How to overcome accumulated OT?

[lesorl]

My lo is 15.5 months, spirited, and has always been a short napper (<40 mins).  The last 2 nights, she's taking about 90 mins to get to sleep, crying if I'm not in the room.  If I am in the room, she'll lie down for a bit, then stand up and start clapping or playing with her teddy bear.  She sleeps through the night, but this morning was up at 5:43am.

The routine we were on was:

6:30ish wake
11am nap
4pm 20 min catnap
6:15pm bedtime

She's also transitioning to 1 nap, but she gets a cold after about 1 week of 1 nap, then we move back to 2 naps (1 + 1 catnap).  Since she's clearly OT, I've pushed the nap back (today it was 10:30am, and she slept 50 mins) and let her sleep for the 2nd nap (today it was 2:50pm, and slept 40 mins).

Please someone put me out of my misery.

[heidiruthie]

i have one little humble suggestion, and that is to put her to bed SUPER early! we've had similar early mornings with my lo recently, and the only way we were able to catch him up on sleep was to put him to bed extremely early (like 4:30 or 5:00pm) however, he's been on 1 nap since he was 12 mo, so our EASY is much different than your's. he gets 6hours A time in the am, then he naps nice and long (finally i get the LONG naps of 2.5 hours at times!!) then a MAXIMUM of 5 hours A time in the evening before bed. this routine has worked wonders for us. he now sleeps about 11 hours at night and is still up early (around 5:30am) but at least he isn't OT anymore.

i've no clue if this would work as well for you, but i think that the early bedtimes may be something to think about just to get over the chronic OT so that you can start working on the naps.

good luck! hope you get some great advice!

-heidi

[RACHPEM]

Hi Leslie, nice to see you back but ashame you are still struggling with M.  We are in amess still over here due to Maya only doing 10 hrs at night no matter what I do she is waking at 5am and it is killing me!!!
hugs to you both.
Rachael

[lesorl]

Heidi-

Thanks for the advice... with the early nap and late catnap, I can't seem to get her to sleep SUPER early.  Is that a picture of you in the avatar?  If so, you are beautiful!

Rachael- how could our 2 kids be so resistant to sleep?  I don't get it.

M finally fell asleep at 7:17pm, and was up screaming at 12:36am.  I suspect it was teething, as I gave her some meds and she was B2S about 1am, then woke at 6:20am.

[lesorl]

HELP!

She woke at 6:20am, and then took a 35 min nap at 10:50am!

What am I doing wrong?

[Vicku]

Hi there!

Just wanted to offer my support as I've been where you are now just a couple of months ago. I know it's not nice, so lots of hugs to you!

Accumulated OT builds up over time and can take a while to get out of too. My DD is now 19.5 months and she also got OT during the 2-1 switch, in the midst of teething her molars, then getting an ear infection then a throat infection Illness obviously doesn't help things.

What are you doing when she cries when you leave the room? Do you stay til she sleeps or do you do WI/WO? I would suggest WI/WO as she'll then not get used to needing you there to settle but you're still showing her you're right there, just not staying in her room when she falls asleep. The other option would be gradual withdrawal where you gradually move further away, over a few nights, til you're out of the room. SA can get worse with OT and especially at this age I've read. It's then important to show her you're there but without creating to many bad habits.

The way we finally got out of the OT was by managing to push the nap later and getting a longer, better nap in and then did some earlier bedtimes for a while (appr. 4.5-5hrs A max) but basically stayed consistent for a while and she then adapted and caught up.

Also if she is teething a lot, try giving Ibuprofen at night (lasts up to 8 hrs) if you haven't already tried it. It would at least help her sleep longer if she's waking due to pain, but EW are sort of part of the parcel it seems

It IS a very messy time during the switch (at least for some bubs) but you will get through it. It can just take some time, especially after a cold too. Maybe try earlier bedtime on the days she's done 1 nap and a normal one on a 2 nap day?

Just want you to know I felt just like you 2 months ago and now things are much better, so remember it won't last forever. You're not doing anything wong, this is just a phase she's going through. Stay strong and make sure you get your own sleep as much as you can to keep up your own energy levels. It will pass!

[heidiruthie]

leslie: aww, thanks, yeah that's me, dh is against putting pics of our son on the internet, so i put one of myself up instead.

yeah, i can see how the catnap would interfere with the early bedtime. i would agree with vick re. seeing if you could push her morning nap a bit later on in the day and perhaps she'll be able to sleep a longer nap. that way you wouldn't do the catnap, rather just put her to bed 5 hours from when her nap ends. i had been putting my ds down for his nap after only 4.5 hours in the am, thinking that was all he could handle, but was advised by these boards to keep him stimulated in the am until slowly his nap is pushed back until 11:30 or 12:00 it really worked!i thought he'd get way overtired before his nap, but instead he slept longer!

i really hope you find something that works. i've been there too, crying right alongside my lo at 4:00am!

-heidi

[RACHPEM]

How is it going Leslie?
We are still struggling with EW, 4.45 this morning and it is my birthday today, I remember (just) when I used to come in a t that time and still be up for work, now it is killing me!! must be my age.
Hope M is doing better.
Rachael x