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No advice here, just commiseration. My DS is 10 months and his DCP is dropping his morning nap for the same reason. They move up to the toddler room around 12 months and are supposed to be on one afternoon nap at that time. He takes 4-5 hours worth of naps between his two naps at home so he is definitely not ready. I'm just too non-confrontational to do anything about it It was the same with DS1, we just left him taking 2 naps on the weekend for a long time.

What is the reasoning for the move? For us, the 1 nap room is basically the toddler room where there's a lot more structure and no more "nap whenever they need to". Also, that 1 nap would be on cots!

DD2 is 15 mo this month also; and she is def too young to move up. I don't think DD1 moved up till closer to 18 mo. With that said, DD1 dropped to 1 nap exactly at 15 mo, and DD2 can do either 1 or 2.

I would def bring this up to see if there's anyway she can stay in the current room a while longer if you feel that she absolutely cannot move to 1 nap. But she may surprise you!

Do you know the age range of the next room?

In our school they move out of the infant room at 12 mos OR when they become highly mobile. Its generally for the safety of the littler ones.

Our Toddler 1 room is more or less 12-18mos of age. Anyone 12 mos or older naps on a tot - cribs are only for less than 12 mos olds. They also move them down to 1 nap - right after lunch. The nap ends up being longer...2-2.5 hours. They keep the lights dim from Noon-2:30 unless all kids are awake.

For us, it was actually better. DD started taking 1 longer nap. She used to only nap 1-1.5 hours in the infant room at a time. Plus - I feel the structure in the new room was a bit more tiring, so her sleep in general improved.

DD was delayed in moving from Toddler 1 to Toddler 2...she moved at 20 mos instead of 18 mos and I noticed her having more disciplinary issues which I attribute to her being "bored" as the oldest in the room.

You might find she transitions just fine. For us, both our DDs remained at 2 naps on the weekend for a month or two after transitioning to 1 nap at school!

That said, our school always shifted to one nap about a month before in the infant room before moving to the 15mo and up room. Has that been done? When you speak to the director, that may be something to ask for - push it back a month and try to get her on the new schedule now with her current teachers/room where she's comfortable.

Will they let her lay down on her own in the afternoon if she really seems to need it? Daycare tried this with DD1 at 8-9 months and she resisted most of the time due to activity in the room but a few times she did fall asleep.

When my daughter moved to the toddler room they also had one set nap time right after lunch. Most children drop their nap around one year and go down to only one nap. They can't have separate nap times for different kids, no way that would work with the activities and schedules done for the toddlers. Typically they nap on cots throughout the room so there wouldn't even be a place for someone to take an extra nap. Your child will adjust!

@jennlin821: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you've had to search so much for a good fit daycare. No, it shouldn't be a never-ending search. We've had both kids (and soon the third) in a Bright Horizons, and while it's been very structured, it's been a wonderful experience. I hope you find something that works for your family soon!

We were in a home daycare from 12-18 months and weren’t forced to drop the nap, but our provider tried it to see how he would tolerate it. She would put him down earlier for the afternoon if needed and see how long he could make it, then slowly start pushing it towards 12 or 12:30. We found the 6/6:30 bedtime was the norm even without the dropped nap as there was so much going on. He was fine to transition, though he did have the opportunity for a short cat nap in the morning if needed.
The sleep transitions and adapting to daycare activities difficulties definitely peaked around that age to after 18 months. Personally, I loved him on one longer nap so it was worth it. We would do a morning cat nap on weekends for a couple weeks as well until he didn’t seem to need it.

Echoing what most other responders said, this is standard at our daycare too. DD2 is a suuuuper good baller and was taking 1.5 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. She struggled at first so I said something along the lines of “she’s still taking 2 naps at home and is usually really tired for her morning nap. Is she doing okay until you guys put her down?” Because my concern was that she would be miserable all morning. They said she seemed totally fine but that they could put her down for a morning nap. I took their word for it and she’s fine now. I kept her on 2 naps at home for a bit, but one nap is so much more convenient (DD2 is 4 and it was limiting what we could do with her).

Same thing happened at our daycare. The young one year old room did a scheduled class to nap after lunch. LO still took two naps on the weekends for about the first 3 weeks then his weekly schedule became our weekend schedule. Unlike at daycare w don’t wake him up, so he usually sleeps at least 45 minutes linger at home. Each room change meant more activities, more age appropriate toys and new learning opportunities for LO, so I wouldn’t have held him back even if that was an option.

LO doesn't go to daycare, BUT, I will say I was really surprised about how quickly the 1-nap transition was for our family... everything I read on HB and elsewhere seemed to make it a big long ordeal, and it was maybe a 3-week transition, tops?? And basically, at 15 months, I was like "No WAY is he ready to drop a nap" and then by the end of 16 months, despite my best efforts to KEEP the nap, he dropped to 1 nap on his own. So maybe LO will surprise you.

Though for him, he kept his morning nap longer, and it shifted to midday, then to afternoon.

That seems to be the norm in our area. My first son had a horrible transition to one nap (but he hated sleep in general...) and the daycare we were at wasn't the best for sleep, it could get noisy because it was one giant room for 0-2 year.

We moved to a different daycare for baby#2. I was worried about the transition, he would take two naps anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours each. He has been there for almost two months and has been doing fantastic with one nap. He easily naps 2-2.5 hours on a cot.

Once in awhile, if he was up early, he will fall asleep around 10, they let him sleep for a little bit and then wake him up if he doesn't wake up on his own.

I like the young toddler room, they have a lot more activities for the kids, they get scheduled outdoor time (2 hours/day depending on weather). They are starting to learn about circle time. I walked in to pick him up one day and all 8 toddlers were sitting in a half circle while one of the teachers read a book. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!