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

[jmoran544]

Hi all. I have seen some progress in ds's sleep habits since I started setting their nap and bedtimes a few days ago. Ds slept 11.5 hrs the last two nights, and has had 1.5 hrs naps for about a week. His naps are weird, though. For a whie he woke at the 30 min mark and cried for a few minutes, then fell back to sleep. The last four days he stretched the cry-out time- he went 40 min for two days, then 55, then today one hour. The trouble today was that he didn't go back to sleep, only screamed for 30 min. He started to wake up dd, so I brought him downstairs. Thankfully she went back to sleep. I'm hoping that the cry-out time is stretching, so he can eventually get 1.5 hours straight. Any thoughts on that?

Dd is taking longer to settle into the new routine, however. She slept through the night for a few days, for about 11 hrs, then had two nights of night wakings, around 1am some nights, around 4am others. Her behavior is different during the day, as well- a lot more clingy and whiny than usual. And her nights aren't stretching yet. The most she has gotten is 11.25, which is great, but she is definitely still tired in the am around 9:30/10. Her naps are good, but erratic in length. She takes anywhere from a 1.5-2.5 hrs nap, seemingly in a random fashion (that is to say I don't know why it's 2.5 one day, then back to 1.5 the next, then 2hr).

Do I need to help dd set her nap time, to help lengthen the night, or should I just keep on "keeping on" until she fixes it herself?

[laurencopenhaver]

Kyler slept from 11:05-12:35, so 1.5 hrs.  That's the most he's done in 2 weeks.  Yesterday was up at 12:10 and down for bed at 6:15.  Tonight I'm going to put him down b/t 615-6:30 cause I don't want to do too much.  I'm surprised he slept that long.  And hopefully he won't wake by 5:30.  I really think the 6:30 this morning wakeup was a fluke, I'm not getting my hopes up, but at least I know it CAN be done, just working toward it.  And things don't seem quite so bad these days.  Although he never fails to prove me wrong.  I'll let ya know how the night goes.

[NiknLily]

Lauren, things do sound like they are getting better 

Jmoran - So pleased ds is doing so well.  I think your right about the naps, sometimes he will wake and get back to sleep, sometimes he will do an OT nap, wake up crying/grumpy but not be able to get back to sleep.  Do you do PD when he wakes and isn't settling himself?  I think you are right tho' he is going longer before waking crying so eventually he should get up to 1.5hrs without stirring. 
OT does cause them to be more clingy and whiny during the day, have you checked to see if she is teething at all?  I would pretty much just keep on keeping on like your doing.  Just keep a mental note, how long she sleeps during day then that night, to see if there is any correlation between the 2, it could be that when she has a poor night she only sleeps 1.5hrs because of slight OT or it could be that she does a short night after a 2.5hr nap, which will then lead to OT the next day.  See if you can find a pattern, it may be that you need to limit her to a 2hr nap.  I think whatever the cause it will all come good in the end, but as your doing this twice it may be worth trying to see if you can tweak things to help her along.  If you can't see a pattern leave well alone and accept that sooner or later it will settle down.

[mazou]

Unbelievable. It sounds like so many of you are going through the same things as me and my daughter! She is one year, and COMPLETELY disinterested in her afternoon nap. She is, however, so content in her crib that I just let her hang out in there for a while, kind of like a "chill out" time. I would prefer her to sleep, though, as she gets severely OT by bedtime.

And, it does not work to skip the morning nap. In that case, she just stays up all day!

Hoping it's just a phase...

Love to all, Maura and baby Rania

[2Pam]

New mum: thanks so much for the nap times and A times.  Yesterday, he did 1hr. in the am, I woke him up, and then put him down 3hrs. later. He slept for 2hrs.  he has done this a few times but then today, I do the exact same thing, and he talked in his crib for 40min in the pm before falling asleep.  He is only 11 1/2 months, should I start shortening the am nap yet??  I did the extending the am nap and doing the pm catnap, It worked great for awhile until he refused the catnap and then his one nap got shorter and shorter resulting in serious OT. 
Lauren: your lo is 17  months. . . .I kept saying to myself, just wait till he is a year old then he can go to one nap. . . I guess not!

[NiknLily]

2Pam, he is wanting to extend his A times a little so it would be natural that after a few good days sleep he will be so caught up he will just not be as tired that day and so you have him playing in cot before he will go to sleep.  Only if he repeatedly takes 30/40Min's to go to sleep in pm and this starts to interfere with him settling at bedtime would I then cut the am nap by 10/15Min's and adjust next A time down to suit.  The idea of this method is that the pm nap slowly creeps back down towards lunch time (where you want the 1nap to be eventually) and the catnap in the am is just to help them get through 5-5.5hrs from wake up to lunch timeish nap.

I was always saying it will be great when DD does just 1 2.5hr nap a day, I will be able to get loads of work done.  We still don't get consistant 1hr 45min naps and DD is 19months 

[sorayas mom]

Thanks again New Mum for you timely advice!  I had Soraya down at 11:15 and she slept 2 hours again!  That is three days in a row! I'm trying not to get too excited!  I never thought I would see a 2 hour nap again!!  So I had her down at 6:30 pm, since she woke around 6:30/6:45 am this morning.  I definitly don't want to push it and her end up OT.  So..keep your fingers crossed that we are finally to the other side! 

