2 to 1 Nap Transitions
When does this happen?
Babies typically drop their second nap between 13 and 18 months. The transitions tend to be smoother the older the child is and I find most children can comfortably shift to one nap when they are 15 months+.
How do you know when your baby is ready to transition to 1 nap?
Each baby approaches this differently. You will know when your child is ready to shift to one nap because one of the following will happen regularly over a period of time…
Refuse to have two naps. Baby refuses either the morning or afternoon nap.
The morning nap starts getting really late
The afternoon nap becomes either really short or really late
Bedtime starts becoming really late or really difficult
Early rising starts occurring.
If any or all of the above is happening regularly (I’m not talking about the one off day where your little one won’t nap, I mean this is happening regularly for 1-2 weeks, and your baby is in the age range above) then that’s a pretty good indication they are ready to drop to one nap.
How do I shift little one to one nap?
The Gradual Approach
Shorten the morning nap (in line with your little one’s sleep needs). If the nap was around 1 hour this will drop to 45 mins, then to 30 mins, then to 20 mins. The second nap will stay broadly the same, although may come forwards slightly.
Once the afternoon or evening sleep starts becoming difficult, even with 20 minutes in the morning, you will need to drop that nap completely and move the afternoon nap to the middle of the wake period. Ie for a 7am wake up and 7pm bedtime, the nap would start around Noon (+/- 30mins).
Morning offering
If your child is refusing the morning nap but really struggling on a one nap schedule (ie starting to wake in the night, or having a short one nap) then you might want to continue to offer a morning nap each day.
Put your child down at their usual morning nap time. Give them 30 minutes in bed (unless very upset). If they fall asleep, keep the nap short 20-30 minutes and the second nap at the later afternoon time. If they don’t sleep, then get them up and move to a one nap day.
It does mean a potentially inconsistent period where little ones are having two naps on one day but one nap on another.
You should find on this approach that your child gradually starts to refuse more and more of the morning nap, signalling that they are ready to have one nap.
(N.b.) This probably won’t work if your child will happily sleep in the morning but then totally refuses a second nap - in which case you would just shift to a one nap day or the Cat Nap option below.
Cat Nap Option
This is for little ones who refuse to sleep twice in the day but can’t cope with one nap.
You will probably need movement - ie. pram, car or carrier
It will need to happen earlier than the first nap used to happen.
Cap the nap at 15 minutes.
Then put your little one down for a nap as if it’s a one nap day. This is really just a small sleep to get them comfortably through to the one/main nap.
2-1 Nap transitions can be quite tricky. If you’re going through a rocky sleep patch then you are absolutely not alone. It make sense too. It’s quite a big jump. On two naps the longest awake period is around 3.5 hours to 4 hours. On a one nap day, the awake period is anywhere from 5 to 6 hours. The older the child is, the easier the transition. However, when we don’t have that luxury we do what we can and ride out the rest.
A little side tip
I would avoid waking your little one in the morning whilst they are transitioning to one nap. When going through nap transitions they are more likely to become overtired due to longer awake periods and therefore sleeping in should help them compensate for that.
Happy Napping!
Katie Venn
