changes!

[Colin Macs Mom]

My lo has suddenly decided to switch up his schedule quite a bit, which is great for us but I'm not sure it's what really is best for him. He used to take one morning nap, 1-2 hours, afternoon 2-3 hours and about an hour nap in the evening. He has decided to eliminate the evening nap and go down for the night at 9pm (used to go down between 10 and 11), but it means that he is awake for 5-6 hours before he goes down for the night. I have tried several days to get him to take an evening nap, but he goes absolutely ballistic  :twisted: about it. I know he's tired, but he will just not have anything to do with it. We much prefer this schedule, but I wonder if this long awake period is contributing to his poor sleeping at night. I've posted a bit about this in the night wakings section, he's been waking about every two hours or so. We are also weaning him off paci and swaddle so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.

What I'm trying to get at is that I'm concerned that the long awake time leaves him overtired and maybe that is contributing to his frequent waking. But at the same time, if he won't have anything to do with an evening nap, I don't know what I can do about it anyhow. I'd appreciate any thoughts!!

[FreddieEden]

18 August is  my birthday  .  And my DS was born on 22 August so we are dealing with about the same age.  I'm sure the long awake time is contributing  to the night waking but I totally know what you mean about feeling powerless to do anything about it.  My DS has an earlier bedtime than yours (because his day time naps are pretty short I think he just needs the sleep so much that he has to cave in some time) but he is also a late afternoon/early evening nap refusenik.  My advice is just to do anything you can to get that last nap as it helps so much if you can.  If he is going down in his bed for all the other naps then I don't think it does much harm to try all methods for getting the last one (I think in official Baby Whisperer speak the catnap is supposed to be a freebie anywy).  When it was autumn I used to spend time traipsing round the park with him in a sling trying to get him to take a last nap.  But now it is too dark and cold for that and he is also getting more and more resistant to accidental parenting, particularly in environments where there is something to look at.  Several times  I have ended up sitting in a darkened room with him nursing him to sleep and holding him in my arms whilst he gets 30 to 45 minutes just to see him through to  bedtime.

Not sure this is much help but just wanted you to know that I do feel for you!

Freddie

[Colin Macs Mom]

Now that's funny, my husband's birthday is August 22!

Thanks for the advice - I guess maybe we need to try and trick him into that last nap somehow. We've been trying to limit his daytime sleeping to 4 hours and on the days that we have success his nights have been better. But let me tell you, this kid has a LOT of willpower, and if he wants to sleep he's going to make darn sure that it happens or he'll make you regret it! It's always been hard to get him to change a routine or habit, and the process takes much longer with him than the average.

So here's another issue, maybe related? He refuses to sleep in his crib during the day. He'll sometimes take his morning nap in there, but after that, forget it. He'll sleep on the couch in the living room or if he's held, but you better not take him anywhere near that crib. He's been that way since he was born, and I have tried EVERYTHING to get him to sleep there during the day. Night is fine, no problem, but something about day...

[Meg's Mom]

Jessica, Have you tried stretching the time between nap1 and nap2 since dropping the 3rd catnap?  That is how we have dropped naps in the past, but some LOs have their own ideas...like yours lol.  This might will decrease the long A time till bed.  KWIM?

Hope that helps.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Yes, we have stretched time between the first and second naps and that seems to have helped. I still feel like maybe the approx. 4 hours that he is up before bed is too long, but he will just not have even a catnap!

I know that from months 3-6 they're organizing their daytime sleep, so I'm inclined to think that this part of that process?

[Meg's Mom]

I know that from months 3-6 they're organizing their daytime sleep, so I'm inclined to think that this part of that process?
 

It could also be that he is getting all his day sleep that he needs, have you looked at the total nap1 + nap 2 =?  is is close to the total he needs for the day?  If yes, and you think he is getting over tired for beditme - then you may want to cut them both back by 15min and see if that brings the cat nap back into the picture.