One Nap Only

I know many of you can relate. We just bit the bullet and made the switch from two naps with our 19 month old twins to one! I should count my blessings though that they lasted as long as they did. Many of their toddler friends dropped one of their naps months ago.

So many people told me that I’d love just one nap a day. That it would give me so much more time and freedom to get things done. I can honestly say that I didn’t believe them. I loved the girls’ two nap routine. I would nap, get things done, have a coffee and workout. True it limited us to a small window to get out and get things done and we didn’t get to participate in some get togethers because their morning nap interfered, but I really didn’t mind.

I was dreading this change but after fighting us for two nights at bedtime we knew it was time.

The change wasn’t seamless, but it was better than we had thought it would be.

The first day of the change happened during a mommy group play date at our home. I figured with all of the excitement in the house it would be easy to keep them up all morning until after we fed them lunch.

And it worked!

Other than not sleeping as long as I had hoped, they somehow managed to function and be happy little girls with only the one one and a half hour long nap for the first day or so of the transition (thankfully they upped this to about 2-2.5 hours as the week went on).

When they cut their nap short the first day of the new routine I turned to my best friend with an alarmed look on my face and said, “Well now what do I do?” To which she replied, “Well, they’re just going to be tired and have to go to bed earlier. It’s how they’ll learn that they need to sleep longer for their one nap because it’s all they’re going to get.” I have to admit, this piece of advice was awesome and very true.

Not only did we make the switch to one nap, but that also meant transitioning to just two bottles a day instead of three! I guess go big or go home when it comes to changes in our house, lol.

And guess what? They don’t even miss their afternoon bottle! They drink a couple of ounces of milk from their sippy cups with lunch and they’re perfectly happy and full.

My girls are growing up whether I want them to or not. They’ve transitioned beautifully, I on the other hand have been a walking zombie for most of the week. But I do have to admit that the one nap does give me a lot of freedom to get out and get things done. I guess all of those other parents can say I told you so!