ladies, i need your eyes, mine arent working!

[*Jo*]

for some reason i can look at someone elses routines and see an area that needs tweaking, i look at my own and im lost so i need some eyes please

ive been getting strange naps, Caleb is tired from about 3hrs+ A time in the mornings, he used to do 4 hours and refused to go down even 15mins earlier! however of course the earlier the nap, the shorter the nap length. we got back up to 4 hours yesterday adn he slept 1 hour 15mins and i thought, hoorah! we are on to something here, the first real decent AM nap we have had in a while, then he does his PM nap about 3.5 hours later.
so today i thought, if i stretch his A time 15mins more then his nap should get longer (thats how it used to work anyway) nope, he slept an hour and 5 mins! its so confusing!!!! and of course was asleep at his PM nap 3 hours later.....

we tried short AM, long PM all last week and that was just disastrous, in fact thats why i thought his A times were so short this week due to getting OT from that, but hes soooo tired in the AM i cant stretch him any longer yet i keep getting these short naps. all in all we are totalling about 1.5 hours sleep in the day and i dont feel its enough for him. I was going to aim for one nap today but there was no way he would make it past 11.15am, he was rubbing his red little eyes at 11am and getting cranky.
his nightsleep is fine, he wakes up pretty happy, getting about 12 hours (he does 11 hours when he has longer naps and i can deal with that because i feel he can handle the whole day better on more daysleep) so i figure after 12 hours he should be able to handle the normal 4 hours A time hes done for months now.

any ideas???

[babybarr]

Maybe you can write your actual routine down for us !!!

One thing which helped us when we were on 2 naps (it helped extend them with a very bad short napper) was pretty fixed times - I don't know how your LO would do with that?  I know fixed times are always approprate but for us I couldn't believe the difference!  Just a thought anyway.

Laura x

[*Jo*]

well heres how today went for starters (its roughly the same everyday)

wake at 7/7.10am
nap 1 11.15- 12.20 (woke on his own, was aiming for a 1.5 hour nap)
nap 2 3.30-4 (fell asleep in car)
bed 7.15

yesterday was this:
wake at 7am
nap 1 11-12.15 (woke on own)
nap 2 (fell asleep in car after swimming at 4.30 for 3-5mins) but when transferred to bed needed help to fall back asleep) 4.50-5.30
bed 7.30 (he was soooo tired after swimming that we cut his last A time to 2 hours which we NEVER do)

heres how our routine used to go like clockwork before he started refusing PM naps and then AM naps and messed it all up

wake at 7am
nap 1 11-12.30
nap 2 4.30-5pm
bed 8pm
was like this for the past month and a half

[babybarr]

What would happen do you think if you pushed the first nap to 11.30am?

I have to say we had major nap issues at 13-14mths until I just did one nap.

[*Jo*]

I did wonder about pushing to 11.30 but after getting a shorter nap pushing to 11.15 I was a bit scared to, plus he has swimming at 9.30am tomorrow so I don't think he would last, he's exhausted after swimming. Do you think I should still try it?

[babybarr]

Do you think I should still try it?

If he's exhausted after swimming then maybe not tomorrow, but otherwise maybe it's worth a go??  I know we only get better naps with a longer A time and I think LizJ is very similar too.

[babybarr]

Hi - I just wondered what you had decided and if it had worked or not?

Laura x

[*Jo*]

I did push it, the day after swimming, i got a 1 hour 10min nap, he woke up screaming but i think it was pain, he then slept 12.5 hours that night. yesterday we tried it again and got a 1.5 hour nap but he had pooped, still did a 12.5 hour night last night so we are going to try again and see if we can get a longer nap. i did see a tiny part of a molar had cut through his gums yesterday so im wondering if thats had anything to do with it all....

so yesterday went like this:

7.30am awake
nap 12-1.30
bedtime 7pm

[londonmama]

Just posted on the 2:1 support thread, but I reckon it is the molar that has been causing your problems.  Some bubs seem more disturbed with day sleep than night sleep with teeth.  It may just be that he has been uncomfortable and unable to nap normally.  Our molar problems were all well before the tooth cut through - once the white was visible, the sleep went back to normally instantly.

Hope it's the case for you!

[babybarr]

That's good there's been some improvement.  Hope it continues and teeth come through quickly.