11 months 2- 1 routine tweak

[mmom]

C is just about 11 months.  We have been in a routine of a longer morning nap and a shorter morning nap for about 2 months.  He has been napping at 9:30 or 10 depending on his wake up time (9:30 with a 6 am wake up, which is the norm) and then 2-2:30 depending on the nap.  The first nap is normally 1.5 hours with the occasional 2 hours and the 2nd nap is 45 minutes  - 1 hour.  Bedtime is 3.5 hours from the last nap.

However, the past 2 days he has refused the 2 nd nap.  I was able to AP a short nap yesterday in the stroller and a car ride today.  But he was in his crib for over 1 hour both days and not sleeping.  I realize the logical solution is to offer a cat nap in the morning and then a longer afternoon nap.  This is what I did with DD#1.  I guess I can't recall how to start.

With a wake time of 6, do I still put him down at 9:30?  What should I start capping the nap at?  I feel like he does 3 hours on 45 minutes.  Not totally sure though.  So that is where I get stuck - when do I offer the next nap?

TIA!

[Tweakster]

Hi there Kara,

For the transition you can either start with 45, 30 or even 20 mins.

We did:
Awake (some ungodly hour but A time was always based off 6 a.m.)
Nap 9:30 - 9:50
Nap 1 - 3/3:30 (it took some time for him to work up to 3 hrs A off 20 min A though, I'd start with 2.5 hrs)
Bedtime 6:30/7 latest

By 11 mths F was already on a 20 min morning nap.  He too just stopped taking his PM nap and that we could not have!  So when the morning nap was hacked, he did a nice long PM nap.

[mmom]

Wow, Wendy!  20 minutes at 11 months!   You know my history with M and he was always up at a ridiculous hour too. With him we did a long A, then a 30 minute nap + a 3.5 hour A until his next nap.

With Finn, did you jump right to 20 minutes or was there trial and error first?

Of course after I write this, C sleeps until 6:40 and we are going out this morning.  He will probably sleep in the car on the way there and the way back and I will have issues with the afternoon nap.  I seriously don't know how to time naps when I get out in the mornings with the boys.

[maxidoodle]

Hi, I'm reading this with great interest, my LO is nearly 11m and I'm having real sleep issues, he was waking alot in the night but now he's taking 2hrs to go to sleep as I think he's OT. Did this happen with you?
Here he goes waking again, so best go!
Good luck to you.

[Tweakster]

Kara yes Finn was on 1 nap at 12 mths for daycare, we had no choice as they only nap them once per day.

At 9 mths we flew to UK and he really slept very well there, naps and all. When we came back and got over jet lag, by 9.5 mths he was refusing his PM nap.  And it was like one day he was taking it and then a switch flipped and he just refused.  I was LOSING my mind, I had a long thread on Naps and Stacy basically said 'he's telling you he won't transition that way'. So we had to do short AM long PM.  It had kinks and I started with 50 mins, then 40 mins (I think) then 30 mins then he got OT so back up to 45 mins.  Soon we just moved to 20 mins because he was still not going down easily.  So around 11ish months we did the above schedule then over 4 weeks we just moved out that A time and one day I just didn't offer the morning nap.  Finn was not a tweaker he needed big overhaul changes to really make a difference. 

I'll dig up the thread, it's always worth looking back on it hehe

When you have 2 and have to get out DC2 has to be more flexible, without choice.  There's not much you can do but to deal with those nap days as they happen.  When you can be home then I would try a shorter AM and your A time is likely going to be around 3-3.5 hrs depending on nap length.  I would error on the side of caution with A times, better to have two short naps than only one and a heck of a long time to bedtime!

(((hugs)))

[Tweakster]

Found it :-)

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163140.0

Happy reading lol  Man it seems like an eternity ago...

[mmom]

Thanks Wendy!

Yesterday was a disaster.  We had a play date in the morning.  C slept maybe 10 minutes on the way there and maybe 15 minutes on the way back (I can't see him) and almost refused a nap in the afternoon.  He ended up sleeping about 1 hour.

Today I am waiting for him to sleep 30 minutes before we leave, so I can hopefully prevent that scenario.  But then we are meeting people 1 hour late.  It is a no win situation really.

[mmom]

Things are not going well.  I am not sure what the issue is.  I have planned on staying home in the mornings so he can get his 30 minutes in and now his afternoon nap is getting shorter.  Last night was an expected mess, because we had a bday party to go to and after his 1 hour nap, he did a 5 hour A.  So we had multiple NWs, which I expected and then a lovely EW.  This morning I let him sleep 1 hour, because he was exhausted.  But then he fought the 2nd nap and only slept 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I just don't get it.