Sleep training vs 2:1 routine fiddling with 13mo

[Kst33]

Hi,

Bit of a long one I'm afraid...

I'm in the middle of trying to do a bit of sleep training with my 13 mo. It's not going great but not sure if the 2:1 is making things worse / or if it's all down to the sleep training.

Very briefly.... the sleep training combined with the long am and short pm cat nap meant we were getting 14hr plus days and only 9hr nights that were disturbed.

I was worried about OT building up and was struggling to do an early BT as the cat nap was so late (5ish). And nights weren't improving.

So last Thursday I switched to a short am nap and long pm nap. This seemed to work ok for a few days - no improvements on nights but I wanted to stick with it for a week just to see what happened.

So the days were:

6am out of bed (even if 50% of the time he'd been awake from 5ish)
9.30am ish nap - 20 / 30 mins
1pm - 3pm nap. 2hrs (sometimes bit more / sometimes bit less)
Typically asleep by 7pm. (Seems very tired by then)

But last two days - yesterday he didn't nap until 11.40 (from a 6.20am start to the day) . Despite trying from 9am on and off.
Today he's been awake since 4.45am (although not out of bed until 6.15). Tried nap on and off from 8.40 but he didn't go until 11am.

So... do I carry on trying this short am / long am nap for a bit longer. Or is this telling me that it's time to take the plunge and just go to one nap?

I don't think he's great at handling long A times before bed. He's a very touchy little guy that seems very very sensitive to OT. He doesn't get upset - just goes into hyper manic mode and then can't sleep.

So I don't know how to figure out when to go for the nap? If I want to keep the afternoon short  - I'd be looking at something like:

6am awake
12 - 2 nap (hopefully)
6pm

A bit worried that I keep mucking him about with times and expecting him to learn to sleep as well. But I guess if the day is wrong... the night won't ever get sorted.

As you can see - a bit confused and stuck - so any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Karen

[ZacsMumme]

Hi Karen.
I think I'd go for a shorter first A time to start with but it does look like he's ready for the jump. The 2-1 is a pain and OT is often inevitable but once your through it things really do settle a bit.

What about something like this?
WU 6
Nap 11-1 or as long as he likes. Resettle if the nap is short. Or EBT.
Bt 6

[Kst33]

Thanks Sara.

He fell asleep in the car this morning at 3hrs 40 mins so 2 naps today!

The last 2 days he was in the pushchair with DH rather than the car - so perhaps there was just too much going on for him to sleep. I might stick to the car for a few more days.

Thanks for your thoughts on timings. I did think the leap to  6 hrs in the morning was a bit much but he's been so much better at going to bed with the shorter A time I didn't want to lose that. But anyway - hopefully I can keep on 2 naps for a little bit longer.

At least until I've made a bit more progress with the dreaded sleep training.

Thanks again for your response and thoughts - much appreciated.

Karen