Tevye is 17 months old now. He’s cute, but like pretty much every child of that age he is quite a handful. What helps me keep my sanity, which in turn helps keep him alive, is the fact he is a pretty good sleeper. He goes to bed at an early hour and stays down for the night. The two naps a day also help.
At this age, however, the two naps he takes aren’t really two naps.
He essentially takes a nap and a half. The morning and afternoon naps have been well established, but he is at the age where he doesn’t truly need two full naps. What he does need are two times to either sleep or rest. Tevye goes down for naps well enough each time, but he doesn’t always sleep.
Sometimes he plays in his crib, sometimes he complains (loudly), but most of the time he winds up sleeping.
Most of the time.
One nap is always a good nap, and the other is…well, not as consistently good. This is the problem, as he still needs that down time, and one can never tell which nap will be the good one. Even if he sleeps good during his morning nap, he could sleep well during his afternoon nap. Or not.
Just because he doesn’t always nap during his morning nap doesn’t necessarily mean he will nap well during his afternoon nap.
What to do?
I still put him down for both naps, whether he “needs” them or not. Until he winds up having a consistent day of two bad naps, I am not going to consolidate them.
But that day is coming.
And soon.