14mos, help with naps please!

[bensmuma]

My DS is 14mos and is still taking 2 naps/day. He was taking 2x 1.5hr naps there for a while then switched a month or so ago to a long am nap and a short (45min) afternoon nap. What's happening often lately is he's either taking a 2hr am nap or goes to sleep later in the morning depending on his wake time, and all this makes his afternoon nap very late if at all. It seems that if I wake him after only 30 minutes in the afternoon he has a bad night sleep. If we skip a catnap in the late afternoon, he's wicked OT and difficult to put to bed (which is almost NEVER a problem). Recently he's been waking several times a night, sometimes standing in his crib crying and we have to lay him back down but he's goes back to sleep. He is still cutting all four 1st molars but I think he's tolerating a little longer A time (about 4.25). Definitely won't be able to go to one nap just yet....any advice??

[alilaa]

We were having the very similar problem with our LO,
He was a great sleeper then started to refuse bedtimes and started having NW's also.

I got some great advice from the BW's and realised I had to do the 2-1 switch.

We switched to 1 nap cold turkey which I absolutely do not advise,  but LO#2 is arriving in 5 weeks and we wanted to be settled by then.

It took about 3 weeks for him to adjust but he is now settled back into a good sleep routine.
He now sleeps 8pm - 8am with NW's only when those pesky molars are really hurting. His nap is around 11:30 and he sleeps for about 2 - 2.5 hours. We will eventually slide the nap time to a little later in the day.

I think the key is to be flexible and play each day by ear while they are getting used to the new routine. Some days if the nap is too short they will need a cat nap... just don't let them nap too long! 
Other days if they napped ok but are getting OT in the evening you might have to bring forward bedtime a little.

HTH...
Good luck!

[deckchariot]

Yep, sounds like the start of the switch  
There are basically 2 approaches to the switch:
1) keep 1st nap at the same A time every day, but gradually shorten the length of it; at the same time, move pm nap earlier (by the same amount you shorten nap 1).  When nap 1 is <30 min, attempt to cut it out and just have 1 nap.
2) push morning A time later, allow your bub to sleep as long as they want in the am, then do a late pm catnap (can be a shorter A time than in the am, as you don't want them to take a full nap); eventually cut out pm catnap.

If he needs a longer A time before bed, then option #1 is generally better.  If he doesn't and HATES being woken from the am nap, option #2 may be better.  In both cases, you can offer an early bedtime if one/both of the naps is bad.

Whichever approach you choose - it's best to go gradually - so either cut 15 min off the am nap every 3-5 days or lengthen the am A time by 15 min every 3-5 days.  It also is helpful to know about how much day sleep is "optimal" for your ds and how much A time he needs (minimum) between his last nap and bedtime - that can help you plan out the day.

check out the support thread here for some help too:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=148578.0

hth
michelle

[bensmuma]

Thanks so much ladies! I was afraid it was switch time! Unfortunatley I'll have to put it off a few weeks as my in-laws are in town and will be looking after him for 5 days while we're away! Not a good time to transition! But I'll give it a go when we get back! Thanks again!

[deckchariot]

let us know how you get on!