Toddler Nap Issues - Please help (for the love of God!)

[prudies]

Hi everyone, you may remember me from WC. I've really been just a lurker here so far, but I really need some help.

Elliott is now 14 months old, about 12 months adjusted if that makes a difference.

He was taking two naps, and is now fighting taking the second, and sometimes even the first. He sleeps very well at night (STTN), so far!

I am really at my wits end. I thought, ok, he is transitioning to one nap, but he really acts like a crank or a zombie with the one (and today doesn't even want to go down for that one). But he seems to fight going down for two!

He will act tired, get sleepy, even fall asleep in my arms, but then be up as soon as he hits the crib sheet. Also, he won't even settle down in my arms anymore. He wriggles around like I am trying to restrain him.

He's in his room right now, talking to himself. And see, eventually I will probably go in there and get him to fall asleep in my arms. But if I don't he'll just stay up forever. It's ridiculous.

Nothing new developmentally going on. Front teeth may be threatening to come in, but that's been happening for months.

I don't know what to do. I'm getting more and more frustrated, which isn't good for me, and isn't good for Elliott. I need a plan of action so I can get through this.

[mamax2]

The transition from 2/1 naps is rough! It may take a few weeks before he settles into a more manageable routine. I would try putting him down for that 1 nap very early. Like if he used to nap at 9 am and 1pm, split the difference and go for 11 am. It totally messes up lunch and probably most of what you're used to doing in the day. Also, move his bedtime a little earlier. Since he'll be waking up from that nap earlier than he was used to waking up from his second nap, you can safely move bedtime up. Maybe try 1/2 hour first even 1 hour if necessary. You should probably see things smooth out soon, but it does take a while and it was a fight for us too.

[prudies]

Ok, but it's 11 am right now and he's still in there babbling, whining and crying. What am I supposed to do? My husband is out of town right now and I am going ****ing insane. I can't deal with this.

[dziner]

I've always heard if the kid is taking the morning nap and resisting the later one, to nudge the morning nap back a bit every day till it's midday, kind of like jakedog suggested. You may have missed your window this morning if he was tired and you kept him up till 11am...not sure if the playground would help or hurt. In this case I would follow my suggestion below (third par.)

My DD started resisting the morning nap, but not always, so every day at 9am I'd put her down, get in the shower, and if she was still playing by the time I toweled off I'd take her out and make her afternoon nap at noon instead of 1pm. Eventually I stopped putting her in altogether. She now naps at noon every day, UNLESS she falls asleep in the car in the morning for 15 minutes, which buys us another hour before the nap.

The other change was that whereas I could never move her from car to bed when she took two naps, now she is so tired I totally can. It's so much easier than the "one more book" battle. Can you try driving or strolling him around to sleep and then moving him to his bed midday?

[emschwar]

The other change was that whereas I could never move her from car to bed when she took two naps, now she is so tired I totally can. It's so much easier than the "one more book" battle. Can you try driving or strolling him around to sleep and then moving him to his bed midday?
Another possibility is just driving him around for his nap when he won't fall asleep, if you can't move him. It kills your gas mileage, but it's sometimes worth it.

When Noah transitioned from 1 to 2 (oy, that was fun, and he transitioned quickly), he'd take his morning nap right on schedule, 2 hours after he woke up. Then the afternoon was pure hell. He'd get tired around 2 or 3, but he wouldn't sleep. And by 5:00 when daddy came home, woo-wee, I was going crazy. Slowly I tried moving the morning nap later (and making sure we weren't in the car at his old morning nap time) and eventually he settled in on 12:00 for his once a day nap. It also helped to do something active when he normally wanted the morning nap, like gymboree class.

Life's much nicer once they get to 1 nap, but getting there is a pain in the butt!

[cpaccione]

DS recently transitioned from 2 naps to 1. I've started keeping him up longer before I put him down for his morning nap. Then if he starts getting cranky in the afternoon I usually put him in his crib for some quiet time. He likes that time I think because he doesn't fuss and just hangs out in his crib babbling, etc...I think it winds him down. Then he's OK after about 1/2 hour or so for dinner, then I let him run around (to tire him out) than bedtime. The first couple weeks were rough until I figured out he needed the downtime in the afternoon even if he didn't actually sleep. It seems to be working pretty well now though. Good luck.

[2labradogs]

My boys (17 months) have been transitioning to one nap the last few weeks. Even though they don't sleep in the mornings now, they still go in their cribs with a couple of books to "read" at 10am (former am nap time) and they just babble and play happily for about 30 minutes. This 30 minutes of "down time" in their cribs must re-energize them because they don't go down for their afternoon nap until 1:30-2pm. They take a pretty short nap in the afternoon 1-1.5 hours, then go to bed pretty early - between 6:30 & 7pm. They have never been great (long) nappers, but sleep 12 hours at night.

Good Luck with the transition!

[prudies]

Thanks everyone. Yesterday I sort of flipped out a bit, in case you didn't notice from my slightly manic post! ;)

Elliott's front tooth is cutting through now, and also, and maybe more importantly, he seems to be having a really hard time "shutting off" - for lack of a better expression. Does that make sense? Like he just wants to keep moving, keep playing, and stay with me.

Last night he had a hard time going to bed as well.

I'm going to try and keep him up today until mid-afternoon, and see how that goes.