No Second Nap

Sounds exactly like my son. About that time he did the same, and I held onto it as long as I could, but what we did was keep him up til about 11 at first, and he'd sleep til maybe 1, then we moved it a little later. Now he goes down around 12:30 and sleeps until maybe 3, then dinner and evenig time aren't such a drama. Good luck!

He will adjust, I would suggest slowly moving his morning nap later and later until you can get him napping in the afternoon. Good Luck.

Ditto the others, the morning nap is the one that should go. My boys both stopped taking am orning nap around 9 months. They would sleep good in the morning nap but wouldn't for the afternoon. Once I cut out the morning nap at 9 months, they would be back to sleeping 2-3hrs in the afternoon.

Now that its getting nice out, take him outside for a while in the morning around his naptime. Just walk around and let him enjoy the outside, then bring him in, play some games, have an early lunch (11am), then give him a nap around noon.

It sounds like a combination of outgrowing a second nap, and too much sleep in the earlier part of the day. I agree with some of the posts. Try pushing the morning nap later, or maybe eliminate the morning nap altogether, so that he'll want to take one by afternoon.

Hi M.....Try and lay him down for his morning nap a hour later and see if that helps...

I'm going through the same thing right now with my 20-mo-old. I just watch for his cues (rubbing eyes, getting crabby) to put him down for his nap. Sometimes he takes a morning nap (around 10:30) and sometimes he's fine until after lunch (about 1:00pm).
Maybe you could try to get him to stay up a little longer in the morning, so it's more of a mid-day nap. Then maybe he can hold out longer at night. But 11-12 hours at night is awesome!! Mine sleeps about 10 at night.

I was experiencing the same issue. It started when my daughter was around 14 months old. She is 15 months now. We started delaying her morning nap until 11:00 or noon. It took her awhile to adjust but now she is down to one nap a day. Although that nap was, at first, only an hour long. By 5:00 (as you described) she was really tired and cranky. We made her bed time earlier (6:30) for awhile and now she seemes to have adjusted and is taking one nap 1 1/2 to 3 hours in length and goes down at 7:00/7:30 at night. It took over a month to get this to happen smoothly.

My little guy, Gordi, is almost 20 mos. and was the same way. What I've done with him is to keep him up longer so that when he does nap for 2-3 hours he's not as fussy in the evening. My son is a great sleeper but that last hour of the day is tough!

Hang in there....life is full of transitions :)

Kind regards,
J.

I too read that they drop the morning nap first...but neither of my kids did...the afternoon was the one that went away. The only thing you can do is to push the morning nap back and back until it becomes a noon nap (or whatever time works for you). It'll take a few weeks, but soon enough the sleeping in dinner will be a thing of the past! Best of luck!

What would happen if you didn't let him go down in the morning. Try keeping him up a little longer each day until you can move the nap to the afternoon. They usually do give a a nap by this age, but since he probably didn't read your book, he may not know it was supposed to be the morning nap:)

At this age their schedules are pretty easy to manipulate. (Unlike they are at the age of, say 18.) By the way, it is OK to let them just be alone in their crib even if they don't sleep. We called it our "quiet-time" and kept it up until they were way older. I home-schooled 6 boys and having them all in their respective "corners" for an hour or two in the afternoon was not a luxury, it was a survival skill!

M.,

What worked for my kids when they made the transition from two to one nap, was to keep them very busy, and go with one long nap half way between the morning and afternoon naps--say 11:00 or 11:30 instead of a 9 am and 2pm nap. This may be easier now that the weather is warmer and you can occupy your little guy with a nice outside activity, such as planting flowers, walks, etc. Then, work that nap into the early afternoon. Good luck. I remember how much I needed my kids (at the time 3 under 4yrs) to rest!

He'll adjust. In the meantime you can let him take a short nap before dinner, then push bedtime back just a little. As he gets used to staying up a little longer, push bedtime forward again and eventually he'll be on a one nap schedule. It's possible that he may take a second nap every few days/once a week or so as he is adjusting as well. Just be flexible. It could also flip and he may start staying up later in the morning, then go back to an early afternoon nap, allowing for your original bedtime. Several of my kids did this and we just rolled with it.

