Dropping naps

[alotofyarn]

When did your kids drop from two to one nap? E wakes up for the day around 7-8, naps at 10 and 2 for usually no more than an hour each, and goes to bed at 7. Lately I've been picking her up from daycare and finding out that she skipped one of her naps (not consistently one or the other, though the morning more often than the afternoon). This usually means that she falls asleep on the car ride home around 3:30, and I drive around a bit and stay in the car when we get home for up to an hour to actually get her to sleep. On Sundays, she refuses to nap in the nursery, so she falls asleep in the car ride home around noon. I'm home with her today, and she screamed for quite a while before she finally wore herself out and fell asleep for her morning nap. I'm willing to let her cry, within reason - I can tell if her cry is just tired and fighting it, or something else, and with her tired cry I know that she almost always eventually falls asleep if I leave her for a bit, usually not more than a few minutes, and I go in and try to soothe her otherwise. I don't think they let her cry at daycare though, they just make her sit quietly at the table if she's not going to nap. She's clearly tired though, and she gets grumpy when she doesn't nap enough. At what point do I stop fighting it though? It's exhausting for me!

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

At 10 months, C went from 2 to 1 from 12/1 to 2/3/4 PM. It was probably too early but we couldn't fight it. D sleeps catch as catch can around C's activities but she's doing one main one and then 10 minute car naps otherwise.

[OrionGrad]

We went from 2 to 1 around 12 months. I remember coming here asking a similar question, just because I had it in my mind that he'd have 2 naps a day until 16 or 18 months. Obviously DS had different plans, but our days became so much nicer once we dropped down to one nap. I say go for it if she's consistently fighting one of her naps.

[ladymoreta]

I think that's about when mine dropped theirs. (How quickly I forget!) What worked best for me was keeping the morning nap and dropping the afternoon one, then gradually pushing it later, ending up at about 1:30. It really is so nice when they get down to one reliable nap a day. The nap gets longer, and they seemed to go down much easier.