HELP...I'm in 2-1 nap transition hell!!!!!!

[chirojaz]

Separation anxiety?
ok, so things are progressing, today was day 4 of consistently one nap and last night was a better night as far as night wakes go.  I did give him Ibuprofren to see if I would notice a difference since the night prior was like 4 Nw's, so maybe he is having teething pain and that's why last night was better?  But when he did wake at 3am he was tossing and turning until about 4:20am!!!! His thing is, he will wake up, stand in his crib and scream until my husband or myself come in to his room.  We don't pick him up but if we lie him back down and rub his back/sh he will stop crying.  As soon as we take our hand off his back he will start crying again.  Then I will take my hand off but keep shushing, if we try and leave his room and he starts crying again we go back in.  So this continued last night for over an hour!!! Is this separation anxiety? Or is there something in his schedule that needs tweaking to stop the NW's?
Here's what the past two days EASY looked like...
(yesterday)
woke: 6:30 or 7am?
nap:12:00 (he seemed to be resisting it when I was singing but I still put him in the crib and he settled rather quickly)
up: 1:00 so I APOP but he didn't fall asleep until 1:45 and let him sleep until 2:20
bed:7pm (he fell asleep really fast)
night wake at 3am-4:20
Today
woke: 6:30
nap:12:00
up: 1:35
bed: 6:20 (was asleep by 6:30)
He will likely wake tomorrow around 6am since the early BT tonight.  Should I still keep his nap time at 12:00?  Maybe he's not getting enough morning A time? Would that affect the NW?  I definitely think he does better with a shorter A time before bed, or at least he has in the past but that could have been an accumulation of OT by the end of the day.  His A times during the day have always been longer than average in order to get a good nap out of him.  I'm dying for a full night's rest!!! Feeling so tired

[jessmum46]

We had separation anxiety-type behaviour with teething pain.

I wouldn't tweak anything at all right now, you're only on day 4 of one nap.  That's no time at all really.  Stick to it for a week minimum before evaluating if anything needs tweaking x

[chirojaz]

OMG, no night wakes last night and he slept 12 hours!!! got up at 6:30am.  Should I still keep the 12pm nap time or make it later since he slept so well?  I already posted yesterday's EASY but after an 11.5 hour night (including over an hour night wake) here's what it looked like...
up 6:30
nap 12:00
up 1:35
bed 6:20 was asleep by 6:30.
I wonder if I made it later if he would nap longer or should I just stay consistent and keep it at 12pm for a while?

[Truly Blessed]

Oh that's great news Honey! Personally I would stick with the midday nap for now, hope it continues Honey!

x.

[Jodes112]

Wow so pleased to see you are getting some improvement this is great news!

I would also stick at what you have been doing (12pm nap) you have been working bedtime out great too dependant on the nap length so you seem to be judging things really well! Well done mum xx

[chirojaz]

one step forward and two steps back!!!   What is the deal with a two hour night wake?!!!!! OT at bedtime? UT at bedtime? I am so exhausted with the lack of sleep and the inconsistency with my little guy   Yesterday DS took a good nap of 1hr45min, his easy looked like this...
woke around 6?
nap 11:45
up 1:30
bed 6:30
night wake at 8:30 (went back to sleep easily) and then 12:45am-2:45am!!!!!!!!
Then he woke up this morning at like 5:50/6:00 crying and would not go back to sleep.   I am just so confused because I was staying consistent with what I did the night he had zero NW's and slept 12 hours and look what I got... a 2hr NW!!!
The night he slept through the night his EASY looked very similar (to me)
up 6:30
nap 12:00
woke 1:35
bed 6:30
I thought since after that days 1.5hr night and 5hr A time before bed I would do the same yesterday but the outcome was horrendous!!! any ideas?!

[chirojaz]

ok so he is obviously making up for the 2 hours of awake time he had last night because I put him down at 11:45am this morning and he is still asleep (over a 2 hour nap already!!) So of course I am THRILLED that he is napping so great today but when should I put him down for bed? at 2:15pm it will be a 2 1/5 hour nap and I'm thinking I will wake him up by that time?  Does a 5hr A time (what I gave him last night) seem like not enough time before bed after a descent nap and that's why we had the 2 hr night wake last night?  I'm so confused and I just want a descent nights rest!!!!!

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Honey,

I think in order to get your head around this you may have set WU and BT.

