When did your baby/toddler transition to one day nap?- I'd love some advice.

Hello!

DD is only just one and she has always been an energetic bubba. Day naps have been a struggle from the start but when she started crawling at around 6 months we finally embraced scream-free naps and she gradually went from two 30-40 minute naps to a total of around 2.5 hours per day (both naps combined). But lately she is really fighting her afternoon nap. Every second or third day she won't sleep at all in the afternoon- she plays in her cot for up to two hours then I get her up before it gets too late in the day.The other days she plays for a while, falls asleep around 3-3:30 then I have to wake her at 4-4:30 or it's too late and she won't want to go down at night until it is ridiculously late. Already 4pm is too late as she fights her night sleep when that happens.

she is usually awake between 6:30-7am, I used to put her down between 9:30-10 then about 2pm. This was a baby-led routine and it worked well as she fell asleep on the dot at those times and her longer nap was in the morning with a shorter nap of 40 mins or so in the afternoon.

In light of the afternoon nap issues I've tried two things- putting her down earlier in the morn (9am) so that she has more awake time before her afternoon nap; and pushing the morning nap out to 10:30 in the hope she will nap longer and thus not need an afternoon nap. Neither have worked. I'd love some advice- am I missing something obvious? Is she really ready for one nap? She does get tired and ratty in the afternoon, currently around 3-3:30 but that's too late for a day nap.

DS went to one nap at 6 months. On a good day, he goes down around 12 for 1.5 hours.

DD had no naps for awhile, but was also only having one nap at 12 months old.

Ds is 14 months and still has 2 naps (wakes at 6am gets ratty so goes back to bed at 8am sleeps till10 then another nap at 3pm wakes at 430 then bed at 6ish )usually an hour or more each but has to have windows shut and lights off and dummy and teddy even though I vacuumed around him and he slept everywhere when he was a baby once he could crawl he needed to be at home in his bed to nap

My DS went to 1 sleep a day at around 15 months. He normally wakes at 7am then goes down for a nap around 10.30am for about 2 hours. Back to bed again at 7.30pm. He is a pretty good sleeper and I'm wondering when he will give up his day nap altogether because I get alot done in those 2 hours of sleep and I'm dredding the day he won't nap anymore :)

My ds was still on 2 day maps until around 18 months. Now he has the one around 12-1pm anywhere up to 2-4pm. But he always needed his sleep. I always went with his cues, and due to that I occasionally put him down for an afternoon nap.

Both my girls were down to one nap by 12 months. I find the transition period between two and one nap can be tricky, there seems to be a period of time when 2 naps is too much and 1 is not enough and nothing works well and you end up with a child falling asleep in their high chair at lunch because 'tired' and 'hungry' happen all at the same time! There is a kind of limbo twilight zone between the 2 stages LOL. Although DD2 has been one nap for over 4 months now if she has a crappy night she will be back into limbo twilight zone and things just don't work well until she catches up, so I don't think we've entirely finished the transition. With DD1 I remember what worked some days was if we were out in the car and she fell asleep for 10 or so minutes it seemed to be enough just to keep her going until after lunch until she had a proper sleep, and gradually over time she became less reliant on the little morning cat nap. but it just tided us over until she could properly get to one nap.

Umm, naps? What are they? My girls have never napped during the day, actually they have always been horrid day sleepers.

But I went through a week about a fortnight ago when DD3 slept for an hour every day in her bed. First time since she was born. Now she is fighting everything, her feeds, even cat napping. Then around 4pm every arvo she has a meltdown from being overtired. So I feel your pain there.

At the moment I am trying to work out when she needs that cat nap during the day. So far Ive lucked out, but Im going to get there.
Perhaps try following her lead and putting her down when she is showing signs, and not go by the clock. Thats my only suggestion, cause as I said I seem to be going through the same thing. Hope you find an answer though :)

DD1 transitioned around 14 months and would usually do about 3 hours.

DD2 has just gone 14 months and has mostly been doing one day nap for a good month or so. I find she does best if I put her down around 11-11.30 and most of the time she sleeps for 3 hours. If she's had a bad night or started the day earlier than usual (or both!) I put her down for 2 sleeps that day but I do find she's up later that night.

