10-hour night sleep, unpredictable naps

[meirsmom]

Will start the spacing out of A times, but do you think the 2-to-1 transition is happening now? He's not yet 10 months old! I thought it happened around 18 months?

[Haribo2012]

Generally the transition to 1 nap is around 15-18 months but the show signs of starting transition earlier so naps need looking at. I think if you get a more spaced out A it should help things a bit...!
Here's a couple of links for you..
10/11 month old sleep gone wonky? Read this first!
From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

[meirsmom]

Hi there. I'm back!

Till 3 days ago, LO had been on 2 naps a day (he's a week shy of 11 months now), with the following routine: (there were variations in the specific times, but the A times of 3.5 hours, 3.5 hours and 4.5 hours were being followed strictly)

WU 6 am
1st nap 9.30 am
WU 11.30 am
2nd nap 3 pm
WU 4 pm
BT 8.30 pm

3 days ago, he started taking longer 1st naps (2.5 hours to 3 hours) and started resisting the 2nd nap.

Day 1: He woke up at 12.30 pm from 1st nap, wouldnt go down for 2nd nap, so I put him down at 6.45 pm. He awoke in 45 min, we tried to put him down for 45 minutes, didn't work, he was wide awake. So we let him be up till 11, after which he slept till 7 am (with the usual 3-5 wakings).
Day 2: He woke up at 7 am, took a 3 hour 1st nap, we put him down at 7.45 pm, he slept through the night (with only 1 extended waking), and awoke at 7 am. (I was ecstatic!) 
Day 3: (Today) He awoke at 7 am, took a 2 hour 1st nap, I put him down at 7 pm - he woke up in 30 min, wouldn't go down, and is now wide awake, with an expected BT of 11.30 pm.

What is going wrong? What do we do?

I am trying to extend his morning A time on the expectation that he's moving to 1 nap, so the two A times shouldn't be too disparate. But how do I handle this completely unpredictable behavior?
How do I know when to put him down? Pls help, we are already coping with continued frequent night wakings for many months now, and now this - is there any relief in sight?
 

[Haribo2012]

Hi again, sounds like the start of 2-1 transition.
I would say a 3 hour nap is quite long to then expect a 2nd nap then regular BT. I'd try pushing that first nap a bit later, keeping CN but have it a bit later for say 30-40 mins, it may be that lol is getting too much day sleep.
I'd be aiming for first nap 4 hours from WU then 1.5-2 hour nap then CN 4 hours later for 35-40 mins then  BT 13 hours from WU. If you get total 2nd nap refusal you want to try really EBT keeping day 12 hours max! I did have a stage when my LO dropped naps of doing 11 hour days and he did tack on sleep short term.
Have you read this link?
Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep

[meirsmom]

Dear Zoe, thanks for your response - super-helpful, as always!

So I took your advice, kept slowly extending his morning A time to 5 hours, and he took a longish 1st nap (avg. 2 hours) and a short catnap (about 30 minutes) in the evening. This very often drove his BT very late (because initially I didn't cut short his first nap) so he would sleep at 10 PM and wake up at 6 am - but this was terribly poor night sleep so I started cutting short his 1st nap to bring BT under control, and that helped.
For almost a month LO (now 1 year old) yo-yo'd between 2 naps a day and 1 nap a day. However in the last 2 weeks, he seems to have settled into a-nap-a-day routine consistently. This has helped in the overall no. of hours of sleep he gets to go up, because earlier he had 3 A times of roughly 4 hours + 4 hours + 4.5 hours = 12.5 hours, hence a max of 11.5 hours of sleep. Now his A times are 5 hours + 5.5 hours = 10.5 hours, hence he can (theoretically) sleep for at least 13.5 hours.

Here's what a typical day looks like:

WU 7.30 AM
1st nap 12.30 PM
WU 3 PM
BT 8.30 PM

Theoretically, I said. Here's the problem: We have Extended Wakings every night now, from anywhere between 1 hour to 1.5 hours. They typically happen about 5 hours from BT. He wakes up, not crying, babbling to himself, starts whimpering after 10 minutes, one of us goes in to pat him, he quietens down (but isn't asleep), whimpers again the minute we stop patting. This goes on for an hour or so, after which he starts crying, and we take him in our arms and gently rock him, sometimes offer him a bottle if he's been crying for too long. Then we put him back in the cot, he cries again, we keep shush-patting till he goes to sleep.

Every night.

My guess is, he's not getting sufficient A time now, after being used to much more. Even during the month that he was oscillating between 2 naps and 1, on the day he took 1 nap, we would have an extended waking at night, not on the others.

However, if we give him more A time, doesn't his already low no. of hours of sleep get further reduced?

Suggestions please, these extended wakings are taking a lot out of us, besides affecting LO's night sleep.

Thanks again!

[Haribo2012]

Hi again glad the naps are better 
Has he got his molars yet? For us teeth used to cause prolonged NW or if he's having a developmental leap that might affect night sleep! There is a wonder week around 1st birthday.
Your routine looks good and I don't think you need to extend the A time really, maybe cap the nap at 2 hours for a few days to see if makes a difference and bring BT forward to make the day 12.5 hours!?
Is he acting OT at all?x

[meirsmom]

When you say "bring BT forward to make the day 12.5 hours", what exactly do you mean, I didn't get it. Do I increase or decrease his A time?

Do keep in mind that if I put him down for a very early bedtime, typically before 7.30 PM, he tends to sleep for 45 minutes and then wakes up, treating it like a nap. I've seen this every single time so it's a real thing with him.

I'm not sure if acts OT, but typically, half an hour before his naptime (i.e. 5 hours since morning wake-up) or bedtime (i.e. 5.5 hours since wake up from nap) I bathe him. After his bath, he acts all sleepy and tired and whimpers and resists any activity, lies down on the floor or mattress as if he'll just go to sleep there and then (but of course, doesn't). Is that OT behaviour? So I either skip the wind-down or do a very short version and move on straight to bottle feed in the dark. Mostly, he drifts off to sleep during the feed for 1st nap.

For bedtime, he drifts off to sleep mid-feed maybe 30% of the time. 30% of the time he finishes as much of the feed as he wants to, pushes bottle away, then I place him in the cot and lightly pat him for less than a minute, and he goes off to sleep. Balance 40% of the time, it takes between 15 to 45 mins to put him down.

Why do extended wakings happen, typically? 

[Haribo2012]

Sorry I meant so BT is a bit earlier but had forgotten the 7.30pm thing....maybe try 8pm BT!? For us OT can be crying, restless behaviour or charging around far too excitable!!
Personally for us long NW are discomfort ie teeth or developement, if they are OT wakings they are often easier to settle back to sleep.

[Haribo2012]

Hi, I've split your last post off and created a new thread in toddler sleep now LO is over 12 months old it's now under
Re: 14 month old unpredictable naps
Hope this is ok

[meirsmom]

Thanks! I forget that my baby is now a toddler :-) Hope the moderators at that board are able to help us as much as you ladies have! Cannot thank you enough!

[Haribo2012]

Your very welcome :-)