[On switching to one nap, continued]

We are also really strict about sleeping habits; our kids go to sleep between 5:30 and 6pm and sleep through the night till 7 a.m. Because they attend preschool in the afternoons, we have them take one nap in the morning beginning at around 9-9:30 a.m. My daughter does not often nap, but my son does. Sometimes she keeps him up, sometimes she doesn't--we just let them be and let them have that quiet time in the morning. We gave up two naps at around 18 months. Perhaps they are sleeping so early and so well through the night because they are only napping once per day. On the weekends, when we don't have plans, we let them talk and laugh, and they eventually do sleep until about noon.

We transitioned at about 18 months. For me the sign was that they weren't falling asleep at all for their second nap and it was taking longer for them to fall asleep for their first nap. Otherwise I don't have too much advice except for that they will probably adjust to their new schedules, if you choose to make one, especially if you do it gradually.

My girls are 17 months old and generally take one nap. The one who sleeps less sometimes takes only 20 to 45 minutes, and she does her best to stay up later than her sister. Then she sleeps about 10.5 to 11 hours at night. Her sister sleeps from 45 minutes to 2 hours, and still goes down earlier and sleeps 12 hours. (She eats more too.) They haven't had two naps a day for a while.

OK, so I am referred to, both lovingly and not so much, as "the sleep Nazi." I am really strict about sleep (ALWAYS nap in crib, firm Weissbluth-er, etc.) My 22 month olds stopped the first nap somewhere around 14 months. One twin was ready - I would put her down and she would lie there happy, but not sleeping for 45 minutes and then get pissed. The other one was very happy to continue with the 2 nap schedule. So, our schedule went from:
6:00am - wake up
9:00am - 10:30/11:00am - nap
1:00pm - 2:30/3:00pm - nap
6:00pm - bed
to:
6:00am - wake up
12:00pm - 1:30/2:00pm - nap
6:15pm bed

For us, if I remember correctly, it was a fairly smooth transition. I think we fudged a little in the beginning (some days naps fell at more like 11:30) but it fell into place pretty quickly. And we are still on it. And, it gave us more time to do stuff before needing to be home for a nap.
Just have some really fun activities for the first few days and be ready for a bit of crankiness. Oh, and be willing to shift a bit. In the end, it all works out. I swear.

We did it cold turkey. At 14 or 15 months, we dropped the 9:30 nap and moved lunch to 11:30 and nap at noon, sharp. They would sleep until 2 or so and then we'd go out again. We did find, though, that if we got them in their cribs much later than 12 (even by as little as 15 minutes) we'd miss the tired window and they wouldn't sleep. The only exception would be on gymnastics day. Class ended at 12 and we'd feed them at the class so they'd fall asleep in the stroller on the way home. This way they'd stay asleep and not wake up because they were starving. This schedule worked really well for us for awhile. Now, at 32 months, they go down for a nap between 1:30-2 and each day is a crap shoot if they sleep.

I don't have advice about not being home and switching their nap but I can tell you I think I am one of the few people I know who pretty much moved naptime to later in the day. At first I would do it once or twice and sometimes still put them down in the morning if they were really crazy/cranky but when I officially decided to switch it I just redid my schedule. I was out with them in the morning and I would do lunch and put them in for a nap right before 12:30. The only thing I eventually changed was that now I put them in at 1:00 (I literally just need the time to give them their lunch and clean them up and change diapers and stuff). I actually recommend trying to put them down on the earlier side because now if they take a really long nap they end up going to bed much later.

We're sleep obsessed and stick to a strict schedule. We have b/g twins who are 18 months old and starting dropping their second nap a month or so ago. They got a bad cold and this seemed to contribute to the switch because they needed more sleep at nap time AND they were crankier and didn't want to go down for the first nap as early. So we gradually moved from a 10:30 and 1:30 one-hour each nap schedule to an 11:30 two-hour nap schedule. They seem to be doing pretty well with it but the one who usually naps better sometimes gets a little sleepier earlier in the evening. I think moving to one nap now is pretty usual and, if you do some transitioning work, will be pretty well set within 2-3 weeks. The transitioning we've done is just a lot of watching to see what the new nap time should be (looking for drowsiness and crankiness) and adjusting times to what seems to be working best; making sure that we adjust the meal and snack schedule so that they aren't going to wake up from hunger; making sure that we go in and soothe them if they wake up after only an hour, helping them get back to sleep; sometimes having to get one out of the bedroom at 1.5 hours so the other can sleep longer, etc. As for the early waking, we've gotten that a lot, especially from one, and what we do is just wait it out. She has gradually gotten better at not actually having a fit at 5 am and putting herself back to sleep. So I recommend just not going in, if you can help it. The other thing we do, when she wakes her brother up, is we go in and say “Shhh” a lot and rub backs and often that will work, both at nap time (as we made the transition to one longer nap, this was helpful to the boy and helped him stay sleeping longer; he needed/needs some help adjusting his clock to a nap longer than an hour) and at the occasional middle of the night wake up. Mostly, these happen because I think they have dreams.

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