Confused about routine for 13 month old EW

[dollster]

Hi All

I've been reading over lots of different posts about 13 month olds, but I'm a bit confused as to what to do with my 13.5 month old dd.  Some posts say to push out her first A time so nap is later, but other posts say to keep early first nap and still try for afternoon nap too??

She is definitely into the 2-1 transition for the past 1.5 months now and I think we're in a EW and early bedtime loop.  I just don't know what route to take to fix it.

Her rountine for the past 1.5 months is like this:

Wake up 5:15am (almost like clockwork)
Nap 10:30/10:45 and sleeps normally for 1.5 to 1 hour and 45mins
Bedtime 6pm

Have stopped trying for the afternoon nap since she absolutely screams.  I've tried pu/pd and end up doing it for 30mins-1 hour.  I have another 3 year old so can't just sit in the room with my baby for long.

She starts to get very cranky/fussy at about 9am most days (not sure if this is tired?) but give her something to eat and she is ok until nap.  If I take her in the car before her am nap then she will almost always fall asleep too.  Is this a sign she needs an earlier nap time in am?

I was also thinking she was doing habitual waking at 5:15am every morning, so this morning I did wake to sleep at 4:15.  Disaster!  She didn't go back to sleep and cried.  So did put down for 2 hours until she feel asleep at 6:15 until 6:45am.  I will try W2S again since I know you've got to give things at least a week to work, but I think a rountine tweak is a better option.

Any ideas appreciated. 

Thanks
Holly
x

[HenaV]

Hi!

Are you having any NW?

I suspect at 13m 10.15/45 is a bit of a stretch from a 5.15am start. Do you think your LO could be OT?

It may be worth trying for a 20m CN at 9.30am ( a car nap always worked a treat for us) and then a proper nap 2 h after WUnfrom naps if you think she'll go that long just to get back own track. Once you're back in track you could look at loosing the CN and bringing the nap forward slighly to compensate iykwim? What do you think?

Hena

[dollster]

Thanks for your reply HenaV!

Yes, we are having some NW.  Not every night, but in the last week she cries out (but puts herself back to sleep) some time around 11pm.  She then cries again at around 3-4am but again puts herself back to sleep.

Since I posted last (and before I read your reply) I thought perhaps I would just do a set nap at 11am and see how that goes.   For the last week, she has had a really good nap from 11-1pm and then bedtime at around 6:30pm (instead of 5:30-6pm previously).  Her wake up time then jumped from 5:15am to around 6-6:15am which is great!  But yesterday she woke at 5am and despite doing PU/PD she didn't want to go back to sleep and then this morning she woke at 5:45am.

So again, I'm a bit confused.  It seems setting the nap at 11am resulted in longer daytime nap (2 hours), later bedtime and then later morning wake up which is good, but we are having a few more night wakings and I'm not sure if this is heading into OT territory?

Plus this morning, on kindy run, she feel asleep at 9:15am for a quick 20 minuate nap and I've just put her down for proper nap at 11:30am.  So this is exactly what you suggested in your reply to me.  We will see how that goes.

Any more thoughts?
thanks so much for your help!

[dollster]

So, after catnap at 9:15am, she wouldn't sleep at 11:30am for nap either, just stared crying.  So have got her up and will try for nap after lunch...

[HenaV]

Tbh your day as it settled looks good, so u'd be surprised if it were OT creeping. My gut feel is probably teeth causing sleep disturbance. Also, active teething makes my DD more tired and she does need either extra Naptime or EBT or sometimes even both. Any sign of teeth?

Personally, I would keep with what you're doing and I'd your LO seems more tired than usual offer the nap 15min early and allow a longer nap with normal BT. If she has a shorter nap, EBT. If go this until things settle down.

What do you think?

Oh, re: the CN and not going down for a nap, it maybe because she had solid sleep through despite the EW, she wasn't ready after 2h? It's hard to say, they ate all so different. The 2h mark did work for us. I guess where you can, If you can avoid the CN it'll make the transition easier for you.

Hth xx

[dollster]

Thanks Hena

Funny you mention teeth as I was already thinking that way with sleep disturbance.  so will keep to set nap at 11am and do EB if we need it.

Thanks again!