anyone want to chat about the 2-1 nap switch , thread#3

[NiknLily]

Jmoran - Is it possible to put them down to bed at slightly different times, I would say the 5.5hrs A time is why DS woke in the night as he was OT at bedtime.  As DD sleeps well and is going down OK would it be possible to put DS down then put her down 30mins later.  

His improved wake up times certainly do count, I know he woke in the night for some time but at least he didn't refuse to go back to sleep or still wake horribly early, so look on that as an improvement.  If you think teeth maybe a problem give him some meds before bedtime and as soon as he wakes if he has a NW.  

Its hard to say if a 2nap day would help or not, you are the best judge of that.  How you do 2 naps depends how they where before you did 1 nap, did they do an early catnap or late? I would revert back to your old nap pattern.  If not put him down at 4.5hrs and then just give him an extra early bedtime.  I so don't envy you, having to go through this twice but at the same time and with LO's who's sleep is so different.  So hats of to you, your doing great  

[NiknLily]

October - It may be that he's just got so well rested that he didn't need as much night sleep that night.  20Min's is not too bad an amount of time to take to fall asleep, as he was quiet and happy I would say unlikely OT, just wasn't quite ready for sleep.  He still did an 11hr night so thats OK too.  Maybe he is just shaking things up again for you, their sleep requirements change so rapidly during this transition.  Keep at your current routine for a few more days and see what happens, that should give you a clearer picture of what you need to do next, if anything, to tweak his routine.

Thinking about it after a 30min nap most LO's can go 2.5-3hrs so maybe he did just need longer awake after having a 45min nap.  You don't want to compromise his total night sleep so it may be that another tweak is in order.

[Clarepie]

Hi,
I have been on 1 nap now with my nearly 15 month old DD for about 3 weeks now.She goes down with no problem around 12pm till 2pm usually.Once or twice she has slept slightly less,but I always wake her after 2hrs of sleep.Everything was going well to begin with..6:30 wakeups usually,would sometimes go back to sleep,and would be having 11 1/2 - 12 hrs nightsleep.However the past five days,she has been waking early,about 5:45am,will babble and whinge on and off and eventually go back to sleep for 1/2 hr sometimes.She has got 5 teeth coming through at the moment,four of them molars which have cut through the gum and obviously still coming through slowely.She has been quite irritable and had a few nightwakings too,although we have only had to go in once which was WI WO,and she went back to sleep.I think her early wakings are probably due to teething but maybe overtiredness too.I'm going to give her slightly longer than 2 hrs for her nap today,and get her to bed at same time 6:30/6:45 depending on wakeup in morning.Is 2hrs long enough for her nap,when she was on 2 naps,I gave her 2 hrs total otherwise she woke up at 6 every day.Any advice..thanks ladies.

Clare x

[lesorl]

Jmoran- I don't know how you do it.  I'm going crazy with one kid, I can't imagine 2!

We had an interesting night-

5:55pm Bedtime, but didn't settle until 6:10pm
Then a few cries at 6:31pm, and at 6:53pm
I thought she might wake at 5am, so I stirred her at 4am, and she slept til 5:45am but woke crying.  1 PD and paci replacement, and she slept til 6:30am.
1st nap is in progress, asleep at 9:24am.

Last night I put her to sleep after only 2.5 hours A time, and she still had difficulty- though her 2nd nap was bad.  Should I continue to put her to sleep earlier, even if last A time is only 2-2.5 hours?

And the creaks on her wood floor are driving me crazy- it's so hard to be quiet!

Leslie

[October]

He may be shifting but I have a conundrum. Today he slept 10.15-11.15am  (he woke at 5.25am !) and needs to be in bed for the night by 6.25pm latest. If he'll go 3 hrs after 45 mins. that means he needs to be down now, at 2.30pm !!

This can get trickier I know but this is tricky for me with a sore throat and a depserate need for a nap myself !
   

[lindaloulou]

So I was reading through previous posts and saw that most kiddos need at least 3.5 hours between 1st and 2nd naps...is this true? I have always put mine down after 3 hours form AM to PM nap because she typically naps for about 1-1.25 hours in the AM...should I keep her up for longer? Could this be why she either takes FOREVER to fall asleep or boycotts the PM nap altogether? I guess I always thought after 2PM was TOO late to put her down for her PM nap, but now I wonder if maybe a longer waketime would actually help her fall asleep 

[LauraRose]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to chime in and offer some encouragement.  DS, Jack, is doing great after a month or more of weird naps/NW/EW, etc.  I've kept to this plan:
don't put him to bed before 7pm (that just ended up reinforcing the EWs),
offer an am nap (between 10 and 11)
and a pm nap (between 2 and 3),
if he takes just one nap, definitely offer two the next day--because he'll be making up the sleep.
Also, don't get him up before 6:30 am (he's learned to just doze and talk to himself when he wakes earlier),
and don't get him up from a nap without at least 45 min in the crib.

I've found it to be very freeing not to be so vigilant about exactly how it's going day to day.  After a few weeks of this plan I've seen greatly improved naps, no NW, and later mornings.  I don't know if that will help anyone, but thought I'd put it out there for what it's worth! 

[Aly Mac]

Hi everyone,

ok, I am officially on this thread now....the EW are the main prob, but I think the transition is in the works.  We've had one one nap day, and that's cause she had a nw, and then slept longer in (yeh!) and had swimming so had to keep her up til after swimming. funny it was the best day, a little tired at night, but slept to 6.30.......

yesterday I cut the naps to 2 x 1hr as she was taking around 10/11 hr nights...didn't make a difference, still woke at 5, but i had her doll in there with her and at least she didn't wake me properly til 6.... the thing is with the short naps, she's a little grumpy..so hard to know what to do......

here was her day yesterday.

