When Do I Drop the Morning Nap?

I went to one afternoon nap with my twin girls when they were about 14 or 15 months. They started taking one longer nap and one shorter nap. They usually get up about 6 or 6:30, play hard, go outside, etc, have a snack about 9:30, lunch at 11:30, and then nap after lunch (usually 12-3). Bedtime is by 8pm, but if they've had a really busy day, I just put them down about 7:15 or so. Also, my girls still sleep together at night, but I have started separating them at nap time and have found that to be conducive to longer naps. Hope this helps!

My twins just turned 13! It sounds like you're on the right schedule though (I just checked their baby book.) All are going to be a little different but the signs are there. Just go with the signs they're giving you and let the morning nap shorten itself naturally as the afternoon one lengthens. We always tried to have ours down by about 7:30 or 8P.M. at that age as well, depending on how the naps went that day!

Good luck!

Lissa

All children are different, but it sounds about right. I am on my third, and the baby quit taking two naps within the last couple of months (she's 16 mo). I don't blame you about the morning break, twins must be exhausting sometimes. At least they usually don't give up naps altogether for a couple more years!
Bless you and good luck!

My son started doing the shorter am nap too. I am not sure what made me do it, but I didn't put him down for a morning nap but layed him down earlier for his afternoon nap, around 11am. That seemed to work fine for us.

must be nice I have 4 children and by the time they were about 8 months old they only took afternoon naps so if you doesn't want to take morning naps you probably won't be able to get them to do it good luck

It sounds like they may be ready for only one nap. But on the bright side of that, if you move their nap to like 11 or 11:30, they may sleep closer to 3 hours and also sleep later in the mornings. Thats what my first 3 kids all did when we went to one nap. They are more tired causing them to sleep longer when the do nap and/or go to bed. Hope this helps and that you get a plan worked our for you guys. Good luck!

A. K

My 17 month old hasn't done 2 naps a day for almost 6 months. She was down to one a day before she turned 1 but she had 3 & 4 year old sisters (now 4 & 5) and we were usually out and about on the go with them in the mornings.

Basically, about 11 months when she stopped using her infant carrier seat & thus could fall asleep anywhere we were, she stopped taking a morning nap.

Sounds like they are ready. To start, you can just bump up the start time of afternoon nap a little - like maybe an hour & they should be fine. :)

D., I have a 14.5 month old and he is on the exact same schedule as your twins. He is doing the exact same thing and I too like my morning time (on weekends)......please, please let me know what you hear. I am in the same boat, with the exception that I am dreadfully unemployed (3 months now) and a single mother to just one love muffin!
okay, never mind, I just read all of the responses! going to move it it up....maybe it will help!

Sadly it is probably about time. What you may find is that the afternoon nap becomes longer and earlier (at least for awhile). Try keeping them up until 11:00ish. Stay busy in the AM and have an early lunch. They may actually nap 2 1/2 or 3 hrs. As they get use to it, you can slowly push the afternoon nap back to 12 or 12:30 if that works better for your schedule.

Goodness knows that with twins that nap time is especially precious!

All three of my children made the "leap" at different times. Just pay attention to their natural schedule and help them when you think they are ready. If you try 1 nap for a few days and it doesn't work, you can go back to two and try again later. I kind of forced one of my children into one nap because it fit our daily schedule better. She did fine, but awoke every night after 1 hour at bed time (for just a couple of minutes) and then went to sleep for the night for 6 weeks.

My daughter went from 2 naps to 1 around the same age. Sometimes she would still take the morning one, but mostly she slept 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon. It may be time to restructure your schedule a little to accomidate only one nap.
J.

there's a chart in No-Cry Sleep Solution.