How did you progress from 2 day sleeps to 1?

[Mummy_Johnno]

Hopefully this hasn't been covered and all my questions will be answered ............ :fingerscrossed:

DS is 17 months and has 2 day sleeps. The last 2 days, i have cut out his morning day sleep.

Here is his old sleep routine.

wake 6.30
sleep 9.30 - 10.30
sleep 2 - 3
bed 8

And now his new one.

wake 6.30
sleep after lunch 12 .30ish ( sleeps 12.30 - 1.30 )
bed 7.30ish

My questions are ....

At what age did you drop a day sleep?
Why does DS still only sleep for 1 hour although i have cut out the 2nd sleep?? You would think he would sleep longer!
Any ideas on how to get him to sleep longer during his sleep

Any advice will be well received

Lyn

[sarahbelle]

At about 14 months DS started skipping the odd sleep or sometimes he would stay in bed but not sleep. Some days he needed 2 sleeps and other days he only had the one. Eventually he just stopped the second sleep altogether (at about 16 months.) With DS it is very obvious when he is tired and he often asks to go to bed. I usually put him down at about 11 - 1130 and he sleeps for about 2 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. If it is less he is usually in bed earlier at night. He usually wakes about 630, sleep at 11 - 1130 bed between 630 and 7 depending on his sleep.

You will know when the routine changes to just 1 sleep because the child will not sleep. I actually found it better because it meant we could do stuff instead of always having to go inbetween the 2 sleeps.

Good luck

[li'l mac]

We danced around dropping the second sleep for a while before it became a routine. Initially i would just use DS as a guide but would try to go out in the morning and engage him in some sort of active activity throughout the time he would normally have his first nap. Then put him down for his nap around lunch time (so kind of in the middle of the 2 sleeps he used to have). I had the same thing where DS didn't sleep any longer, despite having one less nap in the day. Eventually he slept longer as the routine firmed up a bit. Like I said, we went back and forth between 1 and 2 naps for a while, as I found some days he just couldn't cope without a sleep at the star of the day.

Just go with it, in hindsight i can see that it all worked itself out naturally, but at the time I was so worried about making sure he got enough sleep. Good luck, don't worry if it takes a while for the new routine to take hold.