need help with 16 month old routine please

[jcsmom]

My DS is 16 months old and I figured by now, we would be in a nice routine with one nap.......nope!So I am seeking some advice.
After reading another post, I realized that I was putting him down for his nap too late thus resulting in a shorter nap. Who knew?So I have moved his nap forward by 45 mins and he is sleeping a lovely 2 hours now!But I am confused about bedtime and eating times. When I put him down at 12 pm I would feed him lunch before hand, but now that I am putting him down at 11:15/30 feeding lunch  at 10:30 seems odd but I worry that he will wake out of hunger from his nap if I just give a snack at that time.  Here is his routine since I moved his nap:

6/6:15 wake
6:30am milk
8:00am brekkie
10:00am snack
11:15/30-1:15/30 nap
1:30 lunch
3:30 small snack
5:30 supper time
7pm bedtime

Lately we have had (and always have suffered from) EWs. I am not sure if my routine needs tweaking or it is due to teething his eye teeth. He has been teething them for 3 weeks! I just wish they would pop. The last 3 days we've had a 3:30am waking, 4:30 am waking and today 5:15 waking. He will go back after I give him pain meds after about 30 mins. But I am worried that it is something in my routine that needs tweaking. Any ideas about bedtime and lunchtime?

[jcsmom]

Ok, so now I am totally confused. I put him down at 11:15 as he was showing major tired signs and he is awake now and it is 12:15. He slept less than an hour? He did wake this am at 5:15 and went b2s at 5:45 and slept for another hour. Should I have made his nap later as he woke later? How come I just can't seem to get it right?

[lesorl]

hi jcsmom,

just dropping in to let you know i'm right there with you.  i'm of the opinion that are kids are soooo irregular, it's nearly impossible to "get it right".

for us, i think that the NWs or EWs are due to the long A time post nap.  If he's up at 1:15pm/:30pm, I'd have him in bed no later than 6:15pm/30pm.

as for meals, a lot of people do 1/2 lunch before nap and 1/2 lunch after nap.  You could also do a big snack prenap.

as usual, take my advice for what its worth. 

good luck and hang in there-
leslie

[jcsmom]

It is just so frustrating. There is no recipe for him as what works one day doesn't the next. Ugh. He did go back to sleep in 30 secs for a total of 1 hour 50. My problem is with him is all in the timing. I put him down too late for his nap and he short naps. Too early and he short naps. So I tries to move his nap to the middle of the day and he short napped me, now that it is earlier, it is longer but now he has a longer A time before bed. Now what?
If I put him down early to compensate at night he wakes earlier the next am thus making it impossible to get on any sort of routine. EW=early nap+ early to bed and so on. If I keep him up so that he wakes at a normal hour, sometimes he sleeps 11 hours straight, others, he has EWs so I never know why. Too much or not enough sleep.

It confuses me as I have logged his sleep for....um embarrassed to say this.....15 months or so. Never a pattern, ever. But I do know that he needs about 13 hours of sleep in 24. So if he has a nap of 1.5 or more, putting him down at 6:15 results in a 5:30 waking. I just can't win.

[jcsmom]

Hi everyone,
I could still use some support figuring out my DS routine. We moved his nap to 11:15/30 and got a beautiful 2 hour nap for 3 days, then it all went to pot. I know he is OT I just don't know how to fix it. Here is what happened the past 3 days:
Sat: wake wake 5:45 nap 11:15-12:40 bed 6:45pm
Sun: wake 7:05 no nws nap 11:25 (chatted in room for 20 mins)11:45-1:10 bed 8pm- I guess was super OT by 7pm so did wi/wo for 1 hour almost. 2 hour NW from 12:30-2:30 off and on. Gave Tylenol to ensure it wasn't teeth
Mon: today 6:30 wake nap in car from 10-10:20 (in hopes of warding off OT)nap at 12:20-?

I am just so confused. Is 7 pm too late? Pre 1 nap switch he was STTN from 7:30-6:30/6:45 and napping 2-2.5 in the day. He seems to have dropped the pm nap and is not making up for it at night. Please help me!

[lesorl]

hi ya jcsmom-

we just can't seem to graduate from this transition, can we  ?

in our house, NWs and/or EWs mean OT.  the only way we can tackle them is super early bedtimes (we had a 3 hour NW 3 days ago, and have had 5pm bedtimes since).  my suggestion is to put him to bed about 5 hours post nap.  If he woke at 1:10pm, 7pm is way too late.  I'd have him in bed by 6:10pm.

how did the nap go today?

[jcsmom]

I know, I bet I will be transitioning him until he stops napping. I've had enough!He napped from 12:20-2:05 plus the 20 minute catnap in the am so pretty good nap total. I attempted an early bedtime to combat OT accumulated from the last few days and he would have non of it. Also, we did not nurse before bed, the first time ever and he is mad. He has been in there calling "momma,momma" off and on since 6:30. My DH went in there a few times and did PD and it is 7pm so I think he is out.

I find an early bedtime helps for a day or so, then he gets caught up and it equals early waking so I can't win at all. We were on a nice schedule of 2 naps, and a 7:30-6:30am night.....finally when he started to refuse. I think I may have pushed him too hard on one nap with too late bedtimes. Once he took a good 2 hour nap for almost a week, I moved his bedtime back to 7:30. So now we are back to square one.

Do you really think a bedtime 1.5 hours earlier than his pre-transition bedtime is wise?We're already getting 6am or earlier wakings but we were getting 6:30 or later wakings a few weeks ago. Should I re-implement a catnap but this time in the am after say 3.5 hours of wake time and then a proper nap around 12:15 like this?
6am wake
9:40-10 am catnap
12:15-2 nap
7bedtime?
What is the time after waking to do a catnap and how long of A time after a 15-20 minute one?

[lesorl]

You know I don't have the answers 

Good day yesterday... I would have put him to bed at 7pm.  Maybe he wasn't tired enough at 6:30pm after taking such a good nap?

As for the catnap, I've heard about 3-4 hours after waking.  If he's only sleeping 20 mins, I'd have him asleep by 2 hours post catnap.

But what do I know? 

[jcsmom]

Well a great night 7-6:15! I am going to try the same thing today and hopefully push out bedtime a little. I think I will go with:
6 wake
10-10:20 catnap
12:15-2 nap
7 bedtime
This way he still gets a "normal" lunch time nap like his friends and I can drink my am coffee while driving. It's a win-win situation I hope. How's things with you?