Support for Dropping That Last Nap, Thread #2

[Katet]

LOL yesterday he fell asleep at 5.50pm & woke around 7.30 but went back to sleep in about 10mins & then slept until 6.40am. trouble was he got no time with daddy & was really upset when Daddy went to work today. He then asked (rarity) for stories as he was tired at 12.30 & was asleep by 12.45pm. looking at the bags under his eyes from the previous 2 days with no naps I'm going to let him sleep until 2.30pm (when I pretty much have to get him up anyway)
Hopefully with ds#2 napping today we won't have a repeat of yesterday afternoon... OMG 2 tired children it was a horror anything I tired to do with them they fought over even with their own gardening stuff, ds#1 really needs time with me when he gets home from preschool to tell me about it (why did I think he was introvert) & when ds#2 is really tired he just wants snuggles... boy was I ready to hand in my notice when dh rang to say he was going to he late... fortunately the 2min phone conversation was enough "quiet" for ds#2 to fall asleep & then things got better, but I can see this is going to be my lot for many months & I need to find a plan to get through 3 hours (& get dinners) without WW3 every 10mins... surprised none of you heard ds#2 screams they were something to be reconed with.

[rinajack]

LOL Kate - about both the screams and the introvert comment. Kate, how would an early bath for DS2 work while DS1 is telling you about his day? Might be a good mood improver too.....then when DS1 is finished his chatting with you, he could hit the bath, while DS2 has some snuggle time?

Last night was bad in our house, between the two kids I was up at least hourly, yes at LEAST!

Then this morning, Zara get up, comes out of her room, and starts the day with "MINE!".  By 10:30 (Hugh was napping), I had told her several times that if she keeps on crying, I will have to put her to bed for some quiet time til she feels better (since nothing I was trying was helping) and then she asked me to do just that, so she had 45 mins at 10:30, then stayed in bed with her dummy for about another 15 mins or so, only coming out because she got a Bday present in the post.

Then for PM nap, we all went to bed when Hugh did (2pm), she probably took a little to fall asleep, but I think was asleep by about 2:20pm.  Hugh and I got up at 4:15pm, and Zara woke breifly, I told her when she was ready to come out to put her dummy under her pillow, and just checked back in after feeding Hugh and she is back asleep

All of this over her 2 yr molars, 2 of them started to break through the skin last night, and she is way out of sorts....with a Bday Party in the morning, hope she can gather enough energy and tolerance to handle that

[Mom to M&M]

Oh boy Kate - sorry things have been so rough but hopefully today goes better after your DS2's nap. Big hugs and hope you can figure out a plan that works.

Rina, more big hugs to you too. The 2 yo molars STINK here too. One through skin, two more REALLY close and they have been wrecking havoc on sleep but on behavior even more. Hope Zara does better today.

DD was asking for bed early last night and didn't even want her books or lullaby so got her in crib by 7:55 and not entirely sure what time she fell asleep as i never heard a peep (usually she sings, counts, etc for a while). It's a little after 7am now and would LOVE for her to keep sleeping as we are planning to visit SIL today who has a cousin only 5 weeks younger than DD and they are super close. But we plan to go during lunch and do open play at their gym at 1:30 and the only nap opportunity will be the 20 minute drive home...

[Mom to M&M]

We had a very good time. DD ended up staying in bed until after 8:30 (after waking about 7:50) and we left here 11. She actually fell asleep in the car right before we got there so only slept a minute before I woke her - can't believe she fell asleep so early. Then we played at SIL's, brought them to open gym, had lunch back at SIL's and left there a little after 3. DD fell asleep on car ride home at about 3:30 and I woke her when we got home at 3:50 and will shoot for 8pm bedtime tonight.

