Need Help Trying to Transition from 2 Naps to 1 Nap!

I would keep pushing him to 12:00 and see if he starts to sleep longer, at the same time I wouldn't give him another nap in the afternoon. If he needed one, you could only let him sleep for about 30 minutes. My mom works at a day care and I know that their toddlers only get one naps, some only sleep an hour, some sleep longer, it just all depends. At the same time, I know kids who are going into Kindergarten this year that still take one nap a day and both of my girls (4 and 5.5) don't take any naps. Sometimes it's just a matter of letting the child guide you. Good luck!!

We were on almost the same schedule and ran into the same problem -- two was too many, one was not enough. We started keeping him up until noon and would really wear him out before that -- playing outside all morning, etc. It took a few weeks but he eventually started napping for 2+ hours. You may have a week or two where he's a bit tired and cranky, but once he adjusts he will be fine!

I had to transition my youngest a little early due to my oldests school schedule. I needed her to nap from 12:45-2:45pm. It took a little while for the transition to "officially" happen. During that time, I made sure to be out running errands or playing somewhere. If she fell asleep in the car while running errands, it would be okay, because she wouldn't be sleeping for long. There would be times where she would fall asleep on the couch in the late afternoon, but I wouldn't let her sleep too long. It did take a few months to transition smoothly, but it will happen. Stick with it and he'll eventually sleep longer in the afternoon. Good luck!

If you just jump in and switch him to 12pm naptime, it will take about 2 weeks for his body to adjust. He should start sleeping longer, but like everything else with children, every one is different and he may not nap longer than an hour. I would change his bedtime when you change his nap time. Mine goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm, this is after a 3 hour nap, he gets up at 6am. Don't be afraid to put them to bed early when they are too tired to stay up till 9pm. When they are tired they need sleep, my daughter went to bed at 6:30pm the other day and slept until 8:30am. Sometimes, summer just tires them out. Good luck.

Ugh. This is such a hard transition and it seems to last so long! You could try pushing the morning nap back by 15 or 20 minutes each day/every 2-3 days so you can get it to be in the middle of the day. I remember my daughter's doc saying the afternoon nap would start to get longer, but for a long time it was never longer than 1.5 hours. THose 2 hour naps were very elusive until we had the afternoon naptime fully established. Good luck.

Hi i can totally relate. My daughter is 13months and she naps @ 10:30 and 2:30 but,i completely got rid of her morning nap and now i wait till 12 or 12:30 to put her down and she's been sleeping anywhere from hour and a half to 2 and a half hours. Try that i think eventually he will sleep longer it will take some time to adjust.

Goodluck!

I guess every kid is different, but my daughter who is also 17 months has been on 1 nap for months now. She usualy wakes up between 6:30-7, eats lunch around 11:15, takes a nap from about 12-2 and then goes to bed at 8. She went down to 1 nap at daycare before she turned 1, but didn't really start doing it at home until around 13 months. Maybe if you can distract him with an activity he really likes when he starts getting tired in the morning and make sure his belly is full before going down for nap. Also, when he wakes up after 1 hr, is he really ready to get up, would he maybe fall back asleep easily if you didn't get him up?

that is exactly what my daughter did.. she would sleep great for her morning nap.. but not want the afternoon nap and thenif she did sleep in the afternoon she wouldnt go to sleep at night..
try to get him outside doing things in the morning go to the park... etc.. wear him out... keep pushing the morning nap a bit later and hopefully you can get him to sleep longer... but babies wake up when they are done sleeping... also when they go from2 to 1 nap the bedtime moves earlier... so bedtime might be 630pm for a while ...

you can also wake himup from the afternoon nap if bedtime isthe problem

This sounds JUST like what I went through w/ my daughter. From about 14m until about 19-ish months, we had a rough time w/ naps. Some days she needed and happily took two naps, other days just one was enough & some days she needed two but would only take one...it was rough, so you're not alone. The best thing I did to survive that rough patch (because it DOES get better) was to move up her bedtime. When taking two naps regularly, she would go to bed about 7:15/7:30, but once her naps became all wacky, I started putting her to bed about 6pm. The first few nights I remember being a bit tough but she got w/ the new nighttime program fairly quick (and still slept until about the same time in the morning). The extra night sleep, I think, helped her drop her morning nap completely and maintain until about 12/12:30 for a once a day nap. Eventually that one nap became longer & longer (2-3hrs typically) and then I moved her bedtime back to 7:15-ish. So, hang in there & try moving his bedtime up an hour or so for a few weeks. Best of luck!