Help Transitioning from Two Naps to One

Hi. I recommend the book, "Healthy sleep habits. Happy Child." by Dr. Weissbluth. Excellent. He discusses this.
D.

They will let you know when they're ready for one nap... they'll start refusing to take a second nap. The best advice I can give though is to read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weisbluth. You don't have to read the whole thing, cover-to-cover, right away. My hubby and I read the current stage and maybe one ahead so we know what to start looking for. I swear, though, the day we put into practice what we had read was the first night she finally slept through the night (she was 9 months old)! That book rocks!

I love Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child too! I wish I had found it when my six year old was born, but I didn't com across it until my now 20 month old twins were born. I transitioned them to one nap a day at 9 months. One of them was ready, but the other one not so much. My six year old's afternoon kindergarten schedule really forced the situation and the twin that wasn't as ready got used to the schedule after a few months. I found that the key was keep our mornings filled and busy. I used mornings to run errands and go to the gym. If it is an option for you, the gym is great for the last hour or so you are trying to keep them up before their naps. I found the child care at our gym offered a lot of stimulation and it seemed to keep their minds off of nap time. Because of my daughter's drop off time at kindergarten, I'd get home, feed them quickly and have them in bed by 12:15. To this day, their nap time is consistently 12:15 to 3:15.

One thing to really work on as you transition them to one nap is to to not let them sleep in the morning. I found if they snuck in even a cat nap, I was much more likely to have a hard time getting them to nap in the afternoon. I always made sure I had a snack cup with me so that if they looked like they were going to sleep, I could give them that and it would help keep them up for the ride home.

Hi Evita. It sounds like your sons are very healthy sleepers!! And, if they still need and want two naps a day, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Good for you!

When they are ready, you'll probably see them not napping very well during one of the naps. As contradictory as this sounds, my son started wanted to drop his afternoon nap and sleep 3-4 hours in the morning. That's when I knew I needed to make some transitions to his sleep schedule.

For both my kids, I removed the morning nap and shifted the afternoon nap about an hour earlier than it had been. For one of my kids, I also had to shift the bedtime earlier, to help bridge the longer afternoon. After a few weeks, everything finally started to click and I was able to move the afternoon time to its permanent time (whatever works best for the child), and moved bedtime to its original time.

Please know that sometimes the transition from two naps to one may not be smooth. Some days you'll try one nap and it will be a disaster. The very next day, you'll try two naps and you child will not sleep at all during the afternoon. Try not to get frustrated! It took my daughter over a month to make the transition, while my son only took about 2 1/2 weeks. Each child is different. Best of Luck!

Right on Maria G - here's another vote for "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"!

In our case, our child 'let us know' that he was ready to switch from two naps to one. He would take his AM nap just fine, but would fight the PM nap.

What worked for us was distraction, distraction, distraction! When the AM naptime hit, we'd leave the house and go do some entertaining activity that held his interest as opposed to going into our morning nap routine. We would hold off his sleep as long as possible, but never letting him get overtired to the point where he was completely unbearable. The new 'one nap' started really early, sometimes around 11:15-11:30. We let him sleep as long as he wanted. Sometimes it meant an earlier bedtime (he was used to going to bed at 6:30, and in the early phases of dropping the AM nap, it was not uncommon for him to go to bed around 6:00 - 6:15, simply because he was tired and ready). Slowly but surely he was able to stay awake until 11:45, then 12:00, and sometimes 12:30.

Follow their lead - they'll let you know (boy will they ever!) when they don't want 2 naps anymore. When it is time to transition, just be patient and flexible. I dreaded not having 'two nap periods' to myself but quite honestly, I much prefer only one nap that lasts 3-3 1/2 hours. We can actually go out and do more things, and I get a bigger chunk of time during the day. Always remember though, it's about the sleep your child needs and not what *you* need :)

I'm in the process of doing this with my 14 month old. on sunday, she went down for her nap at 1015 and slept until almost 1pm. THat's when I decided she was ready since I couldn't really put her down for an afternoon nap. She had been pushing her morning nap back gradually over the last few months but that was the first she slept for so long. Then yesterday we put her down at 1045 and she slept until 130. Look sfor these type of patterns. We're going to gradually push her later and later so that she' going down between 12 and 1pm. I'm thinking a half hour every 2-3 days depending on how she is doing.

All experienced mothers will tell you to keep them on two naps as long as possible for your own sake. They will let you know by taking longer to fall asleep. The way I describe the usual process is like this: the morning nap time gets later and later and the pm naptime gets later at the same time until the morning nap passes noon and is taken after lunch and the pm nap gets too late, so that it would interefere with bedtime. It's a slow process usually and one of the most painless of all the things these little darlings put us through.

enjoy those two naps while you can. you will miss them when they are gone. the will let you know when they are ready to go to one nap because they won't be tired in the morning for that nap and will last until lunch. If they look tired in the morning, put them down and relax :)

I would take the two naps as long as you can! Going to 1 frees up your afternoon a little more, but I could be way more productive in a day with two! My son naturally dropped his pm nap. He would fight me every day on it, and that is how I knew. So, I pushed his 7:30 bedtime to 8:00 to get him to sleep a little later in the morning. He would still get sleepy at 10 (still does to this day!), so for the first week, I just made sure we had fun activities planned to keep him busy, then lunch, then nap. He transitioned pretty easily. The hardest part was messing with bedtime, but at the time he was wanting to give up the afternoon nap, he was waking at 6am, and going a full 6 hours was too long for him with no nap, so it had to be done!

Let them tell you when they are ready. I would not push them to one nap because if they are taking 2 naps, they NEED 2 naps!

If your boys are still sleeping well at night, two naps it is. If they are not tired at bedtime, cut it down to one nap and see how that goes.

I have an 18 month old boy also, and he has just gone down to one nap. I just took cues from him. All of a sudden, he started fighting me when I put him down for his morning nap, and he would just jump in his crib and cry until I went in and got him. I would then try putting him down again half an hour later and wait 15-20 minutes to see if he was really ready to sleep or not. I would just repeat that until he fell asleep. Then, I would put him down for his afternoon nap later than usual, sometimes waking him up after a half hour so he would still go to sleep at bedtime. He only takes one nap a day now, but we are still working on setting a time each day. It was a somewhat gradual process, taking about 5-6 weeks to go down to one nap. He definitely let me know when he was ready for one nap, I'm sure your boys will let you know too. I hope this helps!

when they're getting ready for the 1st nap, give them a snack and splay with them for another hour or two and then put them down.