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

[Aly Mac]

Bryony, this is exactly what happened with us (ask Layla ). I tried short am naps and they never worked - just meant two short naps.  This time, it seems to have worked.  I'm getting a long (1.5hrs - that's long in our house!) pm nap with waking her at 45 for the am. Could be my persistence (I think I gave up too early..)

it's ironic after all our time onthe  short napper thread, that i am now waking her!!!!! my dh thinks i'm mad, but is likeing the no nw or ew.

[Bryony]

Thanks Aleesa!  As you can probably tell (sorry  ) I am in a complete tizzy about the best way to do this - short AM and long PM, versus long AM and short PM.  Both work at the moment, but with Katie starting daycare 2-3 days a week in January I feel like a need a plan that's fairly failsafe.  And yes I know that this doesn't exist, but no harm in hoping!

I'd intuitively like to do long AM nap and catnap, as then we can move the morning nap later and she can drop the catnap when she's ready - but I am really nervous about her refusing it.   We managed to keep the catnap going for a long while when we had two naps plus catnap, but only if we went out in the buggy. And I suspect the staff at daycare won't look kindly on that suggestion!  But that's my other option - if I finish work early (and make up the hours in the evening or something) I can probably pick her up at 4:30pm in bung her in the buggy for a short catnap if she won't have an afternoon nap otherwise. And on days I am not working it won't be a problem as we can go out in the afternoons and she can sleep on the way home.

Aarrgh I am so indecisive!

Bryony

[laurencopenhaver]

Just wanted to update everyone on what we've been doing...Kyler is waking usually b/t 6-6:15, (which is better than 5:30), and taking his nap around 11.  The nap is usually 1-1.25 hrs.  It's much better than before, but still wondering how to push it forward to get later wakeup.  He's averaging 11.5 hrs a night and 1-1.5 during the day, so 13 total; I don't think he'll get much more than that if any.  And many times 11:00 nap is a stretch.  I've been pushing ahead meals to get later nap but 11:00 seems to be as late as we can go w/out ot right now.

[Layla]

Bryony - I never really did the long am short pm thing... it worked out better the other way around but if she's doing well on that then I would probably go down that route & if she's starting to skip the catnap then you could start shortening the morning nap to get it back.... you'll just have to do an early bedtime for that day. But is the 45min morning nap working? I mean does she then sleep longer in the pm? Is it just that you don't like waking her up from naps?

[Bryony]

Yes she does then sleep 1.5hrs in the afternoon - occasionally we get a 45er in the afternoon (and then a VERY early bedtime!) but mostly it works fine. It just feels strange to wake her up when she's in SUCH a deep sleep in the morning, and she does NOT want to be woken up, even at the 45 mins mark. And as the morning nap is already quite late (10:30am) I am wondering if would make sense to make this the main nap and keep pushing it later....

[NiknLily]

Bryony I think at her age I would do whatever works best to get 2 naps in the day.  I wouldn't be worrying to much about which nap is longest at this point.  Just get a few more months under her belt before worrying about loosing that 2nd nap altogether or even worrying about which way will be best to do it.

[Layla]

It would make sense to keep the morning nap long.. if she's already making it to 4hrs A time (assuming she wakes around 6.30ish am) & then push that nap out. Try not to worry about what will happen in 2-3 weeks at nursery. Do you know if they are pushing for 1 nap around 12months or are they fairly flexible in that they will offer a catnap in the afternoon?

[katemom]

I just wanted to echo comments about the long naps in a.m. vs p.m. - this was the first thread I found that really offered the choice, other places on this site seemed to heavily promote the short a.m. nap and long p.m. nap.  We're mostly on one nap a day now, but I've found it works just fine to get a catnap on the days the one nap isn't long enough, and I wouldn't have thought that would have worked based on other posts, so I say do whatever works for you and your lo - but there definately is BOTH options!

