11.5 month old fighting second nap

[clarapist]

Hi thread,
I am reading this b/c I THINK I am in the "transition period" with my DS, who looks to be the same age as EsMum's. 
Connor can really only tolerate 4 hours of awake time. I put him down for nap at 3.5, but took 25 min for  him to settle and go to sleep this am. He slept for 1.25 hours (I can't stand to wake him, for fear that the pm nap will be short), and then I put him down after 3.5 hours again, and it took him another 25 min to sleep.

Here's what today looked like:
Up at 7:00 (Woo Hoo-  he had 11.25 hours of sleep last night! He'd been waking at 5:00-5:30 last week due to a bad teething night)
Bfast 7:30
Snack 10:00
Down for nap at 10:30, Slept from 11-12:10
Lunch at 12:30
Snack 2:45
Down for nap at 3:40, didn't fall asleep till 4:05ish.

I can't imagine that he is ready for one nap, yet???  I might try to stay the course for at least another 2 weeks and maybe stretch it out so that bedtime is later BECAUSE we're going on vacation in 2 weeks to a time zone 2 hours earlier. I hope to push him back at least an hour prior to getting there and we're staying for 2 weeks.

In any case, we might try one nap while we're there (so we can actually get out of the house!) and see how it goes. Is that a bad idea??

[Layla]

Jodie, this is the reply I got (she was at work so asked me to cut & paste). Her name is Jenifer & her lo is 16months now.

Well, I just typed up my response to you and now its gone!  I'll try to do this again quickly .. (I'm at work) .. feel free to copy it to the thread if you wish.

I wanted to update my info on the thread but I didn't want to jinx things by putting them in writing .. you know how that is.     Also, I wanted to make sure things were really working and that we didn't get night wakings six weeks later.

My DD took to the one nap well - I think because her am nap was always the good nap.  She was having difficulty when I started shortening her am nap and I always felt so bad waking her from such deep sleep. 

We got her to an 11:30 am nap time and she generally naps for 2+ hours.  The only time she wakes early is if she has to poop or if something wakes her up.  (Any tips on how to get the poop to not interrupt sleep?   )  If she does get up too early, and if I have the time I will rock with her in her chair for a quick little cat nap around dinner time (say 15 minutes) so that she doesn't have a 6pm bedtime.  I've done this maybe a handful of times in the last 6 weeks.  Otherwise, if she gets up a little early, then we put her down a little earlier at bedtime (say 1/2 hour earlier - 7:00pm).

Most days its working well, some days its a bit choppy and some days she's overtired by bedtime and is taking a little while to settle.  I try and not let her get overtired a couple days in a row so that it doesn't get a chance to accumulate.


So I would say in the case where you are letting them take a long morning nap, you would probably have to do some AP to get a catnap in. Drive around in the car or go for a walk in the buggy? I think that would be your best option until he is on 1 nap close to midday!

Hope this helps
 

[EsMum]

I tried giving Ella a catnap in the pm but it completely screws up her bedtime, even if it's only 20 mins.  We just found through trying that one nap works best for Ella in so many ways it wasn't worth the trauma to continue attempting 2 naps!  

Clarapist, I don't think it will hurt to try one nap - if it doesn't work out for you guys you should be able to switch back to 2.  From what I understand though, things work really well for a few days then they are likely to get OT so as log as you're prepared for that it should be ok.

[Jodieplus2]

Ladies, thanks so much for your help.
Layla- thank you for posting Jenifer's comments too.

Yesterday went quite well, he slept for 2.25hours AM nap, would not take a PM nap, was in bed by 6.30pm & straight to sleep, woke at 6.15pm this morning with no NW. Fingers crossed it will continue smoothly & I will keep pushing the AM np every 3-4days more towards noon. & also have early to bed when necessary.

Layla- I will definitely try a stroll in the pram or car drive if necessary for a pm catnap, as he doesn't want to do it in his cot!

I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Any advice on what to do about lunch time when I am pushing his nap forward would be much appreciated! I am currently giving lunch when he wakes at 12noon, but not sure what I will do about this when his nap goes right over the lunch period?

Thanks
Jxx

[Layla]

On the days when we have no morning nap, I give her 1/2 lunch before & the other 1/2 after nap.