2-1 switch: long am nap, short pm nap ?s

[grace annes mommy]

Hi there!

DD is in the process of making the 2-1 switch. I am hoping she will stay on 2 naps for much longer, but I have a few questions as I look ahead.
Currently we have a great routine which includes a long am nap and a short pm one. I am really really happy with it! This is a spirited, reflux, mspi baby who has NEVER napped or slept consistently. So, pretty much I'm stoked 
I'll post our routine right now, then some questions about using the long am nap approach. I'm hoping that some of you who have used this approach can chime in.  I've been looking around a lot and it seems that most people are doing short am, long pm naps. Which I understand, but as I said, things are going well, don't want to change what's working!

Wake - 7
A (4hrs)
S 11:00 (1.5 - 2+ hrs)
A (3hrs)
S 3:30/4 (40 mins to 1 hr)
A (3.5 hrs)
S 7:30/8 (11 hrs - or, if bad naps, to bed early and 12-13hrs!)

We had 3 days of waking at the 40 min mark during her first nap. I'm pretty sure it's tooth related because I gave tylenol today before the nap, then had to wake her at 2.25hr!!!

But it got me thinking

-What happens as this morning nap gets pushed later and later??? I know once we hit about 5 hrs, we may be able to manage on one. And I know it's a bumpy road. But what happens between 4 and 5 hrs A? Will I need to start cutting that catnap back?? I guess, since I am SO happy that DD is actually sleeping, I hate the thought of waking her!!!

Anyway - Interested in hearing from you who have any insights/success w/ long am, short pm nap.

TIA!
Caitlin

[*Natasha*]

Hopefully this answers all your questions:

Now that the third nap no longer exists, we hopefully have two solid naps a day which are restorative and long enough to keep your child rested until bedtime.  As we get closer to months 13-15 we start seeing changes occur in the nap schedule (this can vary from child to child, some start transition at as early as a year and others might not transition until 18 months).  There are different indications of when transition is starting. 
The first scenario is that your child begins playing during the morning nap and never sleeps or you leave your child and she falls asleep later into the nap (too late to start a morning nap). 
The second scenario is that your child is able to stay awake longer in the morning so you put her down a little bit later and she does sleep, however, again it falls too late in the morning thus messing up the schedule for the day. 
The third scenario is that your child sleeps fine for the morning nap, around the same time as she always has but is refusing to take the afternoon nap, leaving you with a very overtired child at bedtime.

So, what do we do?  For a child who's scenario is much like the first two you will want to push her wakeful period as close to 12pm for that one nap.  If it's too difficult to push it that far then you could try 11am, either way she will be tired if not overtired, but that is to be expected.  The duration of the nap will vary for the first couple of weeks.  She might only sleep and hour or she might sleep two but being that the nap is starting so early in the day it will definitely not cover her until bedtime.  Note: it is so important during this time to let your baby go back to sleep should she wake prematurely from this only nap of the day, which is expected.  Transitions always mean some period of overtiredness but this is why implementing an early bedtime is so important (which will be explained further, below).  For the third scenario you will want to limit the morning nap to about an hour so that the afternoon nap can occur.  Eventually the third scenario will turn into the first or second scenario and at that point you would implement the procedures explained above. 

Once you have made the transition into one nap a day you will then have to work on pushing that one nap closers to the middle of the day.  If the one nap is occurring late morning then over a period of weeks you will slowly push that nap closer to 12:30-1pm.  It takes time so be patient!  Some babies can be pushed harder than others.  Some just go to the 1pm nap right away and can tolerate the overtiredness from the long wakeful period in the morning.  Others, or most babies take some time to get to that point.  It can take a couple of weeks, to a couple of months depending on the child.  When all is said and done and you have finally pushed that nap to midday the duration will become longer over time.  Those long afternoon naps we hear about tend to occur some months after transition is complete.



Night Sleep:

Early bedtimes during these months is the most important element to a successful and easier transition.  At the beginning of transition when the morning nap is not consistently occurring but the afternoon nap is still in tact you want to shoot for a bedtime anywhere from 6-7pm depending on how the afternoon nap went.  This is considered an early bedtime because even though a good nap occurred in the afternoon, there is still a loss of sleep from the morning nap.  In another scenario, if the morning nap is taken but cut short or there is no morning nap but the afternoon nap is taken in late morning you have to make an extra early bedtime.  For example, if there was no morning nap and you put your child down for the only nap of the day at about 11am-12pm and sleeps between 1-2 hours, there is a long period of wakefulness before bedtime.  We have to somewhat shorten that gap by implementing the extra early bedtime.  Don't be afraid to put your child down to sleep earlier than 6pm if you have to, and it doesn't mean that your child will wake for the day earlier.

As with making any change you must be consistent for a period of time.  You can't analyze the results of making changes over one or two days, you really need 5-7 days to give it a fair shake.  It is important at this time especially to keep track of sleeping to get a sense of how transition is going so please use the sleep chart below. Please remember that these extra early bedtimes are specifically needed during transition where there is a loss of sleep.  This is temporary and it doesn't mean that your child will always need this extra early bedtime.  It's a matter of balancing what is lost.  You are just doing what is necessary for the phase you are in.  You are being flexible according to your child's needs

[grace annes mommy]

Hi! Thank you so much! That is all very helpful info.

I'm feeling like I understand more what happens "in theory" with the 2-1 switch. Also, I feel very comfortable with the routine I posted in my pp.  What I am still unsure of, is what happens as her current A times shift. The days just get tooooo looong!

I forgot to mention in my pp that she has just started not settling like she used to for bed. It's been about 4 or 5 days now. She was having 3.5hr on a short 40 min nap and falling asleep within 2 secs. Now it's taking her 15-20 mins more to fall asleep for the night....

Here's what happened today:

Wake 6:45
A (4 hr)
S 10:45 - 1:00 (I finally woke her - 2 hr 15min. Like I said, it's hard for me to wake her as I can't believe she's actually sleeping!!!)

A (3hr 20) - was harder than usual for me to get her down for this one. Usually a 3hr A (sometimes even 2 hr 45) I usually APOP a bit, as I let her fall asleep on the bottle, but today we had a bit of a crash landing in the crib and I had to resettle.
S 4:20 - 5:00 (I woke her at 5 bc the day is getting sooo long already)

A - used to be 3.5 hr and worked beautifully. But not working anymore and I just watched her toss and turn for another 20 mins in her crib, bring us to 3hr50min...
S - 8:50

So that's a 14 hr day.
I know it was partially a little mucked by me letting her sleep for so long this am. I wonder how long she would have gone?!? She is teething horribly, poor thing. She's in the process of cutting her 5th tooth in 2 weeks.... 

I'm feeling like this last A is definately moving from 3.5 to 3.75 hrs. Which would be ok, I guess. But it's just such a late bedtime for me!  I love having her in bed by 7:30, but that's for my own selfish reasons!

I'm just wondering, what is the next step? What happens as the As lengthen? I suppose inevitably it means waking her up from a nap. Unless she makes a miraculous jump to 5hr A?

Ah! Sorry for going on and on.... THanks for reading