It's a fine line at times! I'd suggest you try one day sleep though.

We dropped DD to one nap at 18 months, mainly because she changed rooms at daycare (to a room where most bubs had one sleep) and we thought it would be confusing to have one nap twice a week and two naps the other days!
Was hard at first, we just had to slowly stretch out the start time for the nap ie started at 11am and eventually moved to 1230pm.

Oh wow thanks for your responses everyone! Yes, Sagres, it's total twilight territory isn't it. I'm going to try keeping her up a bit later in the mornings again I think.

Beans, I try to follow her tired cues but I'm no good at it- even now! I'll be sure she's tired, she's grumpy or simply going all quiet and in the zone so I'll pop her down and... Next thing I know she's thrown everything out if the cot and is hollering at her toys at the top of her lungs. She is becoming such a playful, cheeky little Madame. I was trying to settle her today, she had thrown her dummy under the cot and while I was scrounging around on the floor she took the opportunity to thow her toys directly at my head.

My first born stopped day sleeps very quickly, much to my dismay! She stopped altogether before her first birthday, reason I remember was the day of her birthday, she passed out! I was wondering if she'd wake up for celebrations. Next day she was diagnosed with tonsilitis. Ah that was why!

Current bubba is 6.5 months and doing the two short nap thing mostly. Sometimes longer if i'm wearing her. Dreading it going to one!

Transition to 1 sleep is hard IME. It happened at 17 months for DD. Like you I tried putting her down a little later in the morning and eventually after a few weeks she started to sleep longer once a day. Sometimes she went down at 1030 sometimes 11. Eventually we pushed it out to 1130 then 12 then 1230 which seems the ideal even at 2.5 years. DD has always been an early riser so it was hard to push out her sleeps anymore.

I think for my ds it was somewhere between 14-16 months but I'm not sure. I have always found, though, that nap transitions can be a lengthy (and sometimes frustrating) process. I think that going to the one nap was a lot od trial and error here and a case of two naps one day, one the next etc

gradually the nap got later until he settled on around 1 and he would sleep for 2-3 hours and did until he was about 3 and 2 months.

im interested in this as well. my DS is nearly 14 months and he still has two sleeps most days. but he doesnt always have a long sleep. usually 1 hour in the morning and maybe 1.5 hours in an afternoon? but i think we will be be eventually moving down to one sleep soon.

our issue is he doesnt sleep for a LONG period of sleep. even if i am out in the mornings and he doesnt go down for sleep till 12ish he still only MAX sleeps for 2 hours. and then the problem tends to be he is getting a bit tired and grumpy by 4pm which is too late for another sleep and we have three hours till bedtime! lol

i am imagining a period of time where afternoons are just giong to be difficult until he either no longer needs the extra sleep or he learns to sleep longer lol.

Both of my girls went to one nap around the time they started walking so for DD1 that was 17months but for DD2 it was 11months.

DD2 (now 13months) goes to nap around 9-10am (wakes around 5-6am) and sleeps between 2-3hrs (usually 2hrs on days DD1 is home and 3hrs when DD1 is at kindy). She then goes to bed at night around 6-7pm.

I kept DD up until 10:30 yesterday, it wasn't that hard because I broke up her morning with a walk and breakfast out. Afternoon she was fine, I think again because I took her out to break up the time a little. Currently her morning nap (no matter what time she goes down) seems to be an hour and 20-40 so hopefully if I persist she will gradually sleep longer and / or I can put her down a little later again so she is not sleeping through lunch.

Thank you so much team BB!

Hi! I thought I'd update - DD is now happily napping once a day for anywhere between 2 and 3 hours which is great. The occasional shorter nap but mostly 2-3. I pop her down between 11 and 11:30am after a snack, story and cows milk and she *usually* goes straight down. Timing is a bit annoying as we can't really have lunch out anymore but just happy she's sleeping longer.

That's great ladylove! I always wanted one of those toddlers that slept for 3 hrs every day ha ha. Enjoy :)

Ds is also now down to one nap too. At daycare he does 12-2 quiet time (not always asleep that whole time) and at home he goes down about 1-130pm and sleeps for usually 2 hours.