5 wake (bf and kind of dozed while feeding, so prob got some extra time there)
9.3-10.30 nap
2-3 nap (she was really tired...)
6.30 bed
5 wake

she is teething the molars at the mo, and was really off last night before bed...

it's 8.45 am now, and she is sooo tired..but don't want to put her down too early as it just reinforces the ew...

Laurarose - your's sounds like a plan I could stick too,,,but how long do you get him to nap for? you said min 45, but what's the max?

[jmoran544]

Both kiddos woke from their naps at around 12:30 today, that's 1.5 hrs for ds, and 1:10 for dd. I don't know what happened there, dd was doing well with naps the last few days, and last night she had 3 nw's but they were caused by her brother's crying, and she settled quickly. Anyway, that meant I put them to bed at 5:30. I feel really weird about it. I still feel that's so early! And it's tkaing them longer to fall asleep (usually it's no more than 15 min)- it took almost 25 mintues to fall asleep. Both seem quiet now- it's 5:45pm.

My concern is this- what happens if we keep going in this cycle? having to put them down for naps at 4.5 hrs after waking, a 1.5 hr nap or less, then bedtime 5 hrs later? I'm thinking in a few days we will be putting them to bed at 4 in the afternoon! Please tell me this is not the case, or there is another way to combat OT but not kill all our time together?

[sorayas mom]

lindaloulou- I dont know how old you lo is, but mine started this transition at 11 1/2 mos which was much earlier then she could handle as she gets OT SO easy.  I kept thinking I had to go to one nap because she shouldn't nap too late in evening.  However, I have been able to keep her to two naps for a few more months and for a month now her evening catnap has been at 4 and she will still go to bed at 7.  So it may work for you if you think you lo needs to hang on to two naps for a bit longer.

[lesorl]

It seems we're all having a bad time today-

1 hour nap at 9:24am, after < 3 hours A time, and W2S
40 min nap after 3 hours 5 mins A time
Tried bedtime at 4:50pm, and I'm still doing PD at 6:05pm.

Good times!

[lindaloulou]

sorayas mom-
How old is your LO now? My LO is almost 16 months. Today she only slept for 50 minutes at her AM nap. I was SURE she would conk out for at least an hour+ for her PM nap. She only slept for about 25 minutes (I think...I thought she was asleep, but when I checked her again she was awake). It seems with her the whole sleep begets sleep thing is totally true. Yesterday she slept 12 hours at night (she NEVER does this) then took 2 1+ hour naps.  Last night she slpt about 10.5 hours then has a 50 minute and a possible 25 minute nap??? She keeps me guessing daily and with my type A, post PPD personality it really gets rough.

So I tried an early bedtime of 6:30 and it took her until 7:20 to fall asleep!!! And she's awake and it is only 5:30AM...now I have no idea what to do....

LInda

 

[jmoran544]

My kiddos were up at 4:45! That's 11 hrs sleep, as they fell asleep at 5:45pm. So my other concern has come true- putting them to bed earlier each night helps prevent OT, but in this case has also caused a very early morning. So how do I get them back on track with a normal bedtime? I assume that an 11 hr night is what we can expect most days, since that is what they were doing before the transition. And it seems that a 1.5 hr nap is at least what they'll do. Unless they take a 3 hr nap I don't see a neat 5hr A time before and after naps, which will only make bedtime earlier and earlier.

Any suggestions for a new schedule? Do I offer two naps some days? If so, what would these look like? What might today look like?

[NiknLily]

Clarepie - Sorry didn't get back to you sooner, I think if 2hrs nap has always worked well then that is probably exactly what she needs.  I would say the teething caused some OT to creep in and cause the EW.  So yes a bit more sleep to get her over the OT should be all she needs to get back on track.

Lindaloulou - if she is taking forever to get to sleep then she most likely does want her A times extending.  But don't go by what everyone elses LO is doing, follow her leads.  Don't worry about putting her down after 2pm for a nap either as this can be cut shorter and shorter eventually into a catnap, as it starts to mess with bedtime.

LauraRose 

Jmoran - it does get a little bit like that, I was putting Lily to bed at 5/5.30 for over a month before I was able to shift her day back up.  DD's disturbed night is likely what caused her short nap today.  You wont be like this forever, as and when you feel happy they can handle it you can push that first A time slowly towards 5hrs, do maybe 10mins every 3days or so.  If they are taking a little while to get to sleep at night thats not a problem as long as they are going to sleep happy and in there own time, then you should not have them going to bed too OT. 

Just read you latest post, so 11hr night it is then.  OK I now think you have to shift their day back upto a more sensible time.  Its so hard when you cant get 2 naps but the 1nap isn't long enough to make the day stretch to 13hrs.  I struggled with Lily and only had to get to a 12hr day.  That said tho' it is still likely that they are still a little OT and thus waking early.

With a day that started so early I would definitely offer 2 naps and I would go for a long am nap and a late catnap of 20/30mins, with hopefully a sensible bedtime about 6ish.  HTH 

[NiknLily]

Lindaloulou - Just noticed your LO is 16months, so perfect (average) age for transition really.  I would say to try pushing out both her morning and midday A times, hopefully she will start to take a good long AM nap consistently and then offer a catnap in pm and just keep slowly creeping forward until you no longer have the pm catnap and are left on with 1 nap.  As she currently only has quite short A times, just take it nice & slowly.