SAHM of seven

Hi M.,
We followed that same book for both of our boys (and loved it!) (the boys are now 4 and 2 1/2 yrs).
I had this same thing happen with one of them too. What I found was I just went ahead and did what you are doing- he slept for the morning nap and then just "played around"- no sleeping, but resting for the the 2nd nap and then, just like yours, tired by 5:30 or 6. I started putting him to bed at that time (6-ish or a little before) since he was tired. I know it seems early, but it was actually best for my boy. He then got good sleep at night, still had 1 good nap and 1 good rest during the day, and after 6 weeks or so, he eventually worked into that 1 nap a day over the lunch time (11-ish to 2-ish). I know it is a bit of a hard transition time, but I just put him down when he was tired at night, no matter what the clock said, and adjusted his supper time up accordingly. It was helpful for me to remember that it wouldn't be this schedule forever (early, early bedtime), but that it would just be for the transition time of going to the 1 nap and still getting him enough total sleep.
Hope this helps..... Tami

Hi there,

I remember this time....Could you gradually move the morning nap back .5 hour over the course of a few weeks? I think that's what I did. You could also start having lunch a bit earlier to help move the nap to after lunch. Good luck.

My daughter did that around that age too! She also preferred her morning nap vs. the afternoon nap, at least in the beginning. But we just gradually transitioned her habit to taking the afternoon nap instead. We don't really have that much structure to our day, but we do fill the morning "lull" with activities and a snack to keep them busy until lunch time and then it's off to nap! I'm sure with a little adjusting he'll get there! Good luck!

My 15 month old takes just one afternoon nap a day, from 12 to 2 or 3. You will probably just have to train him. Keep him up during the morning (keep him busy with play, etc), give him lunch around 11:30 and then put him down for a nap. That way he won't be too tired for dinner.

It shouldn't take too long to get him on this schedule.

My son did the same thing your son did. He gave up his afternoon nap first. Like you, I thought this was strange as it seems kids usually give up their morning naps first. I guess each kid has their own vibe. What I did was slowly move his morning nap later and later over time. It took awhile, but eventually he started to take his 1 nap between 12 and 1pm. It was hard for the first 1 or 2 weeks as he adjusted, but now he does great.

I too follow that book, it was a life-saver when my little girl was still waking to nurse 4 times a night at 8 months old! My girl too gave up the after noon nap first, right about the same age as your son is doing it now (she is 16 months today) . Sometimes, I still get two actual naps, depending on how active our day is, sometimes we get one and a rest period og playing in her crib like you are having, and sometimes, we just have one longer nap. It all depends on the day, and whether she is having a growth spurt or not, and I just go with the flow - if she needs 2 naps, so be it, and if not, no biggie. What I try to do is push her morning nap back a little, by keeping her very active until 10am or so, then she will usually sleep until 12:30-1:00. But if she is really acting tired and crabby earlier, we will put her down for an earlier morning nap, and then try another in the later afternoon between 2 and 3. Also, if she takes only the one nap, she will et tired earlier in the evening, I just put her down a little earlier; our usualy bedtime is 6:30 (and she usually sleeps through the night til 7 am or later) so on a tired night I might push it up till 6:00. I just follow her cues, and let her decide when to go to bed. Usually, if she is yawning and acting sleepy, I ask her if she wants to go up to bed, and she will run to the gate at the bottom of the stairs and say UP!

Good Luck, let him lead you to what he needs!

Jess

My daughter started giving up the morning nap at around 15 mos.
Can you push the morning nap back a half hour a day until it turns into a pm nap?

M. - Not sure what time he takes his morning nap but I would suggest to move him to 1 afternoon nap which is what I do with all the daycare kids I have. Keep him up through the morning and wait to put him down until after lunch - you can do lunch early like 11am and then put him down. That way he will get that 1 nap later in the day than he is now and hopefully it will keep him from being crabby in the evenings. Good luck! K.

Try pushing his morning nap back a little each day. Eventually he should adjust to sleeping later in the day. In the morning when he is used to sleeping try to distract him and keep him busy so that he doesn't get too sleepy and crabby. We had to use the distraction method at night for awhile because we didn't want our daughter going to bed too early, but didn't want to hear crying for an hour. It was a little extra work on our part, but worth it to have her sleep longer the next morning.

At first we cut our son's first nap to 45 minutes- it worked pretty well as that is usually the length of a sleep cycle anyway... and then put him down a bit later than before for afternoon naps. That worked for awhile, but when he stopped the afternoon naps altogether, we gradually pushed his nap back a little until it became an afternoon nap. Try a half hour later each week until you get it where you want it. Keep his morning busy- it should help that nicer weather is coming. You can keep him distracted outside more! Good luck!

