What went wrong?

[nolejen]

J is now a year old. He was doing so good with sleeping. He was taking 2 one hour naps and sleeping 11 hours at night.

Now it has all gone horribly wrong. He will still take 2 one hour naps but night is horrible. He screams for at least an hour as we try to put him down, at the same time it was before. Then he will only sleep 9 hours. He is up at 6:00 regardless of what time he finally goes to sleep. This has been going on for about 3 weeks. No major milestones are occuring right now. He is teething but teething tablets, motrin, clove oil...none of that helps.

His routine is:

6:00 wake up
       breakfast
       play
10:30-11:30 nap
       lunch
       play
3:30-4:30 nap
       snack
        play
5:30 dinner
        play, bath, bed time routine
7:30 bedtime

We have tried starting bedtime earlier. His naps are only an hour and I've tried moving them later without success. I've tried one nap a day without success. What can I do?

[claires mum]

Hello

I would start to cut either the am or pm nap short.  Try just 15 mins to start with and see what effect that has.  Try this for 3 days and if it's still not working, then shave another 15 mins off.  Eventually, one nap is just a catnap of 20-40 mins...and then you start to trial one nap a day.

I'm going to move this over to the toddler board so that we share your experience with other Mum's going through the same issue.

[deckchariot]

these links may be helpful too as it sounds like he's making the 2 to 1 switch:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0

hth
michelle

[nolejen]

Would this be why now at bedtime he screams for an hour? He is in there now with Daddy and is screaming at the top of his lungs. It has been 30 minutes now.

[deckchariot]

could be....the switch really can mess things up - you often get EWs, NWs, bedtime refusal....all kinds of nuttiness.  So I'd say that it's time to make a plan for how you want to start moving towards one nap.  Keep in mind, it can take several months to make the transition.  It took my dd about 5 months.  Some take less time, some take more time.

[coopers_mommy]

nolejen - deckchariot knows what she's talking about!  She really helped us as DS was transitioning!  I'll also be lurking if I can help with any advice!

[nolejen]

Last night he finally went down after about 45 minutes. Then he slept till 7:20. Improvement.

Today, he took one nap at 11 for about 35 minutes. Then he took another nap at 1:15 for just under 2 hours.  Daddy is now trying to put him down. We are trying to follow his lead more for naps. I usually would have tried to put him back down at the first nap after he woke up after 35 minutes. I didn't today and he took a much longer afternoon nap. So, I think you guys are right. He is trying to make the switch. I just didn't think it would happen this early..he just turned 12 months.

[coopers_mommy]

That is such a great day of naps!  I think most LO begin showing signs of the nap switch, but it's making sure that you can read those signs that is the tricky part!  I didn't realize what was going on with DS until we were going crazy! 

You seem to def be on the right track.  Keep it up!

[deckchariot]

Looks like you're doing great!!!  My dd started the switch at 10/11 mos, so starting at 12 is pretty normal.  You can do it!!!

[nolejen]

I am doing something wrong. J is now getting up at 5:45. We do pu/pd until 6:45. Then get him up. That would be the 11 hour sleep mark.

I guess I am not understanding the timing of the naps now. Do I keep pushing the nap back by 15 minutes, he currently goes down aroun 10:30. How long do I let him sleep for the morning nap? How long after he wakes up from the morning nap should I be trying to put him down for an afternoon nap?

[deckchariot]

You're not doing anything wrong - J just doesn't come with an instruction manual  

With the 2 to 1 switch, there's 2 basic approaches:
1) push morning A time out so am nap gets later; limit am nap to 45 min, 2nd  A time is shorter than first, pm nap is the longer nap
2) pushing morning A time out so am nap gets later; let them sleep as long as they want for that nap; pm A time then is not shortened, offer a catnap later in the day

In both cases, the 2 naps will eventually meld into 1.  Also many mums do an early bedtime if one (or both) naps is not good.  And while going through the switch, it's really normal to go back and forth between 1 and 2 naps.

What helped me was figuring out how much total day sleep Abby needed (min of 2.5 hrs) and night sleep (min 11.5).  Also, she HATES being woken from a nap, so after a week of trying option #1, and having her only take the short am nap, I switched to option #2.  Depending on how long she slept for her first nap, I'd know how long to let her sleep for her 2nd nap (you just do the reverse if doing option #1) and whether or not to do an early bedtime.

So I'd say to keep pushing that morning nap out  - do 15 min every 3-5 days.  Then based on what works best for you and your bub, either limit that am nap to 45min and preserve a longer pm nap.  Or do the reverse.  Figuring out the 2nd A time depends on how long that am nap is.  If it's short, then the 2nd A time needs to be significantly shorter than the first.  At a year, most bubs are doing around 4 hrs of A time, for Abby, once she could make it to 5 hrs, I was set with 1 nap.

Here's a couple links that you may find helpful:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=129650.0

hang in there!!!  You can do this!!

hth
michelle

[nolejen]

I tried option 1 today and it went horrible. He refused to take a second nap (which he usually doesn't refuse, he usually takes a second nap). I did pu/pd for an hour and a half and then figured he wasn't going to take a nap. I had a cranky OT baby this evening. I did an early bedtime (an hour 15 earlier). He went right down and I haven't heard a peep from him. I am really hoping he doesn't think this is just a nap and wake up super early. We did the normal bedtime routine (we have a separate nap and a bedtime one).

I'm still struggling to figure out the A times. In this transition, does the A time between that second nap and bedtime still need to be the shortest? He seems to not be tired if that is the case.

[coopers_mommy]

Just a side note.  We ended up going with option 2 as well.  I decided that I had had enough of the days where DS only napped 30 min. in the am and nothing in the evening!  I was tired of going insane on those days, so we did the long am nap and tried for a shorter pm catnap.  I'm sure your LO is out of the night. 

[nolejen]

It is 6:20am and he is still out. YAY!!! Why did I ever doubt this would work?  Sadly, we have to get him up soon. Sigh. I hope it doesn't totally throw our day off.

[coopers_mommy]

Great job!  Those little steps are so rewarding to know that you're headed in the right direction. 

deckchariot:  I have a question for you....(so sad!).  As you know DS has been doing amazing with night and nap sleep (12 hour nights, 2 hour naps).  Within the last 4 days though he has started taking shorter naps at MDO (an hour at the most) and then has had some rough patches at night.  We moved the bedtime up a little (to 7).  He's not doing HORRIBLE, and I know that some people would still love the schedule that we're on, but I'm curious if it's his teeth now.  He went down last night at 7:15 and was up at 6:30.  He woke up happy, but still he woke up earlier than I was hoping.  His nap yesterday was 1:45 long too. 

Is there anything I can do to help him sleep later if it really is his teeth that are bothering him early in the morning?  *Side note, I've thought about doing 2 naps on some days, and have attempted it with no success, but I'm super scared to move backwards too much.*