15 month droping one nap---how to consolidate two to one?

C

carey

Registered User
What is your 15 month old sleeping schedule like? I think mine is transiting from two naps to one. In the past week or so, it is like one nap is not enough and two is not possible. He goes down for the morning nap with resistance but bedtime has become tearful.

As he turned 15 month, he stays awake longer. Now, he wakes up somewhere between 530am to 630am, takes a morning nap 4 to 5 hours later, around 10am ---10:30 for about 1.5 hour. Then nothing would make him take a nap in the afternoon. He gets really tired around late afternoon so we have to put him to bed as early as 5:30pm to 6pm.

He used to get up around the same time, napped once in the morning and one in the afternoon. Then go to bed at around 7pm.

We accept that he needs only one nap. But we are thinking how we can move that one nap towards the midday. We, the adults would really like to shut eyes for a while. He still takes one drink of milk in the middle of night and I am in a first trimester with my second.

We really hope that he could have his only nap around 12pm. This way, it is easier for us to catch a nap too. What adjustment should I make to make him nap around midday? If he naps around midday, he could also go to bed a bit later and won?t wake up so early.

Some friends suggest that not to let him nap in the morning doesn?t matter what time he wakes up and push that one nap back to midday to see what happens. I am not sure if I want to do this because I know that he wakes most days around 530am. By 1030am, he is tired, over stimulated and fussy. Well, these transition days he is already irritable and throws fits easily. I think it is a combination of teething and tiredness.
 
Our first also woke up between 5-5:30 and would be irritable by 10:30am. To push it by an hour or more, do it 15 minutes at a time- it definitely helps. A heavy healthy snack so that he doesn't wake up due to hunger or an early lunch at 11 or 11:30am. At 22months he seems to have shifted to 12-12:30 but sometimes when we are going to an activity in the car- he gets a shut eye at 10am and it still throws off the entire day.

Re: the 5 am wake up- it MAY not have anything to do with sleeping early. Since 13 months, it was as if someone would switch on a light bulb at 5am. We tried controlled crying, feeding him, tiring him out the previous day, putting him down 15-30 min early, then late, even let him sleep at 9 for a week- he still got up at 5am and it was even more of a disaster.... And then one day- it suddenly passed! And now gets up at a more decent hour like 6 or 6:30am.
 
Carey, it sounds like your son is doing exactly what he's supp to do in transitioning from 2 to 1 naps. What do you do if he's up at 5:30am? Do you start his day or let him cry/play in his crib? We had a similiar problem, and never started his day before 6am so if he was up at 5:30am, then we would let him cry and sometimes he would go back to sleep until 6:30/7am. As they transition from 2-1 nap, it will be an earlier afternoon nap for 2 - 2.5 hours. As he gets used to it, as he gets older an stronger, he will stretch it to maybe down at 11am, then 11:15, then 11:30 etc...I always made sure we did not do anything to active when my son transitioned so that he would be exhausted at 10am. I made sure all morning activities (walk in stanley, playdates etc...) happened at 8:30/9am. Once he stretched his awake time, we could push his activities start time more towards a normal time - 9:30am. If you are really that passionate about him having 1 nap now, then I would push it back every 10-15 minutes every 2-3 days and see what happens.

You know your son best and what he needs. How can you not let him nap in the morning? My husband and I always felt that if he napped in the morning, then he needed it. We would just shorten his afternoon one. So if he slept 30 minutes in the morning, we would only let him sleep 2 hours in the afternoon and no more no matter what time he went down. This way, he was getting the same amt of sleep during the day, each day, just at different times.
 
Hi,

I am having the same issue. Suddenly my son has started waking up at 5:30 whereas before he was more of a 6:30-7. I've tried playing with his schedule, keeping him up later the night before and nothing. 5:30 and it's like he has a little baby alarm somewhere. Has anyone managed to get their child to switch back to a later wake up time?
 
hi southside852, his nap pattern is definitely the transition one. We managed to get him to take two naps today because last night was a poor night. He woke and got milk two times (cried till we give it to him, want to get rid of middle of night feeds, but that's another story) and made noises throughout the night.

From a baby to a toddler, He wakes up most days at around 5am. In good days, he would wake at 6am/630am. Or in bad days, when he had lost hours of sleep playing that night, he would wake half an hour later. We've tried leaving him there till 6am before picking up. It was not a success. (I guess we were not consistent enough with this). I came to accept the early wake up time because nothing seems to change it: later bedtime, early wake up feeding or leaving him there until 6am. And he seems to get enough hours of sleep in a 24 hour clock.

