Support thread for the 2 to 1 nap switch

[babymunkey]

Hi girls - been reading along when I have time but been so busy recently, i haven't had time to post. Our childminder has had 3 weeks off, so we've been all over the place.

We're now able to be really relaxed about naps now - 1 to 1.30 ish and will do anything between 1.5 to 2 hours max. But can do quick am nap and short pm if we need to be out and about too. Main news - and I don't want to scare you - is that we had complete nap refusal today......so no nap AT all! Up at 7.20, and bed at 7.15 and he coped fine! We were at friends for lunch about 3, and he giggled and laughed the whole afternoon! I'm really hoping its not the start of anything, but just a blip.

I've also twigged something else and I've been out of touch so you've probably sussed this already, but we get a patch in the am where he acts like he's tired, and I've sussed that he needs food - he can be yawning and rubbing his eyes and getting grissly and if we give him food, he perks right up and makes it through til after lunch....

Waving to everyone, hope you are all doing well - will still be reading along in the background....

love H and baby h

[EloysH]

H - we have the same phenomena on the tired mid morning thing.  He starts yawning and ecoming very grizzly.  I give him a mini lunch and he lasts till nap time,  now about 12pm.  We've had some nap refusals too, quite a few actually, but they have disappeared for the while.  I think it was related to OT and teething.

Anna - fantasctic news about the holiday.  Glad it all worked out well, what a trooper!

Sher - I've seen that thread too, its annoying that 10 hours is normal, so I guess working with it is the way to go. We get a random mix of 10 - 11.5 hours  and occasionally 9.5, that's when I get worried!

Jen - boo on the EW but great that he plays in the cot for so long!

[~Karen~]

Anna - Glad the holiday worked out so well for you.  Hope you a super time and lots of relaxing was done!

Helen - Wow to the no nap!  Hope it was a one off.

Sherry - Glad Kyle is sleeping well for you.

Eloise - Is it night time there?  I was going to ask how your night went but think it's about to start!

We've been a bit all over the place due to a very short morning nap on the way out the other day and no pm nap.  We had to put him to bed at 6pm and he woke at 410am and his Daddy decided to get him up at 5am and watch cartoons, sigh!  On Saturday we were out at an Easter party and stayed in a hotel and didn't get to bed till 930pm so we didn't have the best night sleep between Amy falling out of bed and Ethan stirring in the night.  Put him in bed with me in the end and he slept till about 8am so not the end of the world but Mummy and Daddy were tired from all the times we got disturbed in the night.  He had a good nap yesterday though and just under a 12 hour night last night so hopefully he's caught up a bit.  Will make sure we're in for a proper nap today as well.

[Jen+3men]

J has been so crabby. Not sure if it is his teeth or that he is about to walk any day now. I only let him nap 2 hours yesterday and woke him up about 2:35pm. I kept him up a little longer at bedtime and went for 8pm. He was asleep by 8:10 and slept until 6:45am this morning. He did cry for about 5 minutes at 12:30am. I am not sure if that was Ot or not. I guess 7:30pm is just too early a bedtime for him.  Today I may do a 7:45 pm bedtime to hope that he is asleep by 8pm just to avoid ot for a few days since he is so crabby.

How did everyone else night go?

Jen

[sherry lynn]

Jen - Lyle also woke at 2:25 today and I think I'm going to do a 7:45 bedtime as well. We also had a 6:30 wake up today. So a little over 10 hours last night. I let him sleep more today because his nap was earlier. So hopefully it will work out ok.

[EloysH]

Karen: Poo about the past few days with sleep distruptions, hopefully it sorts it self out today. Ethan seems to adapt well.  How is life over there?  Are you still in Florida?

Jen: hope J's mood improves today.

Sher: Yay that wake-up was pretty good too,  maybe you are onto something.

We're enjoying a lovely break from teething, the last molar doesn't want to come, I'm happy with that!  We had 10 hours last night, 7:45pm bedtime and 6am wake-up. Naps still 1.5 hours at 12pm.

[Jen+3men]

eloysH - Thanks! I wanted to tell you that J's nap didnt go to 2 hours until I pushed it to 12:30pm no matter what time he woke up!

[EloysH]

Interesting. I got a few naps at 12:30 but not much difference, however that was a few weeks ago. 
Due to the time change on 2nd April his naps are actually 1pm in the old time, so I'm confused as to the effect that  a later nap would now have!

[sherry lynn]

Well.......
My LO continues to be a wonder!!!!

He slept 2.5 hours for his nap yesterday.
He was losing the plot (as the British gals say) early last night, so I put him in at 7:38.
He slept until 7:45 this morning!!!!!!!
He did wake a few times after 6:15, but he kept going back to sleep!!!
He is in a GREAT mood this morning.

