Liam’s 1 Nap Schedule

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared an update on Liam’s schedule! He was taking 2 naps a day for quite a while, but we recently made the transition down to just one. This transition was definitely the hardest/longest of the nap transitions, so far, so it’s nice to be settled into a routine again!

Just before the one year mark, his naps took a nosedive. It was likely the 12-month sleep regression in conjunction with him learning how to walk! He would fight his afternoon nap really hard, but was nowhere near able to just take one nap a day. We spent several weeks flexing on his schedule and trying our best to keep him taking 2 naps. He finally worked through that regression, but then was showing signs that he might actually be ready to switch to just one nap. We slowly kept him awake longer in the mornings, moved his nap time back a little bit, all the things that are recommended when working out a new schedule. It took quite a while for him to adjust to just one nap and actually sleep long enough to get his daytime sleep hours in, but we worked through it!

During that time he did have a little stretch where he was sleeping until 7-8a, which is the latest he’s ever slept! It was so nice. He’s always been an early riser (starting in the 4 o’clock hour several months ago!), so I was shocked that he even had it in him to sleep in like that! We’re back to early mornings, but it’s what I expect from him, so they’re not as hard as they once felt.

A typical day at 16 months

6-6:30a – Liam wakes up! Mike and I take turns getting up with him depending on the day. He has some milk and a snack, then usually plays downstairs for an hour or so with us. Then we’ll either get him outside in the yard or play up in the playroom. Sometimes we’ll make a Starbucks drive-thru run or I’ll take him on a walk. We like to do an activity like that before breakfast, but then get out of the house after breakfast.

8:30/9a – Breakfast. He usually has a pretty hefty “snack” when he wakes up and gets right into playing, so we wait a little bit for breakfast!

9:30a – Get out of the house! We’re usually ready for a change of scenery by now, so we’ll head to a park, go run some errands, or do something like that. We have a couple hours to kill before lunch and nap, so it’s nice to get out of the house and see something different.

11:30a – Lunch and wind down for nap. Depending on his breakfast and snacking, lunch is either a big success or more of a snack. Either way, he is offered a meal before his nap!

12p – Time for his nap! We offer him some milk and either read a book or just rock with him for a minute or two before putting him in his crib. He’s usually very ready for his nap, so he’s asleep within about 3 minutes.

2/2:30p – Awake from his nap. If his lunch was minimal, we’ll offer him a snack. Otherwise, he takes a couple minutes to fully wake up and then he is ready to go! He’s now awake until bedtime, so we’ve got about 4.5 hours to fill. A trip to a park, errands, going to the children’s museum or something like that will often happen now. We also spend a ton of time outside in the driveway and yard – that’s one of Liam’s favorite activities!

5p – Back home to play and prep dinner. Depending on the day, I’ll either cook for all of us, or just feed Liam (then Mike and I will eat after he’s in bed). Liam usually plays on the screened-in porch or I’ll put him in his high chair with a low-calorie snack (to save room for dinner!) to occupy him while I’m getting food ready. He usually eats at about 5:30p.

6p – Around this time is when we’ll head upstairs to take a shower or bath. Showers are a little bit easier than baths right now, so we’ve done a lot of those! After the shower/bath, he’ll play a little upstairs in the playroom for a little while we get everything ready for bedtime.

6:30p – He’s usually ready for bed right at 6:30, so we get him in his sleep sack, get his last bit of milk, and read or rock him for a couple minutes. Then he’s in his crib and asleep within a few minutes!

Being that he’s early to rise, he’s also early to bed! We’ve played around with his bedtime quite a bit to see if it makes any difference in his wake up time, but it hasn’t. While I would love to have a little bit of time in the morning to myself before he wakes up (that day will come, even if it’s not until high school, haha!), it is so nice to have the entire evening for Mike and I to spend together. We usually enjoy dinner, watch a show, and just hang out for a few hours before I head up to bed.

Between childcare, our weekly The Little Gym class, our children’s museum membership, and Mother’s Morning Out one morning a week, we have a great variety of activities and environments for Liam to be in. I love the one-on-one time that we get, but I also love that he’s getting to spend time with other people, developing his own relationships, learning new things, and being stimulated in other ways.