[Katet]

LOL they certainly keep us on our toes.
Rina Hugs to the almost B'day girl, I hope those teeth get better. I actually said to dh that while I think my SIL is very over the top with her schedual for the day (eg 4-5 garden time, 5-6 bath & room time (alone) etc) I do think I need to have a bit more defined activity even if it is that we have set weeks that one gets to watch TV in the lounge & the other in th spare room on alternate days. Trouble is ds#2 WON'T bath & will only shower when dh is around LOL.
Going to hope it is quiet at work this weekend (working both days) & I can do some real timetabling... my walking buddy down the road is in the same place with her 3 &4 yo boys (our boys don't play well, so we don't get together much) but we were talking last night about ending up at the park at the same time

[aidenmc]

Kate - I totally get the dh issue! They just have such a different perspective it seems. Aiden was up at 5;30 for the past 2 days after falling asleep after 8. Dh views any advice I give as criticism (and I hardly have a leg to stand on because Aiden sleeps so much better for him  ). So when I try to bring up the issue of early bedtime to compensate for overtiredness, it doesn't go over well. I think part of it is the timing. When things don't go well, my inclination is to analyze why and plan for what we will do differently. DH doesn't want to hear about it when he is working so hard to get Aiden to sleep better and it doesn't go well. Last night I knew he needed an early night because of how he was behaving - clingy, whiny and hyper. He was down a little earlier but not enough. He wasn't asleep until after 8 again and up at 5:30. I was going to ask you gals how we deal with his constant requests.  He ends up whining and crying for me, for his blanket, for his drink, etc.  Dh has been basically ignoring him, but it is hard to know if we are being too mean.  Anyway, he did sleep all the way through last night and dh actually had him down at 6:45 tonight (after a gentle suggestion again by me) to give him more of a chance to fall asleep without being wound up. Guess what? It was the best night yet. He chatted quietly, made no requests and was asleep by about 7:40. We'll see what the night brings. He could actually be lying naked on the floor for all we know  (I will have to remember to check on him).

I hope all those teeth just come through quickly. I couldn't imagine them causing lo's to sleep more, though!  They always resulted in very bad sleep and OT for Aiden.  Have fun at the park Kate. I feel like we haven't spent time outside in so many months! We are still buried under mountains of snow. I suspect that some of it won't be fully melted until July! I am hoping, though, that the summer months will result in better sleep, with all the outdoor running around time Aiden will get. It is hard to get much much exercise into him when he has to bundle up in his snowsuit every time he goes out. Sure, he plays outside (especially at preschool) but I don't think there is a whole lot of moving going on.  Of course, when he is overtired he will do a LOT of running - usually out of his room, at bedtime  .

Have a great night everyone!

[rinajack]

LATE night for Zara last night, we gave her Bday presents, since DH has to work a long shift on her actual Bday, plus she had those two naps....her party today.....6 mums including me, and 11 kids/babies including mine! I have just finished tidying up etc, will do the rest of the cleaning tonight, now it is nap time for us all

I am not sure if this morning wore her out, or just hyped her up will know in the next few minutes I guess

[Mom to M&M]

Sounds like fun Rina - hopefully Zara is tired out now and takes a nice nap. Becky - sorry to hear that you've been having some early mornings. Hope you had a good night after the early bedtime. I agree - bring on summer and good weather and lots of playing outdoors! Kate - it's hard - I have a friend that is WAY too overscheduled though with times for her LOs like you describe for your SIL. While I don't think that's good (at all) I do think it can be good to have a bit of structure - like we usually go to the fish market on certain days, etc in addition to our set gym class or something. But i only have one!

Rough night here. Definitely more molars on the way. DD was in bed a little before 8 (she hasn't even been wanting her books or lullaby last two nights) and probably asleep by 8:20. She had a night terror around 9:50 and was screaming and flailing in her sleep (will never get used to those - ugh) and I stayed with her and tried to calm her and she was calm around 10 but then screaming again 10 minutes later. Finally had her totally settled by 10:0 but at 12 she was up crying again - this time more awake and let me give her medicine. Then she slept until 6:35 when I heard her call out (quite early for her but DH wasn't too quiet this morning GRR). She's still in there now but sounds like she's starting to get upset to get up. Not sure if we'll go to open play at Gymboree today - is from 9:30-10:15 but not sure either of us is up for it plus want to make sure she is a bit rested today as we have an evening doctor appointment for DH (he might have torn his knee) and then were going to go out to eat and all.

