For the past year Emerson has been on the same schedule—like clockwork. Morning nap from 9:30-11:30 and afternoon nap from 3-5. About two weeks ago he all of a sudden stopped taking one of his naps… if he got a morning nap in he wouldn’t take his afternoon nap, or vice versa. I’ve been trying to be flexible about the change—holding him off here or there so he can just take one nap a day and so it will be long, or putting him down earlier when I know he’s tired and foregoing the afternoon nap—but recently it’s been really tough to figure out when this nap needs to be. I feel like one nap just isn’t enough and he ends up being more tired and cranky throughout the day (even though he won’t sleep).
When I hold off his nap until about 1pm, he seems to sleep longer (about 3 hours), but then he’s cranky all morning! Today I had an early lunch with a friend and E was so tired he fell asleep on the way home… I put him down when we got home and he only slept for another 1.5 hours, woke up cranky, and was cranky the rest of the day. Help! I am dying to have my old solid napper and happy child back.
I guess for now I’ll just keep letting play on my bed when he gets tired.
4 comments:
We are fighting the two to one nap battle right now...it's so hard! I feel your pain on the crankypants. Bah!
Matt transitioned around 13.5 months. It takes awhile to find that right time to put them down. For Matt it was about 11:30am to 12:30pm or if we were driving at 11am he would fall asleep in the car. The nap ranged anywhere from 1 hr and 45 minutes to 3 hours but usually falls a little over 2 hours.
The one nap is not as long as the two naps combined but they might add some of that time to their night sleep. The one nap is nice to have more time to go out and do things in the morning and afternoon but you also lose that time to yourself in the morning. Now I like to get Matt really tired by taking him to the park before his nap. Good luck though! Transitions are so hard and I feel now we are in constant transition with this kid!
Yeah, it's a hard transition. Two naps is SOOOO nice:) and the one, 2 hour, nap doesn't seem as good- that is until they get used to that schedule and then in their 'bad' days don't take any naps, YIKES!
The transition was a little rough, but I am a fan of the one nap. In the beginning, I would put River down between 12:15-12:30, because he was getting so tired and cranky. When he was more used to the schedule, I pushed it back to 1:00. We have more free time to do stuff and I don't feel like I'm planning my life around naps anymore. Sometimes his naps are two hours and sometimes I have to wake him up at five, so he'll go to bed at a decent hour. I think life is pretty good, if a two hour nap seems short. Along with the one nap a day, he started sleeping in till 8:30 most days... so instead of 7-7 he goes to bed at 8 and gets up between 8 and 8:30. The one problem is if you can't get out of the house, it is a crankfest... one nap a day babes need outside time or change of scenery... might be rough with a little one on the way. Good luck.
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