When to drop to one day sleep?

[mellys bubby belly]

Just wondering when you knew that your bub was ready to drop to one day sleep?

DD is turning one in less than three weeks, and trying to get her down for her arvo sleep is like world war 3!!!

She normally sleeps for 1 to 1 & 1/2 hours each morning and she's quite happy to go down for that sleep. However in the arvo, after noticing her tired signs (at least, that's what I THOUGHT I was noticing ), I'll put her to bed and she'll just play in her cot for over an hour, occasionally grizzling in between playing, but mostly quite happy. Then when she really gets grizzly, it's more because she's bored/frustrated at still being in the cot, not coz she's overtired!

I've tried going and and re-wrapping as soon as I know she's standing up in the cot, I've tried leaving her to her own devices in the hope that she'll tire herself out and fall asleep, and I've tried leaving her til she gets really grizzly then going in to rewrap her - makes no difference, she just ain't sleeping

So after a week of this, I gave in and got her up again, and she was fine! Happy to play in her playpen and went off to bed after dinner and bath with no dramas. So to me, this would indicate that she's ready to drop the arvo sleep. I know most of you are probably thinking "well, der " ....

But my concerns are that she is usually up in the morning around 6-6.30ish, and she's well and truly ready for her morning sleep three hours after that. So this means that most days she is up again by 11am, which would leave her awake for 7 hours til bedtime. This seems like such a long time between sleeps???

So if you could share any advice or your own experiences with this, I'd really appreciate it!! (Sorry for the mega-long post, summarising has never been one of my strong points )

[Arimeh]

I'm pretty sure DD was around the same age when she dropped her arvo nap - and yes, just like world war 3 trying to get her to go down!! arghh the dramas!!

I just increased her staying up time (she was also going down at 9.30) every few days, so one day I would push her out to 10, then a couple of days later, go for 10.30. At the moment she goes anywhere between 10.30 and 11.30 - depends on her night and how early she got up. Today she will probably go down around 11 cos she had a crappy night (well, she made us all have a crappy night!) and usually sleeps for about 2 hours. Then she goes to bed at around 7pm-ish.

Their bodies just have to get used to being stretched that little bit longer for sleep, but it doesn't take too long for them to adjust.

[Lolli]

:yeahthat: Just agreeing with Mel. Stretch her out a little bit at a time. The first few days will feel reeeally long for both of you, but it won't take long to adjust

[HollyC]

DD did something very similar at about 10 months.

I too was worried that she was up for so long in the afternoon after a sleep in the morning, but it didn't worry her. It was me who needed a break.

If she did get grouchy in the afternoon I'd take her for a walk in the pram. Sometimes she would have a little nap, but even if she didn't she had a rest.

Once the arvo sleep was definitely gone the morning sleep started getting later. That was through DD's choice, but you could also stretch it out if you like.

[SammyRo]

DD was a similar age when she dropped to one sleep. I can't quite remember all the details, but I do remember noticing that if she had 2 sleeps, she had a really unsettled night, but the days that she had only one sleep, she slept much better at night.

As pp have said, I think we just stretched out the time she went for the first nap of the day. It's hard because they get grumpy, but we just found ways to distract her till sleep time. And then some days, she would still maybe have a half hour nap later on in the afternoon, especially if we hadn't managed to stretch out the morning sleep for that long. And I think it sort of fell into place itself really.

[mellys bubby belly]

Thanks all! I really appreciate your feedback.

I think I'm just going to play it by ear (isn't that what parenthood is all about anyways ) and she how she goes day-to-day.

SammyRo: I've found that DD is the same in that she sleeps better at night when she's only had the one day sleep, but in saying that, today she went down for an arvo sleep with no dramas coz we'd been to mother's group and she'd had a huge play with all the kids.

So yep, we'll see how we go tonight!!

Thanks again!!