Must run - she's starting to call for me now... Have a good day guys!

[rinajack]

Kate, we have a little bit of structure in our day, not on what activities when, but some times for things, have been kind of forced into it by Hugh, who seems to thrive on routine, so I just make Zara's routine fit around his!

We napped for about 1.5 hrs, Zara maybe a little longer...but I had left the room so not sure, sometimes she just likes to lay there for some dummy time since she is only allowed to have it in bed now.....anyway, I also don't know what time she went to bed or to sleep, or wether she did it alone or DH has fallen asleep in there with her, suppose I better tear myself away from the PC and go and check on them all

[aidenmc]

Well our night was not too bad. Aiden was asleep by about 7:40 and slept through until 5:40 this morning. I am really liking the sleeping through the night bit! I definitely think the earlier bedtime helped with that - and the tough bedtime approach we are taking. For all I feel bad when he is begging for his blanket to be put on him and we ignore him, when I checked on him last night, he had it wrapped nicely over him. And he had been out of bed as he'd pulled a bunch of books out and must've been looking at them on the floor for awhile. The best part, though is that we didn't have any crying and this morning when he woke up (he started asking for his music  ) dh was able to go in and then we left him for over 45 minutes and he was happy in there on his own. Now if I could get him to sleep for a half hour longer in the morning I would be completely satisfied! 

Hope your night is better tonight, Karen. I hate those night terrors. Aiden tends to have weird dreams and then appears to wake up and is all irrational - begging over and over for his ducky blanket which is right on him, or saying "I don't want cheerios' over and over. Strange stuff. I think he must be partially asleep when he has those because he does not seem connected to reality. Luckily we haven't had one in a while - fingers crossed!

[PeepersMom]

Becky DH takes advice as criticism, too.  I just don't get it.  Ah the ego's of these guys.  I tell him he isnt' the expert in EVERYTHING but he doesn't seem to believe me. LOL.  In any event, sounds like your sleep training worked well!  For us, with frequent requests for things, we always tell him our limits and stick to it.  For example his big request is more toothpaste.  I tell him from the beginning he gets 2 dabs of tp.  After the first one I tell him 1 more. after the second (always asks for the second of course!) I tell him that is the last one. So the first few times he threw a fit, but he started to understand.  That then bled over to other requests and he got used to hearing "only one" or "this is the last one" sooo maybe you can start at something other than the sleep time requests and then when he gets that start telling him, "This is the last time Daddy comes in" or "Daddy will only come in one time tonight" or something....

Kate, I feel like when things are getting a bit out of control (in my mind anyway) I really need to have a little more structure. I guess it is easier for me to say as I only have 1 but it helps me mentally, that is for sure.  When sleep was going smoothly in the past several months I was very loose with the schedule but in the past 2 weeks I needed to be a touch more strict.

Rina I hope Zara gets past those molars soon.  They are rough.  PJ told me he had rocks in his mouth!  he was talking about those darn molars!  poor kids

We have had some pretty decent sleep here.  Nights 10.5-11 and naps 1-1.5.  I am ok with that.  Last night I don't know when he fell asleep but he woke screaming at 3 am and had pooped!  DH changed him and he fell instantly back to sleep and slept till almost 8.  Hum... I know he is getting 2 molars now so that is the only thing I can think of to explain more poop (in the middle ofthe night??) and sleeping in.

The sleep in couldnt' have come on a better day because we are going to see the Dan Zanes concert today at 11am.  We are taking.... wait for it.... the BUS!!! that might be better than the concert.  We do live in the city but most of the time we walk to where we want to go or take the car for big outings to the grocery or to Target...  so the bus is still exciting.  Con't know what that will do to sleep today, but when we got the tickets I knew it would mess up sleep so I am prepared for it!

have a fun day everyone!

