I switched to one nap a month ago. Its sort of hard to drop the morning nap cold turkey, I think. Especially with the little one that gets up early.....they will get overtired and fall apart. For what its worth this is how I did it .....and it seems to work. Also, I am a control freak about naps. My two have always been on a strict schedule and never napped in a stroller, etc. I moved the nap from 9am to 10am (kept them busy, tried not to have the nanny take them for a walk at that time lest they fall asleep in the stroller). After that I moved it by half an hour over two weeks and now I am at 11:30am. I eventually want to get to 12:30pm, particularly over the summer when the weather is nicer and they can be out doors. Now they nap from 11:30-1:30 and went to bed at night just 15 minutes earlier than usual (5:45pm) for a little while and now its back to 6pm. Why not start the new schedule on the weekends when you are home so they are sort of used to it by Monday?
We transitioned fairly quickly (in a few weeks) but it took the kids' bodies some adjustment time to catch up; we only do naptime now at 1pm, and before we did one at about 9am, and the second one at 1pm; so there was no real problem/confusion about switching around times, they either got the morning nap as an extra or they didn't. In fact, on days like today when someone is sick or just shows signs of tiredness, we give them the two naps again, not switching around times--our childcare looks for the signs and we all understand the schedule (there's usually an articulated reason if they've had two naps in a day) for our now 19 month olds.
Lauren Beiley says a number of you asked to see responses to her sleep consultant question, so here is the list of resources she compiled for us. Thanks, Lauren!
Any reproduction, duplication, or distribution in any form is expressly
prohibited.
Created and maintained by WonderWerks
Contact the webmaster. 2006-2007 Twins & The City
