince since he has to keep his binky in the bed. Now at two when I put them in there my children say "Mommy showers" and demand to feel my wet hair when I come get them.

When that happened with my first son I hated it. But eventually I got used to it. I shower before my husband goes to work. In fact, I just got used to getting up earlier than the boys and shower and then when my son did have the one nap I tried to get done whatever I could. I never get any rest but I figure in a few years it will get easier. Hang in there

When your child goes down to one nap per day, the nap they do take is usually longer than the ones they used to take, so you may find that you still have a good span of time to get things done. My 20mo son takes a two hour nap every day so I feel that I really get a nice break in the middle of the day. I use his nap to shower, read, nap myself, work on homeschooling with my oldest son, doing big things around the house like polishing the hard wood floors etc... I save the regular chores for when baby is awake because he loves, loves, loves to help me with them.

Try to encourage her to help you with things like laundry. My little one and I do laundry together and make of game of seeing if he can correctly name the person each article of clothing belongs to before he tosses it into the dryer for me. We have front loaders, so he also helps me load the washer. I then add the detergent for the washer and he adds the dryer sheets for the dryer. I also let him push the buttons (under my direction) to start the washer/dryer. He adores helping (they all do at this age) and will also hand me items from the dishwasher to put away (after I have removed all knives of course), helps me close and start the dishwasher, "helps" me vacuum by riding around on the vacuum etc.. Helping out is very educational for the little tykes so let her help and use her nap for the things you can't do when she's awake, like reading a little bit of a good book, etc.

Once you get into a rhythm it'll start to seem like you have vast stretches of your day with nothing to do but play with baby, which is of course just the way it should be. :)

Also, for things that need peace and quiet, like e-mailing and working on certain projects or school work, I stay up after the kids are in bed and handle it then so I can sleep until they do in the morning. Since the kids go to bed at an early hour and need a few hours more sleep per night than adults do, I still get plenty of sleep.