[On switching to one nap, continued]

The nap transition is only rough for about one month. My babies are 15 months and dropped their second nap between 13-14 months. The good news is that they now sleep for one 3 hour stretch, easy to plan around, and sleep through the night from 7pm to 6am. I would not say I am sleep obsessed, but I try not to let anything interfere with their nap (mostly for my sanity.) Also, every twin mom I know with babies between 15-19 months is down to one nap.

We transitioned at around 14-15 months. They adapt. If one needs more sleep, he/she will probably just take a longer nap than the other.

Our twins would ALWAYS wake up between 5 and 5:30am, have a morning nap around 8:30 or 9am for about an hour, plus an afternoon nap from about 2-3:30pm and go to bed between 6:30 and 7pm. At their 18 month check up, my pediatrician said that most kids were down to one nap by then; I had asked because I found one child or the other tended not to take a second nap a couple of days each week. However, mine really switched to one nap just recently (they are 20 months now), and I have made two exceptions to that within the past week alone, based on when they woke up (they usually now wake up closer to 6 than to 5am, but not always) and apparent need for sleep by 9am So I would say, if it suits your/their schedules to keep them on two naps, do so!

When one or the other of my twins stopped taking two naps a day more often than not, I dropped the morning nap without gradually moving it. However, it was not done “cold turkey,” in that we had a couple of weeks when some days they took two naps and others one; I played it by ear. If they were really tired by 9 or 9:30am, down they went for an hour, and got a one-hour nap in the afternoon. On the other days, I gave them a snack when they seemed tired (e.g. around 10am), took them to the playground or somewhere else for stimulation (which also wore them out), fed them lunch no later than noon and put them down to sleep for 2 hours immediately after. Sometimes, one of mine would just drink his/her milk before sleeping and eat lunch after the nap. (My twins are 20 month olds who typically rose--and now rise again--between 5 and 5:30am). Now that we have been on the one-nap schedule for about a month, I still find that one day a week I give them a morning nap (just happened Sunday, in fact, since we had friends coming for brunch at 11:30am and I wanted the twins to participate). So, I think you/your nanny WILL have to make a judgment call every day for a few weeks while the new schedule goes into effect.

My kids did not transition to one nap until 17 or 18 months and I never found the gradual approach to work for us. I tried several times to migrate to the one-nap schedule. Not until 17 months did my children seem ready. (They were sleeping less in the morning and the afternoon nap was not very long--45 minutes to an hour). When I tried a slow transition it did not work for various reasons. So I picked a week, knowing that it and the next couple might be tough, and attacked it. I did not think (based on my observations of my kids behavior and the time they wake up, 6:30am) that they could make it until 12 noon which was my target start time. So I set my target to 11am. For that week, I did everything that I could to entertain and make sure that they could stay awake until about 11 each day. I also had to make adjustments for lunch (eating earlier to accommodate the nap time). It was tough and sometimes, I had to alter my schedule to keep them from napping. For example, taking an earlier walk in the stroller so that they would not fall asleep in it. Anyway, this seem to do the trick. After a few weeks, they seemed very happy with the new schedule. Then I guess I slowly made the target more like noon. It did take a few weeks for my son, who is a lighter napper to get into the hang of it and sleep longer. Sometimes, he only napped for an hour while his sister could go 2 to 2-1/2. This was very frustrating but now I compensate for this by putting her to bed earlier, leaving him to finish his lunch and then put him down once she is asleep. For whatever reason, I seem to get a longer nap out of both of them. But that took some tweaking. Anyway, I only mention this so that you don't expect them to sleep for a long stretch in the afternoon right away. But I do think it will come once they get used to the new schedule. I never expected my son to take a two hour nap in the afternoon based on his previous behavior and now he does most days. I do think it is possible to go cold turkey if you and your nannies/babysitters are willing to commit to it for the 2, maybe 3 weeks it takes. This finally worked for me partly because it was a better approach for me and I think they were finally ready for the switch. Every baby is different....I have friends who gave up the morning nap at 11 months. I think the cold turkey worked part because it happened at the right time for them. I would also be aware of any changes in their night sleep habits as you tinker with their naps.

It's been a looong time since we did this (boys are 3-1/2 and dropped 2nd nap at 1 year) but what I recall is that they had started taking morning nap later and later, so what we did was just dropped it and for a few weeks, they had an early lunch -- 11 or 11:30, and a noon nap. then we slowly started returning lunch to normal noon time, followed by a 1 pm nap. Now, some kids HATE this and end up being morning nappers, they take a big nap at 10 or 11, followed by a late lunch and that works for them -- you just have to see where your kids naturally fall. IF they are morning nappers, then they're perfect for afternoon pre-school programs, where there is often more room, so that's actually not a bad thing. you'll just have to see which way they go. Unfortunately, sleep needs, cycles and schedules are VERY biologically driven, and if you have fraternal twins like mine, they may have innately different sleep needs. You just have to roll with it and figure out what works for each of them. When they napped (long gone, expect for the rare car nap now) there were periods when they would fall in sync and nap at the same time, and other times in their lives when they just would not/could not do it. Lunch would energize one but make the other sleepy so one took an after lunch nap and the other a late nap (3pm). You couldn't make Mr. Energy nap any earlier (he would bounce up and down in his crib and sing at the top of his lungs), nor could you keep Mr. Sleepy up (he would fall asleep at the table in mid chew!) so we just learned to live with it. Also about that consistency thing -- I'm not saying it's not important and a good thing, but I think parenting books tend to over-stress it a bit and I've found that some families that practice the "schedule as immutable gospel" philosophy end up with kids who get really rigid at 2, 2-1/2, and are not as open to new experiences/ situations, can't go with the flow, freak out when things are slightly off "how they've always been." I think infants NEED as much consistency as possible, I think toddlers, especially older toddlers (1-1/2 and up) actually benefit from a mix of structure and spontaneity.
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