Around 18 months (it may be earlier or later depending on your child) you might notice that your toddler doesn't seem to need two full naps anymore, but that one doesn't quite seem to be enough either, leaving you confused, and your little one cranky and irritable all day. Until they adjust, the impact of one fewer naps usually leaves a toddler tired, whiny, and ready for bed too early in the evening, resulting in an extra early morning for both of you.There are very few things you can do when your child enters this awkward sleep stage, but depending on your child's mealtimes, and when they actually do become tired enough to go to sleep, you might be able to work around it.
If your toddler suddenly doesn't seem to be settling down at their regular time, but still seems irritable and cranky, try getting him or her up for another hour (or less), and offer him or her a snack. If it's close enough to lunch-time, give your child an early lunch. Then, try and lay your child down again for a late morning nap.
If your child seems to be dropping his or her pre-lunchtime nap all together, you might need to try an early afternoon nap instead of late morning. Even though they may seem like they need the rest, they may just not be able to fall asleep, so there might not be much else you can do other than try and keep your toddler happy, and occupied until it's apparent they are ready for a snooze.
If the early afternoon nap works best for your child, keep an eye on the time, you may end up needing to wake them. This all depends on your personal situation, but if allowed to do so, your toddler might sleep from 1pm to 5 pm, which is great if you are planning on going out with your child for the evening, not so great if you have to wake him or her early to go to daycare or an AM outing or appointment with you.
Though it may feel like it, this stage is toddler sleep behavior doesn't last forever, and they will eventually adjust to getting less daytime sleep. Then, it's your turn to adjust to only having one nap-time to do everything you used to do in two. Talk about having to put those multitasking skills in action.
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1 comment:
This happened to me when Austin was 1! Yep, and I didn't know what to do at first. He ended up dropping his morning nap, he is 19 months now, and will occasionally nap 2X, it's rare. If I remember correctly he was like that for about 2 weeks, then he adjusted himself, his bed time did get a little earlier, but eventually went back to normal. :)
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