2 to 1 nap nightmare!

[Little Dot]

I have been reading all the different posts about transitioning to one nap  and they have been very interesting and useful but I was hoping if I posted my DD routine here someone might give me a few tips on what to do in order to get through this change in routine. It seems to have been going on forever and I don't know if I'm doing it right.
My DD is now 15 months and I probably started noticing a change in her daytime naps at around 12 or 13 months. To begin with she started extending her waking time so that by the time she was ready for a sleep in the afternoon it was around 4 o'clock which I felt was too late. I started reducing the length of her morning nap to one hour so she would usually go to sleep about 9.30-10.30 and therefore was ready for a nap about 2.30. Again I would wake her after an hour or so and she was ready for a 7/7.30 bedtime. This was ok for a few weeks then it all changed again. She is quite an early riser waking most days at 6 ish but we can also have the pleasure of her company as early as 5.30. Every day is different and an earlier waking in the morning means she is wanting a really early morning nap, say 8.30 ish. However, on occasion we have had a 7am waking and she has coped well until after lunch when she had a 2 hour nap. I thought things were starting to get better but this hasn't been the case. She has started waking at night at around 2am and if I go in to settle her she just starts chatting away and seems completely awake. If I leave the room she cries and screams. It can take up to an hour to settle her back and still, she might wake a s early as 5 or 5.30. I just feel her quality of sleep isn't very good at the minute and wondered if I was messing about with her too much. She isn't miserable when I wake her from naps and we always seem to get the bed time right. She's tired but not over tired.
Today she woke at 5am and I stretched her as long as I could but she could take no more by 8.20am so I put her down. I have no idea how long to let her sleep. She had a bad night, waking twice. She would cry to begin with but seemed completely awake by the time I went to her. She has always gone back to sleep fine and I don't think I am going in too early to see to her. Just don't know what to do about the naps when every day is different. Here is what most days used to look like, though:
Wakes anytime between 5am-6am
Cup of milk
Breakfast an hour later
Nap 3-4 hours later, say 9.30 ish for an hour
snack
Lunch 12
Nap 2.30/3 ish for an hour
Cup of milk
Dinner 5ish
Milk and bed 7 ish

At the minute I am giving her different lengths of times for her naps depending on waking times etc and not wanting her to nap past 3 ish in the afternoon and things are definitely all over the place. Yesterday she woke at 6, went to sleep at 9.30 and I woke her at 10 in the hope it would bring the afternoon nap earlier but she didn't end up sleeping again at all and went to bed at 6.30! Not enough day sleep really. It was a bad night and an early rise today!
Sorry for such LONG post but just want to be clear and tell everything! Any advice would be much appreciated x

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

My ds is not at this stage yet, so I'm not sure I'm the best person to offer advice.

Am bumping this post - can anyone help?

[Harrisonsmummy]

Hi, I have been experiencing the same problems exactly with my ds since starting the transition - it is a constant juggling act. Since keeping a sleep log, I concluded that the tiredness builds up over a period of time, so to combat the night wakings I tried whatever I could to get him topped up for a few days. I let him have an early sleep in the morning for an hour, and pushed him around to get a pm nap in, and then an early bedtime, as early as he could take. This stopped the night wakings.

After this we were left with the 5am wake-ups, but theses seemed to be a result of the early am nap. So once I was satisfied he was rested enough, I went cold turkey to one nap - even when he woke very early, putting him to sleep by 12pm and then to bed no later than 5 hours after wake-up. This seemed to stop the very early mornings!

My ds can tolerate a long wake-up in that although he is tired, he will still nap, if he is overtired it is bedtimes that are hideous!

I am still working on this and need to push the nap back a bit - but there seems to be some kind of logic there - based on reading every posting I can find!!!

HTH in some way - if nothing else - you are not alone!

Justine

[Meg's Mom]

LittleDot Hi!

Hi, my textbook LO started the transition at 13mos.   They say when they start to refuse one of the naps then it is time to transition to the 1 nap.  The nightwaking is usually a sign of overtirednees also due to the lack of day sleep.  IMO your LO is ready to move to 1 nap but you are also going to have to combat the early waking at the same time.  I would make 6am my start time and NO earlier (i will send you a pm on this topic).

give me a few tips on what to do in order to get through this change in routine. It seems to have been going on forever and I don't know if I'm doing it right.

I would gently push her A time to 12pm for that one nap and then let her sleep as long as she wants. 

I took this bit from Wiesbuth as i couldn't have written it better:
If it's too difficult to push it that far then you could try 11am, either way she will be tired if not overtired, but that is to be expected.  The duration of the nap will vary for the first couple of weeks.  She might only sleep and hour or she might sleep two but being that the nap is starting so early in the day it will definitely not cover her until bedtime.

At the beginning of transition when the morning nap is not consistently occurring but the afternoon nap is still in tact you want to shoot for a bedtime anywhere from 6-7pm depending on how the afternoon nap went.  This is considered an early bedtime because even though a good nap occurred in the afternoon, there is still a loss of sleep from the morning nap.  In another scenario, if the morning nap is taken but cut short or there is no morning nap but the afternoon nap is taken in late morning you have to make an extra early bedtime.  For example, if there was no morning nap and you put your child down for the only nap of the day at about 11am-12pm and sleeps between 1-2 hours, there is a long period of wakefulness before bedtime.  We have to somewhat shorten that gap by implementing the extra early bedtime.  Don't be afraid to put your child down to sleep earlier than 6pm if you have to, and it doesn't mean that your child will wake for the day earlier.

As with making any change you must be consistent for a period of time.  You can't analyze the results of making changes over one or two days, you really need 5-7 days to give it a fair shake.  It is important at this time especially to keep track of sleeping to get a sense of how transition is going so please use the sleep chart below. Please remember that these extra early bedtimes are specifically needed during transition where there is a loss of sleep.  This is temporary and it doesn't mean that your child will always need this extra early bedtime.  It's a matter of balancing what is lost.  You are just doing what is necessary for the phase you are in.  You are being flexible according to your child's needs.

HTH!

[Little Dot]

Thanks so much everyone

I will give your suggestions a go. I realise it's going to be a struggle for a while especially as her morning wake up time varies every day. Today she woke at 5.20am and was dropping off to sleep on me by 9am! Yesterday, however, she woke at 7.10am and happily had one long nap at lunchtime! Bizarre! I guess it's going to be up and down for a while.
Thanks for the tips. It's also always good to hear that your'e not the only one going through it! x