2-1 transition & long NW (10.5mo)

[BusterB]

Just after a v quick pointer...

We are definitely at 2-1 transition, my LSN little boy has been doing 5hr A the last few days and we have been having to do the odd one nap day here and there with varying success.

Yesterday we went for a 1 nap day as he woke at 7:15am.... This is what day looked like:

W/u 7:15
A = 5hr
Nap 1 - woke at 45m fed back to sleep & total sleep was approx 1hr30
A = 5hr
B/t 7pm - he stirred after 1hr20 but resettled himself

NW @ 2am for 2hr 15m.... wasn't upset just wide awake & was such a struggle getting him back down!

What do you think caused such a long NW? He seemed UT, but I figure it can't be that as we've pushed the A quite a bit recently?

Is this just an adjustment? Have we pushed A times too much for his age? Since we pushed it his lunchtime nap seems to have shrunk, not extended & we are getting lots of NWs....

Any advice please?

[Layla]

I would be careful pushing him so much... he's a little on the younger side to be on 1 nap just yet. I would put the long NWs to overtired rather than undertired . My 15mo was on 2 naps still at that age (with an odd 1 nap day). At that age our routine was:

6ish - wake
9-10.15 - morning nap
1.30-3 - afternoon nap
6.30 - bedtime

What routine have you tried?

[BusterB]

My son only ever does a max of 10.5hrs at night, so we are always left with a lot of day to fill or VERY early starts. Your routine would never work for my son unfortunately Layla, night is too long and naps are too too much for my LSN little one.

For the last couple of months we've been on approx 1.25hr nap + a CN of 20-30mins...and we tried that both ways round (am/pm ) as for a while he refused BT after a long PM nap.

Then he started refusing BT either way & his early waking was getting earlier & earlier. The longest it took me to get him to bed was 4 hours recently - so that's when I was advised to drop to 1 longer nap.

But it's really affecting our nights now and he's rarely doing more than 10hrs with lots of NWs, so I agree he's OT. Problem is if he doesn't have a long A time before bed he is a nightmare to get down... so getting in a CN & Nap with enough A time for BT is proving v tough indeed but he is also getting OT - is so confusing & I don't know how to prevent it if I can't do EBT and longer naps?!

Our days seem to either be 14hrs or 11.5hr on one nap days, which just isn't long enough.

Either way, it's not working for us!

[KookyK]

Two pretty short naps was working for us until v recently. I know he advice is one nap needs to be longer to be refreshing enough but my LSN boy seemed to do v well on two naps of 30-45 mins! Or first nap 20 second nap up to an hour?

We are just playing with one nap now and had a one hour NW last night so I can only imagine how difficult the two hour NW was.

Good luck!!

Ps how old is your LO? Mine is 10.5 months

[BusterB]

He is also 10.5mo KookyK and is interesting to hear what you are doing, as I had been seriously considering the 2 shorter naps thing, because that happened by accident a couple of weeks ago and he STTN afterwards!

But I've hesitated, as he does like a longer nap & I thought it was necessary to have one that is restorative in the day, but maybe it's worth a go, just as a bridging thing for a bit!?

Today has already been a bit of a disaster - 2 tiny car catnaps, so will be a v early BT here - which always spells trouble.... and probably lots of NWs!

Hope you have a decent night with your LSN little one! Aren't they fun?! 

[KookyK]

Thanks wishing you a good night too esp after dodgy naps today!

We have only run into trouble with the two short naps as he has started to wake later (it was 5-5.30 always with a 10.5-11 hour night) and is usually now 6-6.30 (11-12 hour night) which shunts everything forward. He was still going to bed 6.30-7pm and that suits us with a big DD to get to bed after. First nap was 10.30 or later and if second nap was later than 3 bedtime got really late too.

[BusterB]

How was your night in the end KookyK?

Our was interesting after the 2 'disaster' naps.... He woke after 1hr20 (2 sleep cycles for him) and got himself pretty hysterical as was husband trying to settle him. Eventually I took over and fed him back to sleep, then he slept through until 6am, which meant a full 10.5hrs in total, so actually pretty good - I imagine he was catching up after all the OT from recently.

Out A times were much shorter yesterday, even with the 2 short naps & I think that helped! I have been pushing him pretty hard to extend the A recently... So I think I'm going to follow your suggestion of 2 short naps for a bit and see what happens! Thanks!

[Layla]

I agree with Kooky....you might be better off with 2 shorter naps than 1 and a long night waking. That routine I posted worked well with all my girls but to be honest, some days we ended up with 2 short naps too. I know 14hr day is not ideal but during the transition period, that is what we ended up with most of the time. The EW can be yucky but again, during the transition period, anything from 5.30am was to be expected (I still wouldn't start my day till 6). If he's low sleep needs, he may be ok to transition soon but if you're seeing long night wakings and overall he is tired, pull back on A times....even for a low sleep needs baby, those A times may be too long for him...also, it's ok to switch between 2 and 1 naps....this transition went on for months and months and we had to go with the flow a lot of times until we settled on 1 nap

Let us know how you go...