Fighting Bedtime - 2 to 1 transition......HELP!!

[Cari]

Hello Ladies,

I haven't posted in awhile.  Thank God, DD2 has been a pretty good sleeper from the start.  She is now 16mos and we are transitioning to 1 nap.  She was doing great for awhile, waking at 7:00/7:30am, then she would nap from 12-2pm and bedtime would be around 6pm.  Her naps are either getting shorter, or she wakes in the middle and sometimes goes back to sleep, sometimes she doesn't.  Anyway I am not sure if she is getting overtired, or just adjusting but she has been seriously fighting bedtime.  She doesn't really scream, she whines, then cries, then talks to herself, all this over and over again for about 1/2 hr.  She has been waking up early 5:15/5:30am, but usually goes back to sleep until 7am.  And the other night she went to bed at 6pm, then woke up at 8pm and was awake, crying on & off until 10pm.  It was like she couldn't settle in, because I would go in to rub her face or back and tell her it was time to sleep and she would settle.  I would leave the room, then she was quiet for a little while, then she would start crying again.  What do you think of the schedule?  Does it need to be tweaked?  What are the "A" times for this age?  Or do I just need to "weather the 2 to 1 storm?"

Thanks!!

Cari

[MommaHolmes]

Definitely sounds like OT to me - when you've got shortening naps, NW and EW then it's pretty certain that your LO is OT.

Your routine sounds fine, in the sense that it's what you should be aiming for, but it seems like your LO wasn't *quite* ready to jump. You could either try and give her occasional 2 nap days to let her catch up, or if you think that won't work or will be too disruptive for her, you could bring the nap and bedtime forward say to 11:30am/5:30pm or even 11am/5pm so that she can catch up on the lost sleep and recover from OT.

There are a couple of FAQs on the Naps board about the 2-1 switch and there's also a support thread on that board where you can chat to other mums going through the same issues. It was a big help to me when we switched.

HTH
Laura.