How To Transition Your Toddler From 2 To 1 Nap

Thinking it may be time to transition your little one down to one nap but not sure how to make the leap? This post is for you!

When To Transition

There is a range that children will transition down to the one afternoon nap. It is somewhere between 12 to 18 months but typically, this happens right around 15 months. If you have a child that attends child care, typically they will do that transition right around 12 months. Some children are ready, but a lot of children aren't at that age. Since it is a range it is possible your child could be ready on the earlier side. However, without a slower transition it can be difficult. If a child is not going to childcare and you're able to help facilitate that transition on their own, it probably will happen closer to that fifteen-month mark.

How Do I Know If They Are Ready?

You will know the signs that your child is ready to transition down to one nap when they either 1) start waking up really early in the morning, 2) have an extended awake time in the middle of the night and/or 3) that second nap is non-existent. The first nap is still probably pretty easy. They're going down and still sleeping for a while uninterrupted for about an hour and a half. However, that second nap is really tricky. They're fighting it. They're going in happy and maybe just hanging out and playing but they're not actually falling asleep. Those three signs are what to look out for before you make that transition down to one nap. Wondering how to just start with predictable naps? Pause and read THIS post first!

How do I make that transition?

One of the biggest things is how do you merge them together to just get that one sleep in the middle of the day. Ideally, when your child is on a one-nap schedule, you want that nap to be about two and a half to three hours long at first. As they grow, it's going to get shorter. So, as they get closer to two, it will probably go down to about two and a half hours and then as they get closer to three, it will go down to maybe hour and a half/ two hours, and then somewhere between three and five, that nap will drop.

What you're going to want to do is essentially move that first nap back and you're going to drop the second sleep. So, instead of moving the second nap up, you're going to push that first nap to lengthen that awake window. Then, you're going to drop the second nap.

Depending on what time your little one wakes, their first nap is probably around 10am. You're going to move that

back by half an hour every three days. So, day one, you're going to push that nap to 10:30, but you're still going to offer that second nap right around 2/ 2:30pm. That second sleep may not happen and may turn into more of a rest time for 45 minutes to an hour, that's okay. The opportunity was given. During that first morning nap, you're going to let them sleep for as long as they want. So, they fall asleep at 10:30 and sleep until 12 :30. So, that's a two-hour nap. You're still going to offer that second nap around two thirty. If they don't fall asleep, that's okay. If they do fall asleep, just make sure they're up by 3:30pm latest.

Three days later, you're going to push that awake window of that morning nap to eleven. So, now, morning nap starts at eleven. You let them sleep for as long as they want and then you still offer that rest time. Again waking them if they do fall asleep for that second sleep by 330 at the latest.

Once your child is gets to 11:30, that's when you're not going to offer that second nap. So, your child start at 11:30 for that first nap, you let them sleep for as long as they want, then you don't offer that second rest time. You just bump bedtime up by about half an hour and you only want to move it up by about half an hour because you still want their body clock to be set for bedtime. This is just a temporary shift as that nap starts to push back again. That bedtime will go back to its normal time, just in the meantime, we don't want that awake window between that nap and bedtime to be too long.

Once you get to noon, you're still letting them sleep for as long as they want. Then, bedtime should be able to go back to the time that it was, but if they're still having trouble with that afternoon awake window or that nap is on the shorter side, you're still going to want to bump bedtime up until they have fully adjusted.

A question that I get a lot is like what to do with food, for example lunch. When your child is going down before noon, you're going to want to do a large snack before and then you're going to offer maybe a smaller lunch

after they wake up. If you were at the point where that sleep is now at noon, you're going to do like regular sized

lunch before that nap and then you're going to do a snack after. Whatever they're eating before they go down you want to be substantial. You want it to carry them for the next potentially two and a half to three hours. So, you either

are going to offer a larger snack or you're going to offer a lunch and then either offer a smaller lunch or a snack once

they wake up.

Watch this video on YouTube for more details!

Struggling with sleep and looking for more support? Visit HERE for information on personalized sleep support to ensure a full night's rest and a predictable nap schedule.