I’m hoping some of my follow mom’s might be able to speak to this issue a little bit.
My son is 11.25 months and seems like he might be starting to try to transition from 2 naps to 1. I have read that the average for this is usually around 15 months but that some may start this early. My question is, is it typical to see the 2nd nap become sort of a cat nap before the full transition takes place? That seems to be common for the transitions from 4 to 3 and from 3 to 2 but I can’t seem to find anything about that happening from 2 to 1. My son’s 4th nap and 3rd nap definitely became cat naps for a while before he finally dropped them and that seems to be the route he’s taking now with the 2nd nap. Has anyone else experienced the 2nd nap becoming a cat nap before being dropped altogether?
Hello and yes
[name_m]Silas[/name_m] is 16 months and over the last couple of months he has largely dropped the 2nd sleep. Having said that he is having one right now! He seemed to lengthen his late morning sleep and shorten his afternoon one until it was out of the routine altogether. xx
We found around 14 months with [name_f]Zuzu[/name_f] that if she took 2 naps she was going down to bed later & later. And she tends to sleep better in the afternoons than the mornings anyway. What we did was start letting her sleep in a little later in the mornings (not sure what time your LO gets up), then waiting until around 1 or 2PM to put her down in the afternoon. I think at that point her naps were 2-3 hours long, and then it was easier to put her down for bed at night. You might find you like the 1-nap scenario because it lets you actually [name_f]DO[/name_f] things without having to run home & put the little person to sleep every _ hours.
Nowadays she’s 2 & 1/2 years, we have to set a timer for her naps. 90 minutes, no more or less, or she’s a total jerk for the rest of the day & bedtime is just painful. I can’t explain it, but the 90 minute thing has been working so we just roll with it.
[name_f]Indie[/name_f] is just about 13 months, she still takes 2 solid naps most days, if we try and restrict her to 1 then she gets tired too early in the evenings & wakes up more over night. Usually she’ll have a shorter nap around noon (maybe 45 minutes) & then take a solid nap when Azula has hers, around 3 or so in the afternoon. We have them sleeping in separate rooms still - I expect when we move them in together it will all hit the fan.
At the infant care (I worked at) the babies transitioned to one nap as early as 13 months, and as late as >2 years. Typically the signs we see are that one of their naps are way longer than the other, and it would be much harder for them to go down on one of the two naps. When they were ready to transition they would also usually be pushing bedtime at night later and later. What we would do is start moving the first nap later in the day like 11:30 instead of 10, let them sleep as long as they wanted, and play the second nap by ear. If they were really tired we would either put them down for a nap or let them rest on a mattress close by. That nap would generally get longer and later, until they’re comfortable and functional with one nap, and bedtime moves back to it’s original time. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] this helps!
Sounds pretty normal to me. I think my first two went to 1 sleep quite early, around the 13 month mark. And that last sleep turned into a very short one prior to that. My middle babe had a ‘boobie snooze’ where she would feed and doze for ten minutes then I’d get off the couch and make dinner! Not the best timing but seemed to do the trick for those transitional weeks/months. I have also heard the average age to drop that second sleep is around 15 months but I have never met anyone who’s baby slept 2 good naps that late, more like 12-14 months. I would say just try to keep that second sleep as a catnap for as long as possible. [name_m]Even[/name_m] 20 minutes will be better than nothing! [name_f]Hope[/name_f] the transition goes smoothly
Yeah, I think it’s pretty normal for that 2nd nap to become a catnap for awhile before disappearing altogether. Sometimes they get in this weird pattern where one day they’ll take two naps, then the next day just one, then two again the following day. That’s kind of where my youngest is right now. All I can say is that eventually it all works out.
Thanks for all the input ladies!
Since my original post he’s had one day with one 2 hour long nap and one day with an hour and a half morning nap followed by a 35 minute afternoon nap. His afternoon naps have mostly been getting shorter and morning naps longer for the last few weeks so he seems to match some of your descriptions of what your LO’s have done at this stage. The thing is he just turned 11 months so this has really been going on since he was about 10.5 months which seems a little on the early side to me but I suppose this is just one area where he might differ from the “norm”. It’s taken him a couple months to complete past nap transitions so I’m thinking we’re looking at the 13-14 month mark for him to be full onto one nap.
and yes