1 yo is a mess (2-1)

[sparrow]

Well she seems to have hit the 2-1 very suddenly.  She wont go down for morning naps.  She just screams and screams.  But she's clearly exhausted all the time because we keep having one nap days even though she's not ready for that yet.   It's really hard to work the day around a perfect 2-1 nap transition because my 3 year old is very active all morning, we like to get out and about, and I LOVE having them go down at the same time every afternoon (around 1:00)

Basically she's up around 6:15, I've tried to put her down for a nap at all different times from 9:30 to 10:30 and she generally refuses or else does 10 minutes.  If she passes out in the car late in the morning it messes up her afternoon nap.  So usually what ends up happening is she's up until 12:30 or 1:00, then goes down (after an over tired fit), often wakes up 20 minutes later for another fit, and she'll usually sleep till 2:30 after that.  Which isn't enough.  Then up until an early BT around 6:30. 

I'm not sure how to get her out of this over tired rut.  She's starting to get so cranky and is not her usual self.  So much crying at BT.  I thought I'd be a seasoned vet by the time her 2-1 came but it has caught me off guard!  Any thoughts?

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Honey,

Sorry and (HUGS) for the hard time you're having. IIWM I would try putting her down for her nap at 11 am which is a good time for a 1 nap routine. If she is going to refuse earlier you really have no choice. If she is consistently waking around 20 mins after going down then can you try being there and AP'ing back to sleep. If you're there when she wakes, try ssh pat or whatever works for her before she is fully awake and having a fit. The problem as I'm sure you know with the 2-1 is that LO's 1st A times get so long that you run out of time to fit 2 naps in without the day becoming too long and the OT perpetuating.

IMHO a pm cat nap doesn't really help it just lengthens the day and EBT is the lesser of 2 evils.

The other option though is to get her up when she wakes from the first nap at 20 mins and treat that like a cat nap, short am/long pm routine. Usually a 20 min cat nap would only get you around 2 hours to next nap. This might mean that at least in part she can nap at the same time as your other LO. Obviously the idea is that the 2nd nap would be the longer nap of around 1.5 hours with BT around 7/7.30 so her day is kept to around 13 hours which tends to be the cut off point for OT kicking in.

HTH what do you think 

Vicki.x.

[sparrow]

Thanks.  I think you're right about 11 a.m. - and also about a pm cat nap not being worth it.  It will mean I just have to be disciplined and make sure we get home in time, and sacrifice the "me" time with their naps not overlapping.  That will be hard - but dealing with the OT mess is even harder on all of us.  The poor thing is so unhappy these days, which is so uncharacteristic.  I never did the test with her but I'm pretty sure she was an angel baby... till now!

[Truly Blessed]

Aaah Hun, I know that 'me' time helps you stay sane  but I think what is going on right now take it out of your hands and is enough to drive you mental anyway. Are you going for it today  DS Sam was 'Angel' and when I recently took the test he cameout 50/50 textbook/spirited 

x.

[sparrow]

I was going to go for the 11 a.m. today.  But she was so upset this morning that I put her down at 8:30 ... and she fell asleep!  She slept till 10:00!  That goes to show how tired she was.  I know this wont be a normal thing and tomorrow or in a few days I'll probably be trying to figure it all out again.  But at least she's catching up - she just went down at 1:30, same time as her sister.  So it's my lucky day.  Thanks for the help.

[Truly Blessed]

Sounds like a good call Hun, otherwise she would more than likely have given you an OT short nap. Hurrah for the mid day peace and quiet 

x.