How to stop OT building

[gb18]

Hi. I have posted on here before but I am hoping that you are all able to help me again!!

My ds is approaching 14 months old and has been in 2-1 transition for a few months. The problem is nursery started when he was 1. Before that we had managed a couple of weeks nearly with just 1 nap as lo was waking later around 7.30 and going to bed around 7. He was napping around 2.5 hrs a day.
Anyway then nursery started!!
Basically what tends to happen now is lo wakes at 6.30 if we r lucky, often upset which he does when he is not rested enough. If we r at home I can normally get him to sleep after 3.5 A and wake him after 40 mins max. After 4 hrs A roughly he will then sleep for around 1.5 hrs. He would then fall asleep around 8. If he wakes 7 or later (or if we r out for the morning) he will tend to have one nap. If I catch it right then he will sleep 2 hrs or more but unfortunately this rarely hąppens now. If he is in nursery he will sleep for around 1 hr for his 1 nap. They struggle to get 2 naps. He has twice slept for 2 hrs in nursery, once after a tiny A and once after long 6 hr plus A.

I have worked out that our shorter naps tend to be due to OT as lo wakes and then can't resettle. I have tried leaving him but he stands up and cries. Obviously in nursery once he is up then that's it.

Basically I am wondering whether to just keep at 1 nap and ride OT. I just don't want him to get used to one short nap in the day and just be permanently tired!! OT not only brings shorter naps but also NW and shorter nights sleep ( not by loads but he only gets around 11 hrs which the makes the short nap the next day even worse!!

I should say that he very rarely gets upset through tiredness he tends to get a bit hyperactive but gets short tempered by bed and cries at bath time and when he goes to bed.

Any ideas on how best to manage things? He goes to nursery 3 days in a row.

That's in anticipation

[gb18]

Forgot to say ebt works ok in the sense that lo will fall asleep but he never makes up lost sleep at night so wu would be early the next day making 1 nap even harder!

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, my DS started nursery at 11 months also 3 days and sleep went a bit wonky for a good while! I did make the decision to go to 1 nap at 13 months as for us the mixture of 2 then 1 nap was just causing more confusion.

If he handles ot well I'd prob try sticking to 1 nap and then on home days let the nap be a touch earlier and uncapped to catch up. EBT on nursery days has been a life saver for us on a lot if occasions.

At 27 months he now is a champion napper at nursery and I'm making them cap sleep so it does get better x

[gb18]

Thanks for your reply. I have managed 6 days in a row on one nap. Managed to get lo asleep by 6.30 tonight after 6.30 wu and 1.5 hr nap in nursery. Over tiredness definitely building as lo waking crying in the mornings and I hear him being very unsettled through the night. Think I will try and power through but may have to 2 nap it tomorrow as expecting a 6am wake up with today's ebt.

Did your lo tag on sleep at night? If so did this happen straight away or did that improve over time?

How long before your lo's naps increased? I know my ds can nap longer as the other week he slept 3 hrs at home!!! He just needs to not be too tired

[Haribo2012]

He did tack on from EBT for a while but it's hit and miss to be honest! I've tended to try and keep nap same time or 15 mins earlier but do an earlier BT if nap less than 1.5 hours! Some LO just don't do long sleeps at nursery, I had to try and just let it go really and think oh well what will be will be as could never guarantee what nap would be. For us I'd say it was 16/17 months when I'd get 1.5-2 hour nap reliably.

If u get a 6am WU that's good from a 6.30 BT so personally I'd try the 1 nap but maybe bring it 15 mins earlier and let it be uncapped.....xx

[K-JDA]

Hi
My LO started nursery at 11 months and naps at nursery became a bust for a good while with night sleep affected due to OT as you describe. We ended up pushing through to one nap and quite often on a weekend I would do a 20-30 min catnap at 9amish then a full uncapped nap at 12.30 as a way of catching up as EBT never worked for us at that age. It was hard for a good few months but we got there in the end with some mega naps at nursery! At 23 months he will now tack on if we do EBT but that is only a relatively recent thing.

Hang in there it will happen for you too. 

Posted at same time...

[gb18]

Hi. Back again for advice!! So have been trying to push for 1 naps in a bid to get nursery nap longer and more consistent. Occasional improvement as had a few over 1 hour sleeps in nursery , however at home we r really struggling. He is tired after about 3 hrs A time and so unhappy. Really not like him so I know he is knackered. DH let lo sleep at 9.30 till 11 the other morning and surprise surprise refused pm nap so OT little man continued!

Do I just keep pushing on do u think? Problem is that with shorter naps he is waking say at 1.30 in nursery then awake till 7pm bt and he is definitely very tired then but ebt leads to earlier wu and stuck in a rut!!!

How long before it took before you noticed a change in your Los sleep in nursery and also that they seemed less OT? Just feel really bad for my ds and want to instill good sleep patterns especially now he is do active x

[LovelyLilyandJack]

We were on one nap by the time we started nursery, but had to go back to two whilst there cos J would only nap for 40 minutes otherwise.  I'd say his ability to nap longer improved at around 15/16 months.  He'd been at nursery 3 or 4 months by then. Actually, he's lsn, so he started napping better at nursery than at home at that time, cos nursery tired him out more! We rode a lot out with ebt and catch up naps on home days, but I also found that sticking to the routine (within half an hour) was really important too cos J also won't tack on much and it stopped us going too far off track. Obviously at nursery things were all over the place though....!