It's workin well so far

I don't know why I come into these threads. I always end up feeling ripped off at the lack of sleep of my kids.

Hoti me too. At 10 months My ds is trying to transition from 3 x 40mins a day to 2x 40 mins. Even sleep school said he is just one of those kids.

Mine were both between 12 and 14 mths from memory. At the time they went from a late morning sleep and then an arvo sleep at around 2-3 to one nap after lunch, any time from 12-1. They would get a bit tired but then it meant that they had a good afternoon sleep. All kids are different though, DS used to sleep for 3-4 hours if we let him and would still go to bed with no hassles at 7 so you just have to work out what works for you. Both of mine kept their afternoon sleep quite late, both were around 4 when we dropped it.

Hotl and Bubba this may not be a consolation but for the first 6-7 months of DD's life she only slept for 30-40 minutes at a time. and when she was tiny she wouldn't go to sleep without a massive screaming match. every.single.time. People were telling me to let her cry it out but I wasn't comfortable with that and since she was already crying for a significant amount of time before settling I couldn't see how controlled crying would help or change anything. I'm not sure what changed things. She's super active and energetic but I'm not sure if that's a prerequisite for longer naps or if that's a myth.

I guess in a year or 2 he won't sleep during the day anyway so I can keep telling myself this to shall pass lol

Subbing cause I'm having the same issues. If 14mo DD wakes at 6:30-7:30 she usually has a nap about 10-10:30 for anywhere up to 2 hours and also used to do an arvo nap anywhere between 40 min and 2 hours. For the last 2-3 months though it's only been the morning nap and then she's Miss Grumpy Pants later on but refuses until bedtime at 7pm. It's 5:20pm and I'm currently in the car with her asleep after doing a big drive since she refused to nap all day!

My 15 month old hasn't slept today, and is still going. He will also most probably wake multiple times over night.

They will probably sleep great as teens.

Dd went to one day sleep at around 6 months, she'd sleep a good 2hrs thru the middle of the day. Then ditched that at around 14 months and has only had the odd day nap on busy days since then.

I am NOT looking forward to the day she drops a nap altogether. She's so high energy I really crave that downtime. She's not demanding- well she can be but she's good at playing independently etc but, well you know- she's a busy, active baby!

And re my earlier comment, today she only napped for an hour and a half and you could tell it wasn't enough at the other end of the day because she was so clingy and cranky and did stupid things with her dinner and now she's in bed dog tired but kicking up a huge fuss and won't go down. I blame teething- a saw her first molar sneak out and I think another is coming as she keeps touching her cheek.

Found this and thought some of you might find it interesting

Analytical Armadillo - The Booby Whisperer: The Duracell Bunny Baby

Found this and thought some of you might find it interesting

Analytical Armadillo - The Booby Whisperer: The Duracell Bunny Baby

Thanks for posting. DS has some energiser bunny traits but only developef them at six months before that was a dream. Have found that he often needs to cry before will go to sleep. So instead of me sitting with him and waiting till I am fed up and then holding him which makes him cry as restricts his ability to mess about - I just hold him earlier and he cries for a few mins in my arms and will then sleep. I have just slowly come to realisation that he is not a lay down and go to sleep kind of child at the moment. The odd thing is he will do that in day time just not at night. He also isnt too bad overnight, is just the going to sleep bit. I wonder if it is because I am better at picking his sleep window in daytime - sometimes I suspect he goes to bed too late but when working I haven't got room to maneuver on that one.

Oh that's really interesting. DD definitely ticks all those boxes except she does not feel tense in the body/muscles (though she's always moving/fidgeting) and except she has actually and slowly gone from a classic 40 min napper to the longer hours I mentioned earlier. I wish I could say i know how!

I just had a vision of her on her first birthday- she was not the only 1 year old at her party in the park and she wasn't the only mobile 1 year old. However she was the only 1 year old running madly around the park without an iota of care regarding where her mama was. She would have just kept running/wandering into the horizon had we of let her. At one point she picked up someone's backback and there she was, wandering off into the sunset with a bag as big as she was.

Thanks for the article hotl! It's nearly all the traits of DD. I gave up on longer naps when she was younger. Just worked on the assumption of 30min naps. Anything extra is bonus. :)