Transitioning from 2 naps to 1.

[UmmInayah]

There are so many threads about this lately haha.

But just wondering, what are things to look out for to know if bub is ready for just one nap?

My DD used to sleep at 7:30pm, but it is slowly getting later and later and she is in bed by 9pm some nights. She will wake at 8pm, so it's not a big drama, but I would like to have more time with DH in the evenings.

She has a nap at 10:30 am for 1.5 hours, and another around 3:30/4 for 45-1 hour.

I have tried putting her down for her second nap earlier, but it doesn't take and she wakes up grumpy.

So, how did you know your bub was ready? Or was it just hit and miss?

[Areca]

Sounds like she's ready to transition to one nap...push her morning back a bit later. It will take a few days to a week for her to get a new routine happening.
When DD1 started doing it she just started fighting her afternoon nap and then staying up until late at night. For a couple of weeks she only had one one hour nap but then for a while her routine was down for a nap from 11am-2pm.
DD2 has been at one day nap since she was 8 months old. She was easy and just cut out her morning nap altogether but she only ever cat napped of a morning and now has a 2 or 3 hour sleep from about 1pm.

[UmmInayah]

Thanks heaps for the advice!

I am so worried about altering her routine at the moment because it took me so long to get her to sleep longer than 45 mins each nap.

I will give it a couple more weeks and see how we go. I might try stretching her morning nap out by 15 mins every few days and see how we go that way. Too scared to just go "cold turkey" as such :o

[justmum]

We're doing this atm too. It's really hard - we've started putting DS down for one sleep from 10.30 til 1. He just can't last any later in the morning.

But tomorrow, he will have 2 sleeps. This is because he's had 2 days with just the one sleep and is now very tired.

I think the key is to be flexible with it - if Inayah needs 2 sleeps in the one day because she's asleep on her feet then go with it, or think about popping her in the pram and taking her for a brief walk so she has a refresher in the pram (if she'll sleep in it).

I have heard that the transition from 2 naps to 1 can take quite a few weeks.

[RmumR]

Took about 2 weeks for my DD to get down to one sleep and now she is happily in the new routine and sleeps from 12 til 2.30 (occasionally 3) each day. She sleeps till 8am in the morning and goes to bed at 7/730pm.

Whilst transitioning i filled the later mornings when she would usually be having a nap with an activity to distract her so she wouldn't be too stroppy and did the same in the late arvo/evening - exhausting but worth it to get into a new routine when the old one wasn't working anymore.