Common Pitfalls of the 2-to-1 Nap Transition
Nap transitions are one of the many reason that baby sleep can feel so complicated. In the first year of life, your baby goes through many of them! From several naps a day as a sleepy newborn to only two naps as a busy one-year-old.
Each time a nap drops, you pull bedtime earlier to help baby adjust, and then it seems like as soon as you’re settled into a good rhythm again - it’s time to drop another nap!
It reminds me of my step aerobics days in college and my early twenties - as soon as you finally got the combo down, it would be time to move onto a new one!
There’s one nap transition I find to be the most challenging and that is when it’s time to drop down to only one nap.
First, how do you know when your child is ready for only one nap?
Between the ages of 13-18 months - I have worked with a handful of clients that were the exception to this. Some babies really are ready for one nap around 11-12 months. But most babies are ready around 14/15 months. I’ve never worked with an 18-month-old who was still taking two naps, but it’s possible!
Taking more than 20 minutes to fall asleep for either nap. This is a sign that your child is going down for their nap under-tired and is ready for their wake windows to be pushed!
One of the naps starts getting shorter (less than an hour) or inconsistent. The first nap tends to happen because of the “sleep hangover” that babies experience in the morning, but it may become shorter. They will also start to fight that second nap of the day, maybe even refusing it all together some days leading to a cranky baby at bedtime!
Early wakings start to become a thing. I consider an “early waking” to be anything before 6am. This is a sign of your child’s sleep needs changing. It could be a result of too much daytime sleep, not a long enough wake window before bed, overtiredness from refusing a nap or any combination of the above! Overall, it means that their schedule is imbalanced.
If you notice any three of the above are happening for two weeks or more, it’s a pretty clear indication that your child is ready to transition to one nap.
Once you’ve decided that it’s time to make a change, you want to make sure you do it the right way!
Here Are The 3 Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Transitioning to One Nap:
Forcing the transition before baby is ready - This is one of my biggest beefs with daycare centers. It is very common for them to force babies to drop to one nap as soon as they are 12 months or when they move into the toddler room, around that same time. Baby will eventually adjust but it can be a rough couple of months! But sometimes parents are the ones who decide to make this transition too early because they mistake symptoms of the 12-month-regression with signs of needing to drop a nap. This can be a tricky distinction as lots of developmental milestones are happening around this age, including walking! My best advice is to stay consistent and wait it out for a few weeks. You are likely to see a rebound in sleep. And if not, you can work towards one nap feeling confident that your child truly is ready.
Making the change too suddenly - Along the same lines as doing it too early, it’s also easy to make the mistake of doing it too quickly. A “transition” is defined as the process or period of changing from one state or condition to another. A nap transition is just that, a process, not an event that takes place from one day to the next. It is important to make the change gradually by pushing the first nap later by about 15-30 minutes every few days until you are at your desired nap time. At this point, the second nap is forced to drop as there will be no room for it in baby’s day. So, when is the desired nap time or one nap? It could be anywhere between 11am and 1pm, depending on when your child starts their day. But in general, your child needs to be able to tolerate a 5-hour wake window in order to be on a one-nap schedule. For a child who starts their day at 7am, this would mean naptime at noon.
Taking sleep away without giving it back - One of the reasons this nap transition is the most challenging is because it’s a HUGE one for baby. Unlike previous nap transitions, it is one half of their naps! If baby was getting 2 1/2 hours of daytime sleep on 2 naps, they should be getting close to the same amount (maybe 30 minutes less) when they drop to one nap. But their first, and now only, nap may take a little time to lengthen as baby’s body adjusts to the new rhythm. Until that happens, be sure to pull bedtime earlier in order to make up for lost daytime sleep. A 6:00pm bedtime is not crazy during this nap transition. It can take baby 4-6 weeks to fully adjust to the change.
While this can definitely be the trickiest nap transition of them all, it’s totally worth it! One solid midday nap gives you the opportunity to get out and about in the morning without worrying about rushing back for a morning nap.
Once you’re on a one-nap schedule you will be there for quite a while! Unlike the other nap transitions that only seemed to last for a handful of months at the most. This one will last you until your child is ready to stop napping all together, which hopefully won’t be until sometime around three years of age!
I offer 45-minute Ask Me Anything calls which are a great tool if you’re struggling with a nap transition. I can help you decide if your child is ready or not and guide you through a step-by-step plan for making the change gradually. When you book the call, I will send you my sleep questionnaire to fill out. This way, I will already have all of the background information when we talk on the phone, making our time together more productive.
Book an Ask Me Anything call for expert help troubleshooting your child’s sleep!