https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 16 May 2026 06:37:10 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095987 Thu, 05 Mar 2015 00:19:12 +0000 daniellemybelle 2095987@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gilmoregirl: Totally! One nap is so much better. Getting there is rough!</p> <p>@Mrs. High Heels: That makes sense! For us, that wasn't practical. I am a part-time WAHM so some days she is home with me, and I need to maximize nap time to work. Other days she is with my mom or at daycare so it is hard to dictate what they do. So she always napped the longest in the morning and the afternoon nap, which was almost always at home, was the one I tried to keep short but it never worked out well.</p> <p>@twodoghouse, since you are a SAHM, and it doesn't sound like they are taking monster naps, you will probably be fine! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095488 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 19:07:40 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2095488@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: I didn't see the first time that your LO was napping 2 hours for their first nap. When I had my kids on the two nap schedule I used to limit their naps to 1.5 hours, and would wake them if they slept longer than that (this rarely happened!) unless they were feeling under the weather. I tried to anticipate their next nap ahead of time so that their 2nd nap didn't run too close to bedtime. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095448 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:36:11 +0000 gilmoregirl 2095448@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: this is exactly what happened to us and was ultimately why we went to one nap. Once he adjusted to the four hour stretch it was what he needed before bed. So bedtime got later and later and overall sleep was worse. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095163 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:01:01 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2095163@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: I actually had two different experiences, but overall the shift in schedule worked well for both my kids. I just had to adjust bedtime as needed based on how tired/not tired they seemed.</p> <p>DD - she has high sleep needs, and used to meltdown if not down by a certain time, so the 4 hr block in the 2-3-4 schedule was actually a stretch for her, and the 3 hours between last nap and bedtime actually worked perfectly for her. She consistently slept from 7-7. She is 4 now, and still needs a 2 hour afternoon nap... she is just a kid who loves and needs her sleep.</p> <p>DS - He has always been really flexible about sleep, and the 2nd time around, I was more loose and go-with-the-flow about things anyway. The shift in naps were fine, but we just pushed bedtime later (he can sleep at 7, 8, or 9 pm and wake up at the same time). With him, I followed his cues a lot... if he didn't seem tired at 7, I'd just put him down at 8. There was never a strict set bedtime with him. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095116 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:43:39 +0000 illumina 2095116@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not much advice but at 10 months LO went down to 1 nap. I kept her awake until 1130 at first and then let her nap as long as she needed (usually 2-3hrs) and did an early bedtime if she seemed tired later. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095054 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:21:25 +0000 Mae 2095054@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are just moving to 2 naps in the last week but I'm struggling to figure this out too. It seems like Fiona *mostly* prefers a 3-3-3 schedule to a 2-3-4 one... but it's sort of hard to enforce that because she wakes anywhere between 6 and 7:30 lately and bed time is always at 7:30 and her naps are anywhere from 30 min to 2.5 hours. My main plan this past week in transition has been to roll with it... but I know that is sort of impossible for you with 2! </p> <p>But yea mostly I feel she is getting used to longer awake stretches and 2 hrs is almost never long enough in the morning. Usually it is 2.5 to 3 hours. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095044 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:16:37 +0000 sailgrl18 2095044@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're kind of in the midst of this. Around 11 months he started fighting his nap and some days would only take 1 nap around noon. At 12 months he started waking early (9 hours of night sleep) and we went back to 2. He did fine on 2 until 12.5 months when he would fight bedtime because he'd gotten too many naps. So we went to 1 and pushed him hard. He did fine for 3 weeks then he ramped up his walking (he'd been walking for about a month but now he's constantly on the move and walking fast) so we went back to 2 naps because he's tired in the morning again. We're just going with the flow at this point but don't be surprised if you drop them to 1 nap if they revert back to 2. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2095016 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:06:15 +0000 twodoghouse 2095016@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: I totally see what you mean! I'm hoping we won't have too much trouble because we've had this experience a couple times lately where they sleep in (past 6:30 is majorly sleeping for us, but last Saturday they slept till 7:30!) then they nap later. Last Saturday they took a 2.5 hr nap which put us way later in the day than usual. My inlaws were coming at 1:30 to babysit while we saw a movie and the plan was that my kids would be napping and when they woke up Grandma and Grandpa would be there to get them up. Well they were definitely not ready for a nap at their usual time. We went to the movie as planned and my kids finally passed out on the living room floor for my in laws around 3:30 and slept an hour. Bedtime here is about 6:30 usually, but we pushed it to 7 that night and they went down fine and slept well overnight. So I'm hopeful that messing with the naps won't lead to utter chaos? But who knows, haha! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094996 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 14:58:52 +0000 daniellemybelle 2094996@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: Did you find that if your LOs slept until 4pm for their second nap, they weren't ready for bed by 7pm? This is what happened with us. LO was napping 10-12 and not ready for another nap until 3. Then she would sleep until 5 if I let her some days and not go to bed until 9pm! I would wake her up by 4 but she'd be cranky and still fight bedtime.</p> <p>@twodoghouse: I hope it goes better for you! Not trying to be negative. Shifting the naps later in the day is the most logical thing until they are ready for one nap but it just gave us hell. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094593 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:37:27 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2094593@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@twodoghouse: Good luck - hopefully it does the trick! :goodluck: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094584 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:33:25 +0000 twodoghouse 2094584@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: Ok this makes sense to me and seems to be what they are starting to naturally shift to. Thanks! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094577 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:30:24 +0000 gilmoregirl 2094577@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I stretched his awake times like others have mentioned. But that only worked for so long and then his naps and night sleep started getting messy (inconsistent, unreliable). So by the end of month 10 we just pushed him to one nap. </p> <p>Daycare is a factor though, because he takes just one nap at daycare during the week. So it also made sense to just switch to one nap. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094529 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:07:37 +0000 catlady 2094529@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My LO's wake times sort of stretched out like @Mrs. High Heels described. LO is 17 months and still takes 2 naps most days. She is on something more like a 3-3-3 schedule at this point and both naps are 1-2 hrs long. She's at daycare most days but when she's at home, I try to just follow her sleep cues. She will need to switch to one nap soon when she transitions to the toddler room, so I think they will just try to stretch that first wake time out even more and try to get her to take a longer single nap. Not sure how helpful this is since you are dealing with twins. Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094508 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:54:45 +0000 daniellemybelle 2094508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Short answer? Struggle. Ha.</p> <p>From about 11 months to 14 months we struggled. Essentially we did both naps later and afternoon nap was more of a cat nap so it didn't mess with bedtime, even though it still did a lot of the time. When we finally made the switch it was so much better even though it was hard to make it to mid-day naptime. The transition is not easy. Some moms in my due date group switched as soon as 10 months which is definitely early, but it is just hard to battle through when they are resisting two naps. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094488 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:46:23 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2094488@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I mainly just stretched their morning awake time, and shifted their two naps for awhile until they were ready for one nap.</p> <p>So my 2-3-4 schedule would look like:<br /> 7 am - Wake<br /> 9 am - 1st nap<br /> 10:30 am - Wake<br /> 1:30 pm - 2nd nap<br /> 3 pm - Wake<br /> 7 pm - Sleep</p> <p>Then I shifted to a 3 hour schedule - so 3 hours between naps, with the assumption that they take 1.5 hour naps. Looking something like this:</p> <p>7 am - Wake<br /> 10 am - 1st nap<br /> 11:30 am - Wake<br /> 2:30 pm - 2nd nap<br /> 4 pm - Wake<br /> 7 pm - Sleep</p> <p>Then after this, I was able to stretch that first morning wake time until 11:30 or 12 and get them on a one nap schedule (we went through the 2-1 nap transition around 15-16 months).