I don't have the heart to not to let him nap in the morning either, especially when his night sleep is poor.

I have since found a good site to address nap transition. http://www.familysleep.com/age-and-needs.html
 
Hi Carey

We followed the Gina Ford book and were doing the below:

7am wake

9.30am - 10.30am sleep

12 - 2.30pm sleep

4.30pm - 5.30pm sleep

7pm bed for the night

Once the baby got bigger we went with one sleep from 11 - 2pm and slowly moved it to 12 - 3pm. Our 2.5 year old still goes to bed at 12pm for 2.5 - 3 hours (not always sleeping this whole time but still resting).

I would either try to move the morning nap a little a day until you get to 11am/11.30am and if he is tired at 5pm ish then put him down for 45 mins at 5pm. He could then still be in bed by 7.30pm?
 
Hi Carey, my son has always had major sleep problems from around 6 months, but at around 25 months it was bad - up at 5:15am, exhausted by 10am which would then through off our entire afternoon since he would want to go to sleep at around 6:30pm. We had tried many things as well - Gina Ford, No-cry Sleep Solution, CIO, shortening nap, later bedtime etc...but nothing seemed to work. I just knew that I was exhausted and starting the day at 5am was not something I was about to do and I knew my son needed more sleep.

I've recommended our sleep consultant before who is based in Singapore, but who can help anyone via phone (our appt was via phone) or skype. She sorted out my son's sleeping habits out within 3 nights and it's been amazing since.

www.babysleepfairy.com

Tammy, the sleep fairy, is an American living in Singapore.
 
For those babies/toddlers that have dropped to one nap at 12/12:30 - what time do they eat lunch? I would assume around 11am. but if they eat lunch at 11am, what time is breakfast? I'm assuming that for those kids that nap at 12/12:30 they get up really early, right? so they can at least get two meals in before the 12 o'clock nap.
 
Hi southside852, I remember reading your post recommending the sleep fairy before. I was going to give it a try but then things got better and I forgot about it. I was not able to connect to the sleepfairy webiste before too. But it works fine now. I will wait for a few days and if things don't improve, I will try to use her service.
 
My son is 2.5 years old and his is routine since around 20 months has been:

6:30am wake up
7:15am: breakfast
8:45/9am: snack
11:30am lunch
12:30pm - 2:30pm nap
3pm: light snack
6pm:dinner
8:30pm: bedtime

He is in school 3 times a week too and they serve lunch at 11:30am to the kids and 10am snack.
 
Hi ladies, just want to let you know that my son finally make the transition to one nap after close to two weeks adjusting. He takes a nap at 1130am for about two hours ( he is napping over two hours today, keeping my fingers crossed).

The turning point came three days ago. That day, he had a good night sleep the night before ( woke up for one feed but went to sleep right away). We thought we would give it a try to stretch him to 1230 for his nap. He only slept for 1.5 hour. The next day, We put him down at 1130 after another good night sleep the previous night, he went down for 2 hours.

Ultimately, we hope he would nap around 12ish, like Southside's son. Here is his schedule for the day for the last two days:

5:45am to 6am: wake up
630 am: breakfast
9am: snack
11am: lunch
1145--2: nap
230: snack
530pm: supper
630pm: bedtime

Would consider putting him to bed later when he is older. But perhaps wouldn't past 8pm.

Thank you for all your replies.
 
Hi Carey,

my son is only 10 months but he has been working towards one nap a day for a while now. He wakes around 6 but we don't get him up until at least 6.30, he plays in his cot and sometimes goes back to sleep. I found that it was easier to cut out night feeds when I started feeding him a lot in the lead up to bedtime. He has a big dinner at 5pm, then oatmeal/porridge for dessert and a big milk feed (bottle) at 6.30, with a full tummy he sleeps much better. During the day we take him out first thing in the morning and he usually has a 15 minute "power nap" around 9-10am. His big sleep for the day is after lunch around 1-2pm. Some days he does without the power nap and sleeps for longer in the afternoon. We found we really had to "teach" him to sleep and watch for the signs that he was tired. He takes some convincing to go down some days but it's worth the effort. I hope you find something that works for you.

http://typhoonsandtantrums.blogspot.com
 
Hi FutureHkMom,

My son isn't at this stage yet but I have a friend whose 2 year old naps at 12 for 2-2 1/2 hrs. He has a snack before going to sleep then has his lunch when he wakes up. Hope that helps.
 
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