Question of the Day

At what point do babies start transitioning to one nap a day? More specifically, is it too early for my 10 month old to be kicking his morning nap to the curb?

It's never been a piece of cake to put him down for naps, but he TAKES them. Two hours after he wakes up for the day- boom. He's down again for around another hour. And three hours after that he almost always goes down for his longer afternoon-ish nap. My kid was quite amenable to following that 2-3-4 schedule that floats around the internet somewhere.

But today I didn't think he was EVER going to fall asleep. I rocked him, and when that didn't work, I left him in his crib. I went to check on him only to find him standing up and chewing on the crib rail, his pacifier flung across the room. I rocked him again and was nearly ready to give up when he suddenly decided to close his eyes, a full half hour after when he usually is fast asleep.

Then again, now that I'm writing this, I recall that yesterday morning he slept for an unheard of two hours. So maybe I am full of it. But no, he's been kind of a pain when it comes to naps lately. Wiiiiiide awake, flailing, stretching, arching, screwing around with his pacifier. And he hasn't been sleeping that great at night because...

...he has MORE teeth coming in (DAMN YOU TEETH) and we can't really tell if he's catching our colds (sounds stuffy, but nothing else) and maybe it's just The Usual. You know. Everything else that messes with sleeping schedules.

But I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't try so hard to get him to go down in the mornings, keep him up and see what happens.

I am really hungry. Know why? Because I puked up my entire breakfast, plus the prenatal vitamin I remembered to take, plus the Tylenol that was supposed to take care of my massive headache. I am fifteen weeks today. Do you hear that Universe? This throwing up business is supposed to be over with. DID YOU GET THE MEMO? I swear, my first pregnancy totally spoiled me. I didn't get sick one single time until mid-second trimester when we were flying home from Italy and I just barely prevented myself from being sick all over the poor woman next to me. I was sick a few times in the third trimester, but the first trimester was a freaking breeze.

I am going to take note of my stellar mood here and opt to sign off in favor of more breakfast. And a hot shower. That kid better sleep long enough for me to get my shower.

 

Comments

[Tara]

I was JUST about to post about the nap dropping dilemma. (I still might, in fact!) She's been skimping on the morning nap lately, though ironically NOT on the days that her dad is home with her! So, who knows.

Sorry you threw up. That always sucks.

[Dooneybug]

My son gave up two naps at 8 months old, so no, it's not too early. The nice part of it is that he took a longer afternoon nap (still does at almost 2 years), anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. So that's the nice trade off, one big chunk of nap time so you can get more accomplished.

I remember throwing up until the high teen weeks of both pregnancies. But it was waining so hopefully yours will be gone completely soon!

[annie]

I hear ya on the morning sickness thing. This time has been a breeze (well, in comparison) but last time was BRUTAL. My whole first trimester was spent FEELING like I was going to throw up, and then my second trimester (or the first half of it anyway) was spent finishing the deal. If you know what I mean. Super gross. I'm sorry you have to go through it. One of my girlfriends is pregnant with her FOURTH and never had an ounce of morning sickness prior to this pregnancy. Now she is just beside herself because she had been deceived for so long into thinking that all pregnancies are so easy. This too shall pass.

Christopher gave up his morning nap at 9 months, although I fought him on it for a while. That is, until I figured out what was going on. He had just started sleeping solidly through the night - 12 hours with nary a peep. It took a while for me to get it through my thick skull that after 12 hours of peaceful slumber, 2 hours of wakefulness just wasn't cutting it. It would take me forever to settle him down at 9am, then he'd scream and cry from his crib. Then he'd finally fall asleep and we'd go through it all again before his afternoon nap. And then again at bedtime. Once I finally decided to cut out the am nap, everything got easier. It definitely took some adjusting because he would start to get tired around 11 or so, so I really had to be careful about not going for a long walk or car ride when I knew he was getting sleepy. Then I'd give him lunch at noon, and nap at 1 and he'd sleep for 3 hours or more, with no problems at all. He's doing that right now, as a matter of fact. So, my opinion: no, 10 months is not too early to drop to 1 nap. Provided that's what works for Jack and for you, that is.

[Emily]

When Asher was Jackson's age, I remember him just going through some weird sleep thingy where it LOOKED like he was going to transition to only one nap (his morning nap was always... delayed by a few hours, and then I would try to force nap #2 in the veeeery late afternoon all while worrying he would never go to sleep for the night) but then after a couple of weeks, went solidly back to two naps until he was 13-14 months.

For what it's worth, my niece is one week older than Jackson and she is doing the exact same thing right now too. I think it's the age. Just roll with it, as sucky as that sounds. It'll work itself out in a couple of weeks.

[Maureen]

For what it's worth, if he IS transitioning to one nap, it's actually better, because you can do more things in the morning. My Jack is now a one-napper unless we are in the car in the late afternoon. But the one nap happens around 11 and that is sort of inconvenient, so if I want him to stay up through lunch I have to go somewhere in the morning and then rush rush rush home so he doesn't fall asleep in the car on the way home. It's tricky.

[Sarah]

My son who is just a few days younger than Jack is doing the wonky nap thing. I have to wrestle him down to get him to sleep. He'll just start closing his eyes when up he sits looking around and laughing. I was wondering if he was dropping a nap, but he's also getting teeth and seems sleepy. So, I'm inclined to agree with Emily that it's just yet another sleep stage and we'll go back to regularly scheduled programming in a week or two.