The day he STTN was a longer day by 30 minutes, 12.5 hours with a 1 hour 45 minutes nap. The next day his nap was slightly shorter and his day was 12 hours. Yes, that may seems 'similar' but that slightly change in nap and 30 mins difference at BT can make all the difference. When you're in this kind of mess (and trust me we have been) you can either adjust the day depending on nap length, or you can set WU and BT. IME adjusting BT can often pay off, but if it doesn't then it is harder to draw conclusions as to what is going to work, does that make sense  So in the end on advise of BW, after tweaking BT like a crazy woman and looking at endless routines I had recorded, I took that advise. It can be hard at times to get LO through to BT, but what I believe is really beneficial about it (at this age especially) is that it gives your LO a chance to reset their body clock YK  Also for me, taking the guess work out of it helped me stress a lot less.

Something which was also beneficial to me was to understand that OT is accumulated over time, but UT is something that you get for the day. So even though LO seems really OT, often shortening the day can result in problems too, making it pretty much impossible to decifer between the 2 when it comes to WU's etc. Does that make sense 


So if he is up at 6.30 I would go with this:

WU 6.30

Nap midday (uncapped)

BT 7.00

Stick with it and see where you are in a week or so. I would keep a record and see what it looks like at the beginning and the end of the trial.

What do you think 

[Martini~]

Just wanted to post about set BT. I would definitely go for a set BT at that age. Nap length is a way of self-regulating for them so sometimes even if they nap longer, it's good to put them to bed at normal BT not later as they napped longer to catchup not to go to bed later.

[Truly Blessed]

Just wanted to post about set BT. I would definitely go for a set BT at that age. Nap length is a way of self-regulating for them so sometimes even if they nap longer, it's good to put them to bed at normal BT not later as they napped longer to catchup not to go to bed later.

Very well said Marti x.

[chirojaz]

ok, thanks for the advice ladies.  Last night I put him to bed around 7:15 and he slept until 4:50am, I FINALLY got him back to sleep around 6:15am after shh/patting and then he woke up at 6:35am.  I'm starting to think that maybe he is a low sleep needs baby? I'm thinking that because after the day where he napped for 1.5hours he slept 12 hours at night.  Then yesterday after napping for almost 3 hours he slept for 9.5hours last night and then was good to go.  I'm wondering if I should try and cap his nap? I do like the idea of set bedtime though.   

[Truly Blessed]

It sounds to me like your 'instincts' could be right Hun. What would you start capping at if you go with your gut 

x.

[chirojaz]

ok so my plan was to cap his nap at MAX 2 hours but possibly even after 1.5 since both those days I got a 12 hour night out of him with no wake ups.  But now the past couple of days he has only taken 1hr 20 min or 1 hr 15 min naps.  These were after a 12 hr night sleep and a 6.5 hours A time.  Could these be OT naps?  I always thought less than 1.5 hours was UT?

[Truly Blessed]

I always thought less than 1.5 hours was UT?

Generally speaking Honey, but it really is down the LO and their sleep needs.

ok so my plan was to cap his nap at MAX 2 hours but possibly even after 1.5 since both those days I got a 12 hour night out of him with no wake ups.  But now the past couple of days he has only taken 1hr 20 min or 1 hr 15 min naps.  These were after a 12 hr night sleep and a 6.5 hours A time.  Could these be OT naps?

Very well could be Hun, maybe too big a jump for him YK  It's important to remember even if he is still getting an overall good amount of sleep, that 'how' that sleep needs spreading varies from child to child. So I think it would be wise to go with a 2 hour capping of the nap in the first instance. Maybe bring the nap forward just for a day or 2 to see if it lengthens and then take it from there, in case you're right and the nap is an OT nap.

What do you think 

x.

[chirojaz]

looks like it was an OT nap.  Today he woke at like 7:10am and I decided to put him to nap at 12:40 (5.5hr A time) and he napped great!!! I woke him up after 2 hours!  Now I know you have been suggesting to go with a set bed time, what would you suggest his bedtime to be after this type of day?  Just to give you an idea of what I have experienced in the past when he napped good during the day.....
up 6:50
nap 11:30
up 1:50
bed 7:30 (yawned at 7:15, fell asleep by 7:40pm).  Had a night wake from 12:10-2:15am!!! I'm assuming OT?  This was the first day I ever had a long one nap day so I had no idea what time to put him to bed.
Two more days recently looked like this...
(March 4)
up 6
nap 11:45
up 1:30
bed 6:30  Night wake at 8:30 then again 12:45-2:45
(March 5)
up 6:00
nap 11:45
up 2:20? 2:30?
bed 7:10  Night wake 4:50-6:15 then slept from 6:15-6:40am and was then up for the day

Any suggestions for what time to make his bedtime tonight after his 2hr nap? I'm concerned I'm going to get another long night wake.  Just don't understand if they are due to OT or UT.