[lindaloulou]

Do you guys promise this one nap a day thing will eventually lengthen to a decent nap? It has been 5 days and her naps have been 1 hr/1hr/35 min/1.25 hour/45 minutes. Night sleep is between 11.25-11.75 hours, so only 12 hours average. This seems REALLY low for a 15 month old...but it will get better?? I have our nap time fixed at 10:45AM and bedtime at 6:15PM, wake-up between 5:30ish-6ish. Does anyone have any suggestions or do I just need to be patient (which BTW is NOT my strongest quality!)?

Linda

[Bryony]

Hello all, can I join you??!!

My LO is 10.5 months so we are a long time from going to 1 nap - but we're juggling around with how to manage the start of the transition.

For a while we were doing 1hr AM and 1.5hr PM which worked really well for a while - but then Katie started doing a few 45ers in the afternoon. And even if she doesn't do a 45er in the afternoon, I have to wake her after 1hr or 1hr 15 mins as it's getting too close to bedtime! I think her A times have got a bit too long to fit in 1hr AM plus 1.5hr PM. So starting from today, I am doing 1.5hr AM and then 45 mins PM (if she sleeps longer I will probably let her sleep for an hour - but I am pretty sure she will wake at 45 mins after a longer morning nap!).     I will let you know how it goes. 

Katie does need her naps - she's quite tired after 3.5 - 4hrs A time - but seems to manage on shorter naps than many other LOs so I am hoping that this strategy will work at least for a while.

Does anyone have any other advice or suggestions? 

Bryony

[jmoran544]

Hey, all. We hit a bump in the road. Last night dh and I were able to go to the movies while a freind stayed with the kiddos. So, of course, they woke up about an hour after we left and screamed for a while. I think they both lost at least an hour before we were able to settle them once we got home. 

They awoke around 5am. They had been waking up closer to 5:30, then had a nap at 11:00am, to lengthen the morning wake-up time.

My question today is should I put them down early because of poor nighttime sleep, or stay the course and put them down at 11? Should today be a 2-nap day, or just an early bedtime?

[lesorl]

Hi girls...

This switch is a pain in the butt... M has been better sleeping at night with no NWs or EWs, but her naps are only 40 mins or so.  So her day has been looking like this:

6:30am Awake
S 10am-10:40am
S 2:05pm-2:55pm
Bedtime 6pm

How can I extend these naps?  By the end of the day she's becoming OT from the short naps.  Ugghh.

Hope you all are having better luck than me!

Leslie

[NiknLily]

Linda, you could try bringing the nap down to 10.30, on a 6am wake up that is 4.5hrs A time, might work better to get a longer nap out of her.  But honestly for some it just takes months and there is very little you can do but be patient.  It took DD months to settle on to 1nap OK 

Bryony, thats a really good plan just keep with that for as long as possible 

Jmoran, I may be too late but I would of put them down early for nap and possibly early bed too, just to be sure the OT from last night gets caught up quickly.

Leslie, If you want to I would give w2s a go, you need to successfully extend her naps for 3 days for it too stick.  My only concern would be that with longer naps you may have to do lots of tweaking to fit it all into her day and as at present she is not having NW or EW I would be reluctant to mess with things too much.

[2Pam]

Leslie: where Eric use to do the 45 minute naps all the time, extending his A time really worked well.  But, saying that, if she is OT I am not sure if that is the right thing to do. 

Eric still goes down for his first nap well, and I have to wake him up after an hour.  I put him down 3hrs. after he wakes up.  but the second nap. . . .he is taking forever to get to sleep and then it is getting too late in the day and effecting his bedtime.  Last night he chatted in his crib till 8:15ish, 
Shorten the am nap??
Hi there Bryony.   I already gave ya my thoughts on facebook

Linda: Eric was doing only one nap 2 months ago, (granted he was only 9 1/2 months old. . .ooops too early!) but they did get longer.  He was doing 3hrs, 2 2/12 hours but then it all went out the window with OT, but that was probably because of his age. 

[laurencopenhaver]

Bryony-that is a good plan if it works.  And if she sticks w/ it you might be able to eventually phase out nap #2.  The only thing w/ that is she'll probably get to a point where she refuses 2nd nap, then you have very tired baby before bed which creates LOTS of ot.  You could also try a switcheroo, and do shorter am and longer pm.   In hoping to phase out that first nap and keep the long one in the middle of the day.  My son did the first scenerio and he has been ot for months now.  He refused that 2nd nap and was napping from about 9:30-11, and made for way too long of a day.  Cause he wouldn't take another nap again till 4:30 or so which was too close to bedtime.  Do whatever you think will work for you guys,  just keep both secnerios in mind.  And good luck.

Kyler hasn't woken (for good) by 5:30 for the past 2 days.  Hopefully this is a trend.  It was 6 am this morning, stirred at 5:30 but my praying worked.  He's doing better during the day so I think he's getting or has gotten caught up on the ot thing.  Still a work in progress, but thanks to all for the super advice.

[lesorl]

The last 2 days have been strange- 

6:30am Awake
S 10am-10:40am
S 3pm-3:25pm, then patted until 4pm
Bedtime 7pm

6:30am Awake
S 10am-10:30am
S 2:40pm-3:05pm, then patted until 3:45pm
Bedtime 6:15pm

She's not showing any tired signs before either nap, so it's so hard to determine when to put her down.  Obviously the 2nd naps are way too much A time, but what about the first?  Do I cut A time to 3 hours, and see if that helps?

I wish I could offer others advice, but as my lo naps less and less each day, I don't think it's wise- you definitely don't want to end up with these naps.

Leslie