I just wanted to check in on our situation: it's going pretty well.  We offer one nap at about 4:30-5:00 hours A time after morning wake-up.  Half of the time she sleeps over 2 hours, and the other half it's 1:30, when we sometimes offer a catnap for about 30 minutes, or we put to bed early. But most recently, I've really been trying to get to a 7:30 bedtime, so we can get closer to a 7am wake-up.  So I've just been firm on that being bedtime after reading that other people were sticking to a schedule to try to push the schedule forward.  Now I'm questioning if that is the right thing to do.  She wakes up betwen 6:30 and 7:00, but rarely closer to 7am.  It's not really that big of a deal, she's pretty close, but for some reason I'm just a lot happier if I'm getting up at 7am rather than 6:30!  With this bedtime her total sleep total is in the lower 13 hours, instead of the mid to higher 13's.  Should I just put her to bed earlier so she gets a bit more sleep?  What do you think?

katemom

[Bryony]

Thanks everyone for your input!  Layla - at the nursery they say that they will do whatever we are doing - so I can't see it being a problem offering a catnap. Around here though most people seem to do another well-known (much stricter) routine so all the other babies are on naps at 9-9:45am and 12:30 -2:30, so it means that Katie will be on a different structure to everyone else regardless of what we do     But the manager of the nursery says that's fine and that they will try and go with whatever she does at home. 

Katemom - does your LO wake up happy at 6:30am (so that you can leave her play until 7am?!) or is she cross and wanting you?

Bryony

[katemom]

Bryony - my lo wakes up pretty happy on her own for 10-30 minutes, it just depends how long she decides to be patient for us to come get her!

I put her to bed last night at 7:15 because she was acting so tired, and she woke up at 6:15am! 

katemom

[Bryony]

Katemom - my LO also sleeps 11 hrs to the minute from when she goes to bed....  it may be that this is all she needs, esp if she wakes up happy?

[lindaloulou]

New Mum-

Just thought I would check in and ask a few pesky questions about your transition with Lily. So our wake up times have moved closer to 6AM, most consistently around 5:45AM. Occasionally we get a late wake-up of 6:30 like today. I have kept her nap around 11 (today closer to 11:15) and was wondering at what point you moved Lily's bedtime later. Ana goes right down at around 6-6:15. Her naps have been longer than an hour the last 2 days, but I really don't think that is long enough to say her naps have "lengthened." I don't mind her waketime being 6Am. although I would love it to be closer to 6:30AM. No matter what time she wakes up I keep her in her crib until 6:30 and she is content to just lie there until I get her. Eventually do I still want her nap to be around 12-12:30, even if she wakes around 6AM. I guess I am wondering what the ideal "waketime" is before and after naptime. I glanced at the easy board and noticed that in this age range most are about 5 hours before and after nap with a 2 hour nap....

Let me know what you think....anyone else please feel free to lend your thoughts too!!!

Thank You!!!

[debo620]

Linda, some toddlers only really need 13hrs of sleep. so 12hrs at night--leaves for a 1hr nap. just my thoughts!

[NiknLily]

Linda, I did it all quite quickly really.  Once I put her on 1 nap and fixed her nap & bedtime her wake up time jumped up to 6am within a week or so.  Her nap was only a max of 1hr 15 at this point (and for some time after) As soon as she had settled on 6am wake up I shifted her day up to 7-7.  As she was then doing a 12hr day/12hr night just an hour earlier than is good for me to be awake (super grumpy mummy before 7am  ) Her wake up shifted in a week and her naps remained fairly poor but I found that because her nap & bedtime was set I could give an early night and it not effect her wake up time (IE make it earlier).  She really spent at least the next 2months in a permanent state of slight OTness.  Her nap varied from 45min to 1hr 15mins most of this time and eventually I was able to get her back down when she woke at 45mins for another 30mins to start, then this stretched to another 45mins then in last 1.5months she suddenly started taking a solid 1.5hr nap, sometimes 1hr 40 sometimes 2hrs.  On the whole tho' I think she only needs 1.5hrs with her 12hr night.

Really I think a realistic A time before nap is 5hrs, although some do 6hrs, and then 5hrs after.  Lily frequently does 5.5hrs after to keep bedtime at 7pm.  This does mean that on those nights she is still slightly OT but manageably so.  If I try to keep her up longer in am her nap suffers, so for us its better she is slightly too tired at bedtime than naptime.  So in an ideal world wake up time is best at 7am for a 12pm nap.

[katemom]

Bryony - I think you may be right, I guess I just always doubt myself because my lo is younger than most to transition to one nap, and I play the second guessing game.  But it helped to hear that yours also only sleeps 11 hours at night, and I noticed yours is closer to my lo's age than some of the older kids transitioning.  (my lo is almost 13 months now, but we've been doing one nap for a month and a half on most days).  Anyway, just wondering, what total number of hours does yours sleep a day?

Thanks for chatting with me,

katemom