Forge ahead with 1 nap or stay where we are?

[LucySol]

im reading along for ideas im in the sameboat!

[Hadley12]

Sorry you're in the same boat! No fun at all.  

So dd was up before 5 am again today. One of her molars has finally cut through but she's been working on them for so long, I'm still not sure that's what's causing the EWs. She does okay through the night (NWs maybe once a week) and she does well for naps.

Yesterday:

Wake: 4:40am
Nap: 9:00 - 10:00 (let her go long as she was already getting OT)
Nap: 1:45 - 3:15 (woke her)
In bed: 7:00
Asleep: 7:10
Wake: 4:50 am  
 
I should also mention that most mornings she wakes happy and will just sit quietly in her crib and play with her binkies and blankie. I wake at 5 out of habit from all her EWs so that's really the only way I know she's up...by looking on the video monitor. Do molars always cause them to wake screaming?

[LucySol]

ok, so im no expert and im not telling you to do this but this is what i have done both yesterday and today and last night she slept 11.5 hrs...she hasnt done that for ages!!
yesterday;
wake up 6.30
11.00-12.30 nap (im sure she could have gone till 11.15/30 ish but i didnt want to push too much as she usually had nap 1 at 10am.)
6.45 asleep woke at..........6.20!!!!

so today,
6.20 wake
11.15-12 40
i will try for 6.45/7.00 bedtime and see how we go.

i never thought she would cope with these A times but she has done gr8 so far and has been so happy today.i think i will gradually increase her nap time till i get a bit closer to 12pm nap so not as long an A before bed and i know 1.5hrs is not that long a nap for just 1 nap but i read on another post that as they move to 1 nap the time they sleep for gets longer as they get used to just 1 nap.im also under the impression that maybe there will be days that she needs a 2 nap day for a while.

what do you think?

[Hadley12]

wow! good for you guys! how old is your dd? is 6:30 an EW for you guys or is that good? ours were in the 5:15 area but now we're back to getting up before 5:00 (which I thought I'd fixed by shortening AM nap) so i'm desperate again. my dd has always been a wonderful napper - most days I have to wake her from both naps so that she doesn't sleep the day away - but nights are never great. she's finally sleeping through again but the darn EWs...

anyway, i guess it depends on how old your lo is. i think it's great that the one mid-day nap is working so well for you! offering 2 naps occasionally should help too. i think i need to do what you did and just bite the bullet and start cutting down day sleep again. it's just so hard when she's OT from short nights!!

i'm going to try a 30 min cat nap from 9:15 - 9:45 and then try to get her down by 1:15 and see how long she'll sleep. i have an older dd who has to be picked up from gymnastics at 12:30 so i can't really place the nap any earlier. this will be a real problem when i finally cut out the cat nap! hmmm....

keep us posted on how the one nap goes!

[LucySol]

my dd is almost 12 months so a bit younger than your lo.To be honest i dont class 6.30 as an EW because she is usually asleep for 7pm so i have always been led to believe that 11.5 hr night isnt an EW.i guess if she was going to bed later and still waking at 6.30 then yes it would be but to tell you the truth i am very happy with 6.30 after the 4.30/5.00 wake ups we were getting.

i have thought about this too and if for some reason she falls asleep on the school run i will let her do maybe 10/15 mins and just start her nap a bit later? will have to see how this goes

if you find the am nap isnt working to get you a good pm nap could you shorten it more just to get her past her tiredness?

[Hadley12]

my dd2 started her 2 - 1 switch (or needing the switch...i didn't clue in until 11.5 mos that that was what was causing all her issues) at 10 mos. ugh! 6:30 would be heaven for us too, as well as an 11.5 hr night. the most she's ever done (without a long NW) is 11 hrs and the latest she's slept since 9 months is 6:10 am and both those were single occasions! for a while we had 4:00 EWs. Oh my.

anyway, cutting the AM nap is more for the EWs, not to extend the PM nap. she'll almost always take a good PM nap (sometimes over 2 hrs), especially if AM is short. if not for the school runs etc. i think i would just go cold turkey on the 1 nap like i did with dd1. with dd1 if she ever fell asleep in the car, even for 5 min, she would refuse her nap all together. but, she was a great night sleeper, terrible napper so who knows how dd2 would handle that...

[Hadley12]

Yesterday:

wake: 4:50 am
nap: 9:15-9:45 (very unhappy to be woken from this one)
nap: 1:15-3:30
asleep: 7:05pm
NW1: 8:30pm (standing and crying, laid her down and she went right back to sleep)
NW2: 4:00am (cried out a few times but did not have to go in)
awake for day: 5:00am (woke screaming)

does this sound like OT from EW and yesterday's short AM nap or teeth? i gave her pain meds at bedtime...

[becky1969]

Sounds like teeth to me.  She's uncomfortable and waking herself up.

[Hadley12]

We're now back to 4:30 am wakings but she's not always unhappy when she wakes. 

[blessedmamma]

Hi

I have a 2 year old son who is having sleep problems too so I'm sending hugs your way. One thing I thought of whilst reading your posts, is, have you tried giving pain meds at 4.30am/5.00am and seeing if your LO will go back to sleep after the meds. I know you said you give them at bedtime, but some wear off by the morning so you may need to top them up. Just a thought anyway, good luck.

[Hadley12]

Thanks for your support blessedmama! Sorry you're having sleep issues too.
I have tried giving her pain meds when she wakes but out of the 10+ times I've tried she's only gone back to sleep once. I am actually really hoping it's teeth because the 4 molars and 1 lower left of center tooth are almost through. Then hopefully she'll go back to 6am waking which isn't late at all but much better than 4:30! If it's a habit or schedule thing, I don't know how we'll ever get to 1 nap...

[blessedmamma]

So the pain meds don't help her back to sleep then 

Have you tried wake to sleep (W2s). I think it might be explained on another thread on the forum, sorry I'm not sure where to guide you but if you do a search for wake to sleep I'm sure you'll come across one. I've read a couple before and basically the idea is you go in about (I think, but check on the thread first to be sure) about 1 hour before they are normally waking in the morning and just disturb them lightly, don't fully awake them but just enough to make them stir, you do this for a few days at least and see if it helps them go into another sleep cycle.

Might be worth a try, let me know how you get on. Sending more hugs your way for those early wakes .