Hi M.,
I agree with the other posts about trying to shift him/hold him off until early afternoon for a nice big nap! One thing you could try during this transitional time (one nap is not enough, two naps is too much) is to just let him sleep a short time in the morning...maybe 20-30 minutes? This might take the edge off for him, but still allow him to sleep in the afternoon. Those days were not so long ago at our house too...it's tricky!

Good luck!

Nap schedules are hard because every kid is different. We are going through the same thing with our 22 month old, and I have found that if you can make him last until around 11:30 or noon that a nap from 11:30 until 1 or 1:30 does a pretty good job. Other than that, it's trail and error :)

I kind of had to do this with my son. He was still taking 2 naps, but he would take one in the morning a couple hours after waking up, get up in time for his sisters (then 2 and 3) to eat lunch and nap and then want to nap about the time his sisters woke up. Since I had NO break throughout the day I tried to transition him to one nap by keeping him up through his 1st nap and putting him down earlier than I would have for his 2nd nap (kind of in between the 2.) Now, you could tell he was tired, but he wasn't super cranky or groggy. So, I don't know if that would work for your son if he still really needs that am nap, but you could try. Also, does the hour of "play" in his crib help? Maybe he just needs some downtime in the afternoon and not just a nap. I still have my 5 year old lay down for an hour in the afternoon. She rarely naps, but definitely gets up refreshed and makes our evening a lot more pleasant. Good luck!

When I tried to take away the morning nap and put my Daughter(youngest of three) down for afternoon nap instead she got her "second Wind" and would not sleep at all during the day anymore. She would still get crabby late in the day, but she will grab her blanket and go in her room for a while and talk to herself, but she does not nap at all anymore. It is hard for me because there is no time for myself anymore, but she has adjusted really well and sleeps all night so I have just had to learn to find things to keep there attention when I need a "break". Good luck with finding what works. If you do try to change to an afternoon nap, I would suggest doing it gradually. Like putting him down fifteen minutes later every morning for his moorning nap until it is at a point that it works best for you and him.

M.; i am a mom of 3 boys, and i remember trying very hard to get the child take a nap, when really the child was the kind that was not tired at that moment, every child is different, and some kids need a nap, and some dont, this took having 3 kids to realize this, they are all different, find what is best for your child, and that is what is right for you and him, so keep up the good work, and enjoy the awake time you do have with them, they grow up sooo fast, D. s

I would try to make him wait for his morning nap until about 11:30 ish. Then have just a quiet time in the afternoon for your sake and his so he can make it until 7.
My daughter is 3, so naps are pretty much over. But once in a while she will need a nap in the afternoon and just fall asleep. I think it's growth stages. A time to Eat, sleep, grow.
Good Luck.

I agree push the morning nap back bit by bit until it is the afternoon nap. Also he may not need the nap but may still need the down time. My son still often needs to go to his room in the morning to read or quietly play on his bed. He knows how much he needs & will let us know when he is ready to come back out.

At 15 months my daughter dropped her 1 hour afternoon nap, and kept her 1.5 hour morning nap. We moved it back a little - 15 minutes a day - until she was going down at 11:30am for 1 hour. It seemed to work for her. She wouldn't nap in the afternoon, but we always had quiet time - reading, listening to classical music and gentle baby music. Good Luck.

I think that spring and daylight savings have messed up both my kids right now too. Maybe try putting your son down a little earlier. He could need to be put down a little earlier or later too. I would stay with the nap, he's really young to stop napping twice. I knew some kids who did loose that nap and they just seemed awful come evening.

I wold try to keep him up for longer in the morning before you put him down for that first nap. That way he will stay up for his night bed time becasue he will go down for a nap later and wake up later.

Yes you will want to take out the first nap but it is not really something kids tend to figure out on their own without your help..not any of the 4 of mine anyways. During this age when they are just transitioning from 2 to 1 nap my kids would get really tired and cranky towards the end time of thier typical first nap time so I started laying them down for about 20 minutes of sleep...that;s it... and get them right up so they would be tired enough again at second nap time to actually want to sleep. What your son is doing sounds really typical...wanting the first nap but not being tired enough after it to sleep a second time and then being super tired by supper time. It is hard to do the mini nap thing as once they are asleep it is SO hard to wake them up:) but it really helped me with the transition from 2 naps to 1 nap. I really only had to do it for about 2 weeks and then I was able to move up second nap time to just after lunch and they transitioned fairly well into one nap. They ended up sleeping longer as well so the early evenings weren't such a cranky time anymore. It isn't the funnest stage but it should only take 2 weeks and he should be into a pattern that works for you...
Good luck K. H.