1 Nap transition

The dreaded nap transition.  It freaks every mother out I’m sure – and no one has ANY idea how it’s going to work, if it’s going to work, how long it’ll take to work and if you’re about to be lumped with a cranky toddler for the next…well who knows how long.

We had received a great booklet when we did our sleep training with Christine from Happy Sleepers – which listed all the different awake times for different ages.  Although it is a guideline as every baby is different – Harper had been pretty much “to the book” if you like when it came to awake times and her age.  So according to the “booklet” you transitioned your bub to 1 nap at around 15 months.  

WELL – let’s just look at what actually happened.  Since around 6.5-7 months Harper had been on 2 naps – and they worked perfectly.  It looked like this:

7am wake

10:00/1030 Nap – she would sleep for around an hour and a half

12:00 wake

3pm nap

4-4:30 awake

7pm bedtime

Like a flipping dream it was.  I knew when we could be out of the house and when we would need to be home.  If you wanted to see me – brunch was out – lunch was in – you could call it clockwork.  15 months at the time seemed a while away – and wasn’t really on my radar to start preparing fo the dreaded one nap.

Let’s then fast forward to her 1st birthday – yes 12 months old.  We were busy organising her birthday party – she went down for her first nap – perfect, and woke at 12:00 as usual just in time to get all spruced up for her party at 12:30.  Now – quite rightly she was stimulated AF – I mean it’s her party and she partied like it was 1999…or 2019 as it were.  Centre of attention, cuddles galore, the little sausage was in her element – my social butterfly.  So 3pm comes around and off we go to pop her to bed…..well…do you think she would fall asleep?? I mean – would you go and have a nap in the middle of your party – pftt who was I kidding – there was no way in first birthday madness she was going to sleep.  So up she gets and parties on to her normal bedtime of 7pm. She didn’t even seem over tired and I put it down to first birthday madness – excitement and thrills.  

That was Saturday.

Sunday – we wake and go about our day.  Morning nap – down like an angel then 3pm rolls around. Up we go – pop her in her cot and……………..yup you guessed it – she would not go to sleep.  She wasn’t screaming – just sitting in her cot playing with her teddies.  After about 20 mins the crying started – I mean – hello – mum you’re leaving me in a dark room by myself and I’m obviously not tired – get me the F out of here.  I panicked  – was she still on a high from her birthday – surely she’s not ready for one nap already – the book said 15 months…right?

So we get her up.  On this day however around 5:30pm we noticed she was super tired…I mean she didn’t have the stimulation from the day before and she had been awake since 12:00. With an awake time of 4 hours – 5.5 was pushing it.  We popped her to bed at 6pm that night – and were sure she’d wake early – but nope – woke up at usual time.

Chris and I decided well – maybe it was time we tried to do the one nap thing – but if we were – she had to go down later for her morning nap because if she kept waking at 12:00 – bedtime would always be 6.  So the next day we tried it.

Woke at 7am – and we stretched her to 11am. WOH – was she tired – we had to literally play with her to keep her awake the poor thing – and when we popped her down at 11 – she was asleep within 0.5 seconds. I figured she’d sleep her usual 1.5-2 hours and we’d have a 6:30/7pm bedtime.  WELL – NOPE.  She woke after 45 mins and would not go back down.  This is what happens with an overtired baby.  So now what the hell was I to do – I had an awake baby at 11:45am – should I do a 2nd nap anyway now and forget the whole thing? She’d have to go bed at 5:30 otherwise.  I popped a few stories on my insta – and you lovely people came back with some tips and reminded me that these changes take time and until she got the hang of it there would be early bed times.  What it also meant though was cranky AF baby around 4:30pm.  MAN it was hard – that first week was crazy.  Some days we did do a 2nd nap – but mostly we pushed through.  It took her about 5 days to sleep longer than 45mins – 1 hour.  That week sucked –  I almost gave in a few times – thought this is too hard and lets go back to two naps, but after about a week – we put her down at 11am, and at 1pm – we started to panic…OMG…..is she ok? Should we check on her….or had she finally nailed this one nap thing?  Well I did check (I mean just in case – you got me right) and she was sleeping soundly.  YAY finally – she’d worked it out.  

I was sceptical about the whole thing – I mean does this mean we can never go out for lunch again? Would she still be cranky some days? Now that we’ve done it and it’s working – it’s SOOOOO good.  You get the whole morning then the WHOLE afternoon. It’s amazing – no more trying to work out if a car nap or pram nap is going to have to do…no worrying where she’ll nap.  It’s so much easier.  She’s 19 months now and she now goes down between 11:30 and 12:00 sleeps 1.5-2 hours and goes to bed at 7pm.  The awake time can be flexible they are much more adaptable at this age and if she happens to go down earlier (swimming lesson days – 10:30 nap and she’s out) and wakes from her nap at 12:00 then we just do a 6:30pm bedtime.  

Her routine:
7am wake
7-8am – Breaky
9.30-10am – Bottle
11am – snack
11.30-12.00 – nap
1.30-2pm – Lunch
3.30 – snack
5:30-6pm Dinner
7pm bottle and bed

So – if your Bub is refusing their 2nd nap and it’s becoming harder and harder to put them down in the afternoon – below are some tips for the transition.  Know that yes the first week will be HARD but once you’ve nailed it – HALLEUJAH – you’ll have the best little system in place and your little person will be having a ball.

Step 1:  extend your bubs awake time in the morning half an hour for the first week. Keep them as busy as you can – playing outside is super helpful.  I make sure Harper has a snack before her nap too

Step 2:  depending how long they sleep in the first few days – bring bedtime forward to 6pm.  So dinner at 5pm.  

Step 3:  don’t panic if they only sleep 45-1 hour the first week – they are adjusting.  Deep breaths and wine

Step 4:  If they rise early for the first few morning still put them down at the same time – this may mean a longer awake time but if you bring it forward then you’ll never get them to one nap.   

Step 5:  Once they start sleeping longer 1.5-2 hours you can then extend them another half an hour in the morning.  11:30-12:00 is a great time for a nap.  

Step 6:  Enjoy a vino 😉

Babies and toddlers are so adaptable and it only takes a few days of consistency to get in to a new routine and habit – it’s all about consistency and persistence. Like I say with everything from feeding, to all the changes we go though.  Just don’t give up or give in.

You got this Mumma

Love and Life

Danni x