20 mo old taking forever to get to sleep and loooong NWs

[lesorl]

honestly, i have no idea if it's UT or OT.  maybe it starts as UT, and turns to OT? 

[grahamsmama]

wi/wo doesn't work for us to extend either, but it might be worth trying w2s to extend that nap.  With Meghan we put her down earlier and did w2s (she usually woke at either 45 min or 1.5 hours). 
Meggy is the opposite of yours.  She's now a dream at naptime.  But bedtime is not so great. 
Good luck!

[lesorl]

last night it was only 20 mins before she fell asleep  at 6:30pm.  No NWs, but up for the day at 5:40am.  Nap started at 11:40am and she slept 1 hour 17 mins, til 12:54pm.

Do I need to increase morning A time to get a longer nap? 

[NiknLily]

thats actually not bad, 11hr night and 1.17nap.  if it where me I would stick with this until your sure her cold/teething is done.  Then when totally healthy if you want to experiment with pushing that nap you could but I'd do 5mins a day as she is already doing a long A time.  That said once the OT from being ill has work off you might find her nap extends again on its own.

[lesorl]

Last night she slept 6:15pm- 6:10am, with 2 screams but no real "NWs". 

Aiming for a nap at 12:10pm, and I *think* the post nap A time is about 5 hours- 5 hours 10 mins.

[NiknLily]

thats good, very pleased for you Leslie :-) looks like shes turning the corner again (she says touching wood!)

did you have to go down down the road of cutting nights to give longer naps? as she will, if I remember, do 12hr ish nights?

[lesorl]

ok, riddle me this-

last night she fell asleep about 6:55pm (after waking from her nap at 1:35pm), and was up at 2:15am for about 30 mins (given meds for teeth) and then b2s til 6:35am (late wake up for her). 

I put her down about 12:40pm (she's been doing 6 hours A time lately) and she slept... 43 mins!  I managed to AP and extend another 30 mins, but what happened?  Should I be going by clock times?

[NiknLily]

wouldn't like to say what happened, other than they do sometimes just take a crap nap for no real obvious reason.  Other than that, could it of been teeth still? if she stirred at 40min mark and her teeth where bothering her she may not of been able to get back to sleep.

what time has she been waking on average from her nap lately?  Lily was stuck at 2.30 for a long time.  It didn't matter as I preseve bedtime by waking her at 2.30 anyway but a few times I have thought she would and wanted her to sleep past 2.30 and like clockwork she woke at 2.30

I'd ignore today and just continue to do what you have been doing and see what happens, 1 day isn't enough to think you should have to change something to sort it out, you just end up chasing your tail doing that :-)

[lesorl]

Well I think I'm about to start chasing my tail...

Last night after waking from nap at 1:53pm, bed at 6:45pm, NW from 11pm-12:30pm, and then up for the day at 6:55am.  That means if we go by A time, her nap won't be til 1pm today!

What gives?

[lesorl]

So the plot thickens- today she woke at 6:55am, and yawned at 11:34am, nap at 12:08pm-1:22pm, and then extended AP til 2:22pm. 

Is nap time at 12:10pm now, regardless of wake up? 

And what time is bedtime today?

[lesorl]

OK so 7:10pm-7:10am last night.

I thought her nap was at 12:15pm, she fell asleep about 12:25pm and slept til 1:40pm.  What gives?

So confused, don't know whether to follow A times or clock times.  And will her nap EVER lengthen?

[NiknLily]

If you've got upto 7am wake up times I would start waking her at 7am then do nap at 12.30/1pm whichever A time you think suits her best then work on 1.5hr nap and bedtime 5hrs was it after that then just stick with it.  That way if you control her wake up time you can set nap at set time but it will also be the A time she needs and if you keep nap to set length you can then fix bedtime to be required A time post nap.  does that make sense? 

You know how long she will sleep at night, right? you also know what A times she needs pre and post nap, whats left in the middle is the length nap she can take to keep to these timings. 

As you know Lily never took a long nap because she does 12hr nights, when her nap started extending and I let it she started waking early in the morning, so I've fixed it back to set nap time and length & bedtime, it works for us and you can plan your day around it.

does that help honey?

[lesorl]

Nik- that helps greatly!!!  Where would I be without you?   

Since her nights are generally 12 hours, I guess I'm only going to get at most a 1.5 hour nap.  She seems to prefer long nights to long naps.

[lesorl]

7:30pm-6:30am last night, and a 2.5 hour nap today ending at 2:30pm 

So is bedtime 7pm, or 7:30pm?

[jcsmom]

Yay! That is great. Finally!!!!
I personally would've gone for a 7:30 bedtime in hopes of replicating the same times tomorrow. Did her nap start at noon? Maybe this is the ticket. 11 hour nights and a nap from 12-2:30. Wouldn't that be perfect?