To Nap or not to nap

That is the question?  Bryce is going through a funky little phase right now with his naps and it's making me BONKERS.  I have no clue what to do.  He's resisting his morning nap now and will sometimes take a  longer afternoon nap.  Sometimes he's so tired he'll take a morning nap and no afternoon nap and by the time dinner time rolls around he's so cranky it's ridiculous.  I know he's trying to transition to the one big nap in the afternoon but shit, can we please just get this transition over with! This wonky little phase has been going on for a couple of weeks now and I have no clue as what to do about it?  5 days last week he had no morning nap and took an hour and a half to a two hour afternoon nap but Friday he was so tired he fell a sleep at 9 am in the morning and slept almost two hours.  And then today.  He had a 45 minute morning nap and  has fell back a sleep this evening.

Any advice from those of you who have been through this or are dealing with this?

Another thing is and hopefully this will help the nap transition also.  He's moving up to the toddler room in daycare tomorrow and they only take one afternoon nap after lunch.  They also don't rock the toddlers down to sleep which is going to be a huge problem for Bryce as we rock him for 7 to 10 minutes for naps and night time sleep.   They also rock him in his previous classroom(infant/baby classroom). I know the rocking is a bad habit but he's my only child and I probably will not have another so what to do?  I talked to his new daycare teacher and she assured me that he'll get on their schedule and he'll eventually go down without rocking.  That several of the other toddlers were the same way, when that happens they will lay down beside them on the little cots and rub their backs or pat their bottoms until they eventually fall a sleep.  She said it might take Bryce a little longer to get use to that method but eventually he'll get use to falling a sleep like that.

I don't want to quit rocking my son!  I enjoy it and for me it's bonding time for us.  I mean he's been off the bottle since the day after his first birthday.  I don't have much "baby" stuff/time left if you know what I mean.  I swear I'll rock him until he's 21 if he'll let me.  Plus, I ENJOY it. 

I guess I'm screwed as I've caused my son to rely on rocking to fall a sleep.  What's strange is that if he wakes in the middle of the night he can get back to sleep without the rocking and most of the time I'll put him in the crib and he's not a sleep from the rocking so I know he's capable of falling a sleep without the whole rocking thing.  Who know's?  I guess we'll see but I would appreciate any of you guys commenting that have been through the whole nap transition thing.

Comments

[Amanda]

The 2 to 1 nap transition sucked big time for us, too. Adam finally got to the point where he fought bedtime in a major way if he took two naps, so we just had to make the decision to only put him down for one on a consistent basis. It was hard at first because he wouldn't nap long enough, but we just put him to bed early to make up for it. He's still not a great napper, but he did eventually adjust to the one nap thing.

I guess I don't have any real advice, but you definitely have my sympathy. And rock away, I say. I still nurse Adam to sleep for naps and bedtime at 22 months and have no plans of stopping anytime soon. It works too well.