Hello!
I am a mom of a 17 mth old son whom has recently stopped taking 2 naps. My son was on such a great nap schedule, one at 9 and one at 1:30. Both naps lasted an hour and a half. NOW, he takes one nap. He's been taking it in the morning b/c he has a very difficult time making through the morning w/ no nap. He goes down at 10 and naps until 11:30ish. Here's my problem, he is SO tired by 3pm that he turns into a miserable person until bedtime. He refuses to go to sleep in the afternoon. Has anyone had any similar experiences? Should I make him stay away until lunchtime even though he is so tired 2-3 hours after waking in the morning????
Thanks!
my son was on the same schedule. 9 and 1:30. What I ended up doing was keeping him up until 12;00 giving him lunch and then down at 12:30. you could try to keep him up an extra half hour each day until you reach noon. now my son goes down anywhere from 12:30-2;30 OR EVEN 3;30. good luck!
You could stretch the morning awake time 20 minutes for 2/3 days (or more days if you think he needs it), and keep up with that pattern until he is sleeping as late as you need him to. Also, even if he is not napping in the afternoons, a good long stretch of down time can be very restorative, for both of you!
I would try to make his morning nap later. Try and make it to 11 or 12. That way he will be getting rest a little later in the day, but early enough not to interrupt his bed time schedule.
Good Luck.
Sam
Mother of 3 - Devin 6, Donovan 4, Mya 2
J.,
We had this same fight with my son, only switching him to one nap was a little easier for us because he is at Daycare so we really didn't have the fight they did. Anyway what they did was switch him over about 15-30 min at a time. So if he goes down at ten then try to push him to 10:30 and do that for two or three days then push him to 11:00 and do that for a day or two then to 11:30 and so on...before you know it he will be napping mid day and all will be better. My son naps from 12:30 - 2:30 and it is perfect!
Good luck and hope this helps!
i see you have a baby on the way. you prob need the naps just a much as your son.
my daughter started doing that when she was around the same age. i still put her in her crib and kept the routine. yeah, she cried. oh man did she cry! but, i kept with the nap time routine. and about a week or so later...she just stop cring altogether and even now at nap time i give her a book and walk away. sometimes she naps other times she just has quite time. keep with the nap time.
My daughter went down from 2 naps to 1 nap around 16 months. She now takes a nap around 11:30 for about an hour and a half to 2 hours, sometimes I can get her to wait until after lunch around 1pm to take a nap. Usually she's very good about staying awake, I just keep her busy with toys and such and she does well. Good luck!
Hi!
He sounds exactly like my 16 month old son! Aidan stopped the afternoon nap a couple weeks ago and he starts fussing around 3pm but it's 5pm that he truly is just MISERABLE! I know a lot of mom's stop the bottle at 1 yr but I give him a small bottle and a cuddle at 3pm then either a bottle of water or milk at 5pm. It gives him a little rest, a little love and seems to give him a second wind. I tried soooo hard to keep napping him in the afternoon but then he'd be up all night. With my older son I switched nap time to after lunch and it worked out great but so far Aidan still likes his morning nap. I'll take what I can get! Transitions can be harder on mom than baby! : ) Good luck and hang in there!
