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What's "BTDT"?

DD took a long time transitioning, and we kind let her go at her own pace. She started at about 16 months (maybe?) and was fully transitioned to one nap by 21-ish months. Basically we (or her daycare provider) would just ask her if she wanted to take a morning nap, and then we limited it to only one hour. She slowly started declining her morning nap and lengthening her afternoon nap over time, and now (at 27 months) she sleep 2-4 hours in the afternoon.

Can you try putting him back to sleep if he wakes up early? I don't know what sleep method you use, but can you keep him in his crib for another 30 minutes when he wakes up? Over time, if set strict sleep/wake up times, he might lengthen it on his own.

When at daycare my son dropped to one nap once he joined the toddler room (14 months) and he sleeps for 2 - 2.5 hours at a time. On the weekend, either we aren't stimulating enough or he is catching up on sleep because he'll nap for 1-1.5 hours in the morning and another 1-2 hours in the afternoon.

We transitioned at 15 1/2 months, but Charlie has always loved taking long naps so I think he went straight to 3 hour naps. It took a month plus to get him on the one nap schedule with the goal of a 1pm nap. But sometimes he crashed as early as 10am.

I think his naps will get longer with time. Maybe he's not used to feeling so tired at naptime?

My lo is inconstant with naps. It can be an hour and a half to two and a half hours. But she's not cranky after so I don't really worry about it, and it doesn't effect her bedtime.

We transitioned right at 14 months, and definitely had a couple of weeks of crankiness. He did gradually lengthen from 1.5 to 2 hours, which is the ideal at this point, but I can't say it was painless. Sometimes when he got up, we would just go into his room and lie down with him for another half hour...The thing that helps him most to have a really good nap, is a really physically tiring activity followed by a really big lunch. I aim for 11 am outside activity, 12:30 lunch, 1:30 nap.

@winniebee: I just wanted to chime in and say that it does take awhile for the nap to lengthen. My LO is not much of a napper so at daycare he rarely takes a nap longer than 1.5 hrs. He does often take longer naps on the weekends (going on 2.5 hrs right now). He tends to sleep more at night so his bedtime is often between 6:30 and 7. During the initial transition he went to bed at 6pm regularly.

If limiting the first nap to 45-60 minutes doesn't help with the 2nd, what is often recommended is that if the first nap ends before noon, try for a nap or quiet time around 3:30.

@Sammyfab: He sleeps from 7:30/ 8:00 to 7:00 usually. And no I don't have a video monitor, never have. Why?

@winniebee: ya...I know you've mentioned that your LO doesn't often sleep more than 10-10.5 hours at night. He may surprise you though since they do play catch up and stockpile sleep during transitions. Otherwise, when you decide to full transition you can use not-before rules for nap and bedtime (say, 11:30 and 7pm to start then gradually add 15 minutes to get to a good bedtime for you). Also, I never get my son out of bed before 7. If he wakes before 7 he just lays there quietly until I get him :).

@NaturallyCathy: just wondering . 3-5 hours of naps is a lot!!! How do you know when he falls asleep and wakes up? My LO is super stealth when he wakes up and he can lay around without making a peep for up to an hour.

@Sammyfab: When he wakes up he whines or starts talking to himself because he'd rather be out of his crib. When he goes to bed there's silence. Sometimes it takes him twenty minutes to get to bed. He's tired but he just plays with the dog (part nightlight, part music), mmming to it until he goes to sleep. Same for naps.

And if he doesn't whine it's the thump of his legs against the mattress as he kicks. Or maybe the sound of the pacifier hitting the hardwood floor.

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