</p> <p>When they shifted to a one nap schedule they basically combined their two 1.5 hour naps and were napping 3 hours at once (usually from 11:30 - 2:30 or 12-3, and that would hold them over til bedtime). I was worried about transitioning to one nap bc I loved having two downtimes during the day, but I actually loved it more! The sucky part was that naptime had to be right smack dab in the middle of lunchtime for awhile. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094463 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:38:01 +0000 ShootingStar 2094463@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think I posted this exact question a few months ago, and got almost no responses, lol. We basically had to push DS to 1 nap due to some daycare circumstances. On daycare days he naps around 11:45/12:00-2. We went kind of cold turkey because he wasn't napping any more in the infant room because it was too loud and noisy. So he got moved to the toddler room where they do one nap at the same time and it's quiet and dark. I figured one decent nap was better than 2 really crappy ones. </p> <p>We didn't really get the opportunity to slowly move naps later and I feel like it gets weird with what you need to do in the afternoon then. But on the weekend if he's up late (after 8) we do one nap. If he's up earlier than that, we generally do 2 because he gets cranky after about 3 hours of awake time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094439 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:26:23 +0000 Orchid 2094439@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've really been struggling with this lately! Our schedule is a mess right now. There are some days LO (12 months) seems ready for a nap after 2 hrs but won't go to sleep! Other times he goes right to sleep. If I keep him up for 4 hrs (which I had to do because of my stepdaughter's schedule a couple weeks ago) he will take an epic (for him) 2.5 hr nap. BUT, that will make nap # 2 too close to bedtime and if we skip nap # 2, his night sleep is pretty crappy even though he makes it to bedtime without major meltdowns. </p> <p>Right now I've kinda reverted to putting him to sleep closer to 3 hrs after waking since this still lets me squeeze a second nap in about 3.5 to 4 hrs after he wakes from the first nap. I think he needs more waketime before bed though, so this is still not ideal. I really just wish we could go straight to 1 nap.</p> <p>Sorry this was not more helpful! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094412 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:16:21 +0000 BabyTsMom 2094412@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not sure I'm qualified to give advice, as my LO is 9 months old, but what I've done over time is stretch his awake times between the two naps. So, when he first started on 2 naps it was 2-3-4, but now it's more like 3-3.25-4 (or whatever time until bedtime). And as he gets closer to a year, it'll probably be more like 3.5-3.5/375-3.5, etc..... So even though my guy is clearly not ready for one nap either, I do think stretching his wake times helps. Maybe your LOs also want to be up a little more between naps? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-between-2-3-4-schedule-and-1-nap#post-2094251 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 10:10:56 +0000 twodoghouse 2094251@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My kids have been solidly on 2-3-4 nap schedule for a couple months now and it doesn't seem to be doing the trick anymore. They are 10 months old and I don't think they are ready to go to 1 nap. However, they have recently been fighting both their morning and afternoon naps, so I think we need to do something to adjust.</p> <p>For instance, they woke up at 6 this morning (after a really good night of sleep!) and it's 9 now. This nap attempt has been going on for 45 minutes and they are no where near sleepy. They are in great moods, listening to books, climbing all over me and each other. I've done the nap routine several times now and when it comes to nursing (when they usually get super drowsy or fall asleep), they just eat and smile at me, play with my hair, bite me (Blake's new trick), etc. No drowsiness in sight.</p> <p>The last few days I've eventually just put them in their cribs and said ok, it's naptime, and let them cry until they sleep. But yesterday that took 15 minutes for each nap so I really think that's excessive and means something needs to change. For right now, I think I'll just wait them out and see when they finally get sleepy. It's hard to count on that working as a long term solution, though, because with twins you're almost guaranteed to catch one's drowsy point perfectly while the other one has to wait and melts down in a huge way. So I'm hoping there's some sort of schedule I can figure out instead of just waiting for sleepy cues. </p> <p>I'd love some advice on what you did to bridge the gap between 2-3-4 and one nap. </p>