[Mom to M&M]

Things have been really weird here. DD has had a bunch of days where she's either slept REALLY well at night (like 12 hours or more straight) and napped for 1.5 hours or been up a lot at night. Almost like one day she'd get over 13 hours total in 24 hours and then have too much sleep so the next day not need much. But think it's teeth related as another molar broke through (so now two are through) and another feels like it's right there. Then yesterday, after no nap on Sunday (but sleeping until 10am (!) that day) she got 10.5 hours at  night and then refused nap yesterday. She was asleep at about 8 last night (after going in at 7:30) and woke at 7:20 today and will try for a nap around 12:45 or so I think.

Have fun at the concert Meg! Hope everyone is well.

[brightside]

Hi everyone!

I am really struggling to get a nap and reasonable bedtime in at the moment. DS is currently waking at about 7.30, napping about 1.30. I let him have an hour max which makes him very grumpy when he gets up and then its 8.30 or later before he goes to bed. I'm finding the later bedtime a real struggle, especially as he seems to be very clingy and needs us to stand outside the door and shh him every time he says "mummy". The whole bedtime routine is taking almost an hour from going up to finally falling asleep. I know I shouldn't complain if he is sleeping quite well at night but I could really do with him going to bed a bit earlier as I have school work to do in the evening when he goes to bed (I'm a teacher). Do you think cutting the nap out would lead to nws? Or when you get into this messy transition is it best just to go for cutting the nap. i know when we went from 2-1 it got messy for a while and someone advised me to just cut the am nap rather than trying to fit 15 mins in. It worked well. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. DS is nearly 2.5yrs. 

[PeepersMom]

I assume everyone else had trouble getting on the boards for the past several days?

Well, things have really gotten weird here again wth sleep.  Seems like PJ and Marisa are quite similar where it is like he banks sleep or something then won't sleep.  I have gotten a nap out of him everyday but with a lot of work and some of them have only been 40 min.  Then he is up until 830 at nght on a 45 min nap?  seems that he will have a day where he sleeps 13-14 hours then the next day 10 hours is too much. I just don't get it.  I know he is still teething those 2 molars that he was working on that last 2 weeks.  He is a very slow teether so I guess that could be it.

We are gearing up for our crazy April.  Our first round of guests arrive this weekend.  I am not looking forward to dealing with PJ's sleep when we have guests.  If he doesn't nap he will be asleep by 6:30 at night and that is no fun with guests, but if it takes him 30-45 min to fall asleep just to get a 45 min nap what the heck is the point?  But on those days he will at least be up until 8 which would be important with the friends and family visits... I just don't know what to do.

Cath I think that a lot of children go through sleep distrubances, periods of no naps and struggling with falling asleep/staying asleep at night in the second year.  It does really put a hamper on your relaxing evening, doesn't it?  I am also tempted to cut out that nap, but in the end I know at this age he really needs it. I think knocking off a nap for MOST kids before 3 is too early.  Just my opinion.  You will see on this thread (the archived one, actually) there is someone who had good success with dropping the nap at just before 2....  All babies are unique, you have to go with your gut on that one.  If you do cut out the nap I would pull bedtime really forward for a while and expect night wakings at first. If it goes too crazy with night wakings and tantrums I would say he probably still needs that nap.

good luck

Meg

[rinajack]

Hey everyone.  Last night I completely lost it with Zara.  We have been limiting her to 1 hr nap, and she STILL can't go to sleep until about 9:30am,, and she is waking in the AM at 6:30/7.  But she won't stay in her room, keeps waking Hugh etc.  It is driving us absolutely bananas.  So DH said that from today, he wants NO NAP.  No questions. I agree that it will probably be OK for Zara, but for me, it will make things a little tough.  It is still hot where we live, I have dogs that NEED daily walks, and the only time it is really cool enough to walk them is around 5pm, and I am soooo worried she will fall asleep in the pram and that things will be even worse.  I will use the bike trailer, not the stroller, because in that she has to sit totally upright, and tends to take toys to play with etc......

Wish me luck please