On changing from two naps to one…

When I went through this I recall that it took about a month for them to totally "migrate" to the new schedule, and that was one bad month. They'd refuse to nap at their usual am nap time, so I tried to put them on a one-nap schedule, but after a few days, they'd get cranky at their old nap time so I'd revert...there was a lot of back and forth until they adjusted, which made pegging playdate and class times a bit dicey, but eventually they got with the program. Over the initial months, that single 2-3 hour nap moved, became later and later...it started out at noon, then 12:30, then 1pm, and it is now 1:30/2pm (the kids are 3 yrs old). Try to take cues from them as best you can, but also be prepared to have a number of bad days, where you just don't know what to do and wind letting them cry it out at night bedtime when they are wiped and everyone's nerves are frayed. This is a phase, soon I bet they are happily taking one long midday nap!

My twins are 15 months now and my daughter needs less sleep than my son. They both take two naps a day and my daughter is always the first to get up. I usually go in around 7-7:30am. I know she is up much earlier going in and out of sleep. Once I wake up I get her and leave my son until he gets up. I also leave him sleeping when she gets up earlier from the naps during the day. I still put them both to bed at 6:30pm, 10:00am and 2:30pm. I guess if they still take two naps a day and they are 17 months you should count your blessings, even if one is sleeping longer than the other.

For the record, I transitioned them at 16-17 months. It was a painful few weeks, but ultimately, worked much better. The twin who needed more sleep was a mess for a while, but it all worked itself out. (I'm a Weissbluth sleep dictator, too, by the way).

I've decided to move my kids to one nap rather than vacillate between one nap and two naps on different days. I am assuming that it will be tough for a few weeks, but ultimately get us where we need to be. I'm moving back the time that I put them down every two days or so and hope to end up around 11:30 or noon for nap #1. Right now, even though they are only taking the one nap, it's shorter than the morning naps they were taking. I'm really hoping they will readjust and lengthen that nap. On the plus side, they are sleeping later in the morning.

This is a tough period, and I remember being told (and finding with my older child, who is not quite 5) that I would just have to get through it one day at a time. Some days there will be two naps, some days just one, and you can never predict; when the child(ren) went to sleep the night before or got up that morning doesn’t seem to give a reliable clue. If your class schedule is based around two naps, maybe use one of those periods as a rest time rather than nap time (the difference being that during rest time the child can stay awake and read books, do puzzles, draw or do other quiet things in the crib, or fall asleep if he wants to). Then next semester schedule around one nap which is likely to be more in the middle of the day (12-2 or so). This means feeding them lunch quite early, but if you have them up early and going to bed early, it should be pretty well-balanced. DON’T allow a 3-hour nap in the morning! Limit it to 1½ hours at most, and I think you will have an easier time enforcing the rest period or second nap later in the day.

[Create] an official morning wake up time--give or take. Then do whatever you can to keep them awake until noon. It takes three weeks for toddlers to adjust to any change in their sleeping schedule, so plan on rough late mornings, but keep them really happy by doing the things they like. Pull out your largest roasting pan and fill it with water and let them play in it, let them run around naked, pull out the finger paints, let them watch you peel peaches then eat them, whatever makes them not lie down. The idea is to get to as close to noon as you can. That may be 10:30 for a day or two then just push it, keep them awake until 10:45 the next day, etc. until you get to noon. Hope this makes sense. The idea is that the one who needs more sleep can sleep until three the other one will wake at two, this way you can let one sleep more than the other while keeping them on the same schedule. It will take a month to settle into it, but once you have, it's glorious. Hope this made sense.

The suggestions I have heard from others include:
-Put them down for their afternoon nap regardless of whether or not they fall asleep. Quiet time is good for them too.
-Follow their lead. Eventually, they will not go down for a second nap at all and then you stop trying.
-Try to move their morning nap to closer to noon, if you want to move to one nap.

Our kids have been taking one nap for at least a couple of months now and it seems to work very well. They are 16-1/2 months old. To give you a sense of it, they generally wake up around 7AM, have a hot, cooked breakfast around 9-9:30 and nap from either 11 or 12:00 for about 2 hours. That's it. If one wakes up earlier, we pluck him or her out of the nursery. They've got great energy. Lunch follows when they awake and dinner is at around 5:30, followed by baths. They hit the hay around 6:30 or 7:00.

I protect my three kids' sleep at all costs and get A LOT of flack for it but I don't care. I have twins and an older child (only by 18 months) and they all nap and sleep through the night thanks to being this way. Anyway, my twins are 20 months. I ended up moving them to one nap around 19 months. I tried to do the thing where some days they napped twice and others once, but with twins this just wasn't practical (I did this with my singleton but, hey, that was a breeze in hindsight). Anyway, we went to one nap cold turkey and moved the bedtime earlier by an hour. They now go to bed around 6pm and nap once a day. I won't tell you it's an easy transition. I know from my oldest; it took a good 3 months until she was into the groove on one nap and that nap lasted as long as it should 2-3 hours, but that finally did happen. Int the interim, she didn't always nap as long as she needed and was often tired. I even remember putting her to bed sometimes by 5:30! In the meantime, one twin gets a bit less sleep, but in a few months it will work out. I hope this is helpful. Oh yeah, my sleep guru, Marc Weissbluth, says kids give up the second nap by 18 months.

I protect my b/g twins (19 months) sleep at any cost. I started them on one nap around 16 months because my son was waking at 5am. That's when others advised me that it was time! I thought it was a fluke, his early rising, but it wasn't. It was the two naps. I slowly moved them from 9am to now 11am and I hope to get to noon or 12:30pm. At first don't be surprised if they don't sleep for long when they transition but this will definitely change and now I love it. I'm getting 2-1/2 hours from 11-1pm for their nap and they are sleeping 12 to 12-1/2 hours at night. No more early rising.  The short of it: early waking means it is time to transition.

I have 18 month old b/g twins. They dropped the morning nap around 16 months. I still give them some down time in the morning, assuming they will take the nap if they need it.  I hope this helps.

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