What sort of routine did you have after 2-3-4? We have been on a loose 2-3-4 schedule for months but lately one nap or the other LO is taking a long time to fall asleep. I know he's not ready for one nap. I also am not really interested in pushing back bedtime from 7:30-45. What worked for you?
ETA LO is 11.5 months.
coconut / 8861 posts
We're still on 2-3-4 right now at 1 years old. They naturally drop the second nap and bank more sleep in the morning. I think it took until about 18 months until the second nap dropped with our first.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
If I remember I think I just stretched out 2-3-4 to 3-4-5, so on based on how long she could stay up.
eggplant / 11716 posts
We went from 2-3-4 (2 naps a day) to 1 nap. I wasn't sure she could "make it" with only 1 nap, but after a week long adjustment period, that 1 nap started being 2.5-3 hours, so it was equal in time to her 2 naps before, that were usually 1-1.5 hours each.
clementine / 856 posts
I just stretched out the awake times but kept him on two naps for a few months. we went to one nap when it was getting too difficult to get him down for that second nap, only to have him sleep for 30 min or so.. At that point, I transitioned him to one nap.
persimmon / 1005 posts
@snowjewelz: But then was she sleeping less at night? With a later bedtime?
@BabyTsMom: I definitely want to keep two naps for now. Did you have to push back bedtime with longer awake times?
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
@Jennibenni: Yes, there was a period where if she napped past 4 we had to deal with a late bed time. I think sometimes we just woke her up from her 2nd nap to prevent a super late bed time. She switched to 1 nap at 15 months so that period didn't last for super long.
persimmon / 1005 posts
@snowjewelz: oh ok. So was she generally going to bed around 9? I need my time after bedtime to get stuff done!
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
@Jennibenni: I know 
That period was tough! It wasn't always 9. We'd wake her up from her 2nd nap so she'd be in bed by 8:30. When it got later and later that's when we knew it was time for 1 nap! And now we're back to 7:30 bed time which is great!
persimmon / 1005 posts
@pachamama: it's a schedule/routine that refers to awake times between sleep (with two naps). So first nap is two hours after wake up, second nap is three hours after wake up from the first, and bedtime is four hours after wake up from the second nap.
clementine / 856 posts
@Jennibenni: not really, because his second nap was getting shorter and shorter so bedtime didn't change a whole lot....
nectarine / 2436 posts
@Jennibenni: ahhh gotcha. My kid totally does this (5 months!) Didn't know there was a fancy name for this!!
cherry / 174 posts
Our LO (14.5 months) switched daycare classes at 12 months, which only does 1 nap a day. I tried to keep her at 2-3-4 on the weekends, but it became apparent she was NOT going to go down for that first nap without a fight. So we started wearing her out as much as we could in the mornings, and then putting her down around 11-11:30am. She will now usually sleep around 2.5 hours. But we're still dealing with crankiness in the evenings and end up putting her to bed around 6:50pm instead of her usual 7:30pm bedtime. (Unless, of course, she goes down for a random afternoon nap - then it's just all screwed up to hell.)
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
After the 2-3-4.... We stretched out the first portion of the day from 2 hours to 3 hours, so it was more like a 3-3-3 schedule.
Here's a sample schedule assuming naps average 1.5 hours.
7 am wake-up... then 3 hours of activity before 1st nap
10-11:30 am (1st nap - 1.5 hr nap), then 3 hours of activity
2:30-4 pm (2nd nap - 1.5 hr nap), then 3 hours of activity
7 pm bedtime
After this, they'll start transitioning to a 1 nap schedule. So you can start stretching the first part of the day from 3 hours to maybe 4 or 5 hours, depending on how long your LO can hang. Eventually it may look something like this..
7 am wake... then 5 hours of play
12 noon nap... (once they drop to one nap, their naps tend to extend to 2-3 hours..)
3 pm wake... then 4/5 hours of play
7 pm bedtime
The 2 to 1 nap transition wasn't fun, but once they made it to a solid 1 nap transition... it was so nice to have the whole morning to play and run errands, and a good chunk of the afternoon to just nap and relax!
pomelo / 5524 posts
Are you sure he's not ready to drop to one nap? LO1 gave up his second nap at 10 months for us. He just wouldn't go down for us for the second nap, so instead of fighting it, I kept him up longer in the morning, gave him an early lunch and he would sleep 3 hours from 11:30-2:30 once he moved to 1 nap.
squash / 13764 posts
After 2 3 4, he went to a 3-3.5-3.5 schedule. He napped every day at 9 and at 2, and went to bed around 6:30/7. He was on this schedule for like 9 months, until he moved to 1 nap.
cherry / 157 posts
We went from 2-3-4 to one nap, but in between I started limiting the length of his naps so he would still go to bed (he was a long napper)
persimmon / 1005 posts
@magnoliamama42: That's something to consider. I stay at home but am trying to get him into daycare part time and they all I believe only do one nap. Hmmm.
@Mrs. High Heels: This sounds like it would work well for us! I might try easing into something along these lines and seeing how it goes. We don't normally have four house before bed anyway, usually closer to three, so maybe it would be easier.
@2PeasinaPod: I really don't think he is ready for one nap. He is not fighting one or the other all the time, and if he ever does miss one it is hell. I can just feel we are approaching the point where our current routine will need to be adjusted.
pear / 1697 posts
3/3/4.5 is where we're at at 13.5mos on days when LO takes 2 naps. He's about 50/50 on whether he'll take 1 or 2 naps on any given day.
Sometimes the 2 nap days have a 35-50 minute morning nap and 90 minute or longer afternoon nap; sometimes they're both about 90 minutes.
When he does a 1 nap day he's generally up for 4.5-5.5 hours both before and after the nap and the nap ranges anywhere between 1.5-3 hours.
bananas / 9229 posts
My daughter will be one in a week and is down to one nap during the week at daycare (and power naps on the car ride home). On the weekends it's whatever which usually means two or sometimes three mini naps instead of the one long one. I call it "whatever works" lol!
cantaloupe / 6131 posts
Before the transition we had 730am wake up and 730pm bedtime and 2 hour naps from 10-12 and 2:30-4:30pm.
At around 11 months he started fighting the PM nap. Since I know the PM nap was going to be close our eventual 1 nap I started pushing and cutting his AM nap. I adjusted every time he fought the PM nap.
First it was 1030am - 12pm
Then it was 11-12pm
Then 11:15-12pm
At the point we started getting disrupted PM naps on a 30 minute catnap, we went to 1 nap (at 14 months). I moved to a heavy snack at 1030am and put him down for nap by 1100am and let him sleep as long as he wanted. Lunch was when he woke up. We gradually pushed to an 1130am lunch time and nap by 12pm. He started daycare at 16 months and they have the same schedule. At this point (21 months) he still has lunch around 1130pm, goes down for nap at 1230pm and he usually sleeps 2-2.5 hours.
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