OT hell

[C&B&E]

Emma - to give you some hope....we were in an OT mess for MONTHS - with Ben waking up at 5am-ish every day,and taking OT naps and generally being exhausted and irritable ...but then we did 10 days of very early nights and he eventually he seemed to come out the other side and now he is doing 1.5-2 hour naps and 11 hour nights  !  I seriously thought he was dropping the nap etc, but it turns out he just needed to be given a whole lot of very early bedtimes (which always seems to counterintuitive when dealing with EWs!) and it eventually caught him up on sleep!  xx

[~Emma~]

 Clare that does give me hope! I am actually starting to think that he was in no way ready to srop the nap and I think that he could actually do with going back to having a long nap every other day. Its just getting him ti take it thats the problem. How old was Ben when you thought he dropped and when he picked it back up again? Does he nap in his bed now?

 He had over 12 hours nightsleep last night so very obv needed that nap to get him bacl on an even keel. He's been a bit better today but no nap again, he did sit down for iver an hour though and snuggle on the sofa watching Tinkerbell!

 I tihnk this weekend we will give him a few early nights if we can.

[scucci1979]

I am so glad he slept for you Emma. I really am hoping they will voluntarily nap again. last night was the first night that Madi actually tacked onto her night. Today of course she doesn't want to nap.

How do you get these los to voluntarily nap?

[Roseii]

Sabs doesn't happen here, no voluntary naps Only ones.
Yay for a great night Em

[*Becky*]

How's it going?

[C&B&E]

how you doing Emma?

[~Emma~]

Ha! Just read through this thread and shuddered for dear life! 

 He's still REALLY tired alot of the time. Now he is at the point that if I put him down for a nap he will go to sleep and he would sleep for hours if I let him. I dont tend to let him though unless things are pretty bad...which is about once every 2-3 weeks he'll have a nap at the weekend. He doesn't sleep on the sofa anymore either.

 I am still pretty torn about this given that we have been going through 1-0 for well over 6 months and its only very slightly better. Part of me thinks I should just put him down for a nap maybe once a week (maybe more) as he would take it but I dread EW creeping in (altough we are getting EW a few times a week now anyways) and the bedtime shenanigans but having this thread dragged up has really made me think that this has been going on for a really long time and he's still a mess most days. He had always been a high sleep needs kid so the nap drop took me by surprise.

 Thanks for asking Clare, you have really given me food for thought here. I am putting him down for a sleep tomorrow and going to see what gives. 
 

[Roseii]

Emma I think 1 nap a week is an excellent idea. The 1-0 is the draggiest (it's a word!) of the lot, dd1 dropped her actual nap at 22mo and we're STILL in limbo at 38m

[~Emma~]

Well I gave him a nap, went down no bother. He ed around at BT until 9pm  Not too bad though as I only hads to go on twice, he was just awake really, not giving me hassle as such. Had an EW this AM but again no hassle as he is a slave to Mr Sunshine and we didn't see him until 7am.

 Its just finding the balance bacause offering this one nap means that he might just end up more OT from the short night kwim?

[Roseii]

This is why we Have to avoid daytime sleep at all costs as this is what ends up happening:
A 7am
S 12-12.20 in car
S 10pm Awake 7am next day regardless.

No sleep at all generally=7.30-7 night.

Xx