Oh, Eloise - I wanted to tell you that the last week has gone really well with AN A time of 5h20m. I haven't had anything less than 1h55m. I don't know if that would help you, but I do wonder if J does need a set A time?

[~Karen~]

Great news Sherry.  Hope you get a repeat today and tonight.

[sherry lynn]

I'm sure I won't. But.... it sure is nice to have once in awhile. I guess that's the good side of not being consistent   I think I can live with this as long as he at least keeps napping. He got all worked up before nap today and ate very little lunch, so we'll see how he does. I can feel one molar finally getting ready to pop through.

[mumofashie]

Hello everyone

I know that you guys have had this thread for a good few months, but I could really do with some advice and I hope you dont mind me jumping in. 


My LO is 12 days shy of having is first birthday and for the past month or so has been either refusing his pm nap or fighting it.  When he does have a nap, its impossible to get him to bed at 7pm.  I did try with a shorter pm nap (cant do am catnap) - not more than 30 mins but he still found it difficult to nap.  His morning nap was also getting shorter (50mins) when he went down after A time of 4hrs 15min. 

The last few days, I've pushed him along till 4hrs 35mins, and he's started doing his usual nap of 1 hour 15mins - although I have to pat him back to sleep at 40mins.  Unfortunately, his afternoon A is 6+ hours long.  This is what it looked like today:

6.25 Wake
11.00 Sleep
12.15 Wake
6.30 Sleep (exhausted and already woken up twice)

How can I get around that long pm A time?  I worry about his long A time because he gets very accident prone. 

Any advice, suggestions very welcome.

Thanks
Anna

[Jen+3men]

Sherry lynn- yay for the long nap and long night! I have been waking J from his naps after 2hours because the one time he slept 2.5 hours he only slept 9h45m that night. My fear in waking him is that he needs that extra nap time and I am just making him ot by waking him up and that is causing the short time. I think like your little one there really isnt any consistency. So I may just need somr more trial and error to see how the long naps effect things.

Last night he kinda refused going to bed at 7:45pm and cried until 8pm Almost as if he thought he was missing something and wanted to be up playing. I went in to resettle him and he was alseep by 8:05pm and woke at 6:15am. So again no consistency. My older one doesnt have school today so I am gonna let him nap as long as he wants and then see how the night goes!

Jen   

[charmie]

Sherry, I remember writing that thing about longer pm a time leading to dropping the 1 nap quicker.  That was just a theory I developed while discussing with Kirry and someone else (I think Karen but not sure).  My rationale was that if they get used to the long pm a times then as they grow and can handle longer am a times and need a later nap, the nap gets shorter and shorter until it's dropped.  And I thought this process would happen faster with the longer pm a times at the beginning of the transition.   But the truth is I was only thinking out loud, so don't give too much weight to it.  In the end, at some point they will drop the nap and then we won't have to stress about it any more  

K had a lovely time at our friends in the midlands.  For the 1st time she was really interacting with other children.  Soooo cute.  She didn't nap though and had a hard time settling at bedtime, not being in her bed nor in her room.  When it was time for us to go to sleep (in the same room as her) she woke up too    But resettled quite easily, and then woke up at around 7.15am.  Yesterday she had a long nap in the car on the way home and normal bedtime.  And today no nap again as I had to leave her at a friend's house to go to an appointment.  So she had a 6pm bedtime.  By that time she was super hyper.  Running around and laughing like a loon    I don't know how I managed to calm her down.

Mumofashie, ideally you would hold on to the 2 naps as long as possible.  What worked for many is 30mins am nap, and pm nap 2hrs later, or 45mins am nap and pm nap 3hrs later.

Hello everyone else 


xxx
charm

xxx
charm

[sherry lynn]

So.... when I posted earlier I had Charm on my mind, cautioning me not to post, and sure enough. It came back to bit me in the behind.
Lyle only slept 1h25m and was a WRECK when he woke up. I think it was a combo of him getting a second wind right before nap time and teething. He was a WRECK most of the afternoon. So I tried to put him to bed at 7:30 and he was a mess, is, a mess again. It's 8:08 and he's still not a sleep. I was just now able to leave his room. We'll see if I have to go back in. But this is a bad sign. Usually if it takes him over 25 min to go to sleep it is bad news, whether OT or UT. He will still usually wake early the next morning. But of course, Lyle being Lyle, not always, so I'm trying to remain optimistic.


Mumofashie (Anna) You said you can't do a morning catnap, why is that? Have you tried pushing him to 5 hours A time? If so, what happens?
I was giving good advice that they are not able to really go to one nap until they can handle 5 hours of A time on each side of the nap. And that turned out to be true for us. Once he hit 5 hours A time we were firmly on one nap. Some moms have had luck with only doing a 20 min afternoon nap in the car. Have you tried something like that. After how long are you trying to put him down in the afternoon? Why do you suspect he wakes after 40 min? Do you think he is OT, or do you think you could push him a little more?