I hate naps

[mmom]

I don't even know what else to say.  I guess I just want to vent. My LO is almost 14 months and has been in the 2-1 transition for months.  Every day is different and it is exhausting.  Some days he does 1 nap and others 2 naps.  But it has gotten so ridiculous that his 2 naps days consist of a 20 minute 1st nap.  Even that is getting too long.  But he wakes so early, that it is insane to just give him 1 nap.  Some days he handles really long A times and other days we are back down again.  Yesterday he woke at 5:30 and I tried to put him down at 10 for 20 minutes and he freaked out, which is what he does when he is not ready.  So I got him out of the crib and tried again 20 minutes later.  More freaking out.  Now it is getting later and later and every time I go near his room, he freaks.  I fed him lunch, gave him some milk and tried again.  He did not go to sleep until 1.  That is completely crazy.  Fortunately, he slept for 2.5 hours.  But it was exhausting.  Then today, my LO woke at 6.  He was so tired, so I put him down at 10:30.  Again, I only let him sleep for 20 minutes.  He was a bear for the next A time, so I had him down for his nap at 12:30.  He did not fall asleep until 2.  He played for the 1st hour, started to get annoyed, and then finally fell asleep.  Now I will have to wake him at 4, which is too late for him and for me.  I hate having such a late bed time.  I am tempted to just have him take 1 nap tomorrow no matter what time he wakes up.  But I don't want an OT kid.

How long does this take?  Do most kids take a few months to transition.  I just want 1 nap already!

[Julianne1984]

Hey, My LO is doing the same, only he very rarely wakes later than 5:30am, has either really early (5pm) or really late (9pm!) bedtimes because of having one or two naps. He's been doing this for 4months now. I know exactly how you feel, exhausting isn't it... *hug* Is there any reason you cut his AM nap down to 20minutes?? At the minute I let my LO sleep as long as he needs at around 10am and if he makes it past 12 then I put him to bed at 6pm, if he doesnt then he gets a short PM nap aswell. It's so hard isn't it!! xx

[mmom]

At least I am not alone!!  I do the 20 minute nap in the morning, because if I let my LO sleep, he refuses a cat nap and bed time is a disaster.  There have been days when making it until 5, maked him an OT mess.  So the way I started transitioning was by shortening the morning nap and giving him a good 2nd nap.

[LucySol]

i have recently jumped to 1 nap with my dd,14 months too.it got to the point where even 20 mins would mess up the rest of the day.There just wasnt enough time in the day.she is also an early riser.6.am is a good wake up for us.

i have started with an 11.30 nap.The first few days she struggled to get there but gradually she has got used to that time being her nap time.we are on about day 6 of 1 nap and she is just coming out the other side.she is gradually increasing her nap length and i am needing to give her an early betime to prevent too much OT.
Dont get me wrong we have had some OT but nothing major but i think the early bedtimes have helped keep this from being worse than it is.we had 2 nights of really restless sleep,not NW but crying out etc but again we are coming out of the other end now.
it really does sound like he is ready to try the 1 nap.switching from 1nap days to 2 nap days really confused her so im so glad i pusher thru with this as things are so much better.

i kept putting off jumping cold turkey to 1 nap for a while but naps were just a mess.im so glad i did it now.

over the next week or so i will try to push her nap a little later maybe 15 mins every few days so hopefully get a later bedtime and later wake up.she is currently doin a 6pm bedtime and sleeping 12 hrs.

hth xx

[jordiwes]

I've hated naps since my DD was a couple of months old. We had 4 months of 1/2 hour naps, and this switch is BRUTAL!

[aisling]

Past nap hater here!  HUGS all.  One fab thing after battling short naps during the baby stage and then the horrid 2-1 switch?  A child that got rid of his nap at 3 yrs old fairly easy (still do quiet/chill out time) and sleeps terrifically all night.  I hope that gives you all hope.  More hugs.

Aisling x

PS.  I should mention, DH hates naps and even on holiday he won't nap.  I like them in theory but feel terrible after and then don't sleep well at night, so our family is very much "anti-nap" it seems!  

[mmom]

Lucy - I am thinking of trying your method.  My fear is that we will have so many early bed times in a row, that my LO will start waking at 5 again.  We finally got rid of that with all of the late bed times.  But now they are getting too late and it is taking him too long to fall asleep for the 2nd nap.  So he is probably ready.

Jord - We have never been in a great place either with naps!  But we do get some good stretches now that my LO is healthy.

Ais - DH and I are not nappers either.  But I do dream of it sometimes..lol.   Thanks for the hope!

[Julianne1984]

I am (as of 2 days ago) going with the 1 nap... someone else told me that 1-2 naps was confusing my LO... I put him to bed at 5-5:30pm as he gets up at 5-5:30am! He is napping now at 10:30am. He now sleeps 12h a night, and is a lot more happy... once he's settled in the new routine we're going to gradually move the nap and bedtime later until he's back to 7-7 .

Mmom, it's worth a shot... moving routine is fairly easy to do in comparison to getting them to the 1nap stage xx

[LucySol]

if we do a 5.30 bedtime then she will sleep 12 hrs and then wake at 5.30am,which i know isnt good but because she has slept for 12 hrs she is so refreshed and is able to handle waiting for her 11.30 nap.
The plan is to gradually move her nap later say 15 mins every few days which will then push the rest of the day 15 min later on iyswim? till we have a decent bedtime and a better wake up.
To be honest tho,if he will sleep a decent nap,which will come the more consistent you are,the later the bedtime he will handle so may not need an early bedtime for long.

hth,Lucy xx

Julianne...it was me that told you that on your other post,cos it happened to me little one xxx

[Julianne1984]

Oh yeah so it was!! haha! Thanks for reminding me lol. Your LO is ideantical to mine with sleep times etc. 17:30 to bed lastnight, up at 05:30 today... funny isn't it... I swear they all come programmed with sleep times etc lol. xx

[mmom]

Thanks again ladies for the advice!  Today was awful.  I took my LO to visit a friend this morning.  I swear it was only 9:30 and he was getting whimpery.  But I planned not to put him down until 11, since he woke at 6.  I left my friend's house at 10:30 and he started to doze on the way home.  He was in his crib at 10:50 and all of the sudden, he came to life.  He then had a crib party until 12:15, when he finally fell asleep and woke 40 minutes later.  At 1st it was a cry that I thought he would resettle.  But then he started freaking out.  So that was the end of that.  DH came home a few minutes ago and thought he would try and get him to take another nap (only 2 hours later).  Yeah right.  So I will just have him down by 5.  We will start from scratch tomorrow.

[LucySol]

sorry you had a bad day.hope its better tomorrow xx

[Julianne1984]

Hey, sorry to hear your day wasn't great. Maybe you need to let your lo catch up on sleep tomorrow and nap whenever is needed. I have done that for 2/3days it really helps to start changing things when they're stocked up on sleep. First. Hope tomorrow is better for you *hug* xx

[mmom]

Thanks ladies!  Julie, I will need to do that, since bed time was a disaster too.  We put my LO down at 5 and I left the house at 5:40 and it was still rolling around.   DH said that he stood up and started screaming and he couldn't get him to sleep until 7:30.  Of course he woke at 5:30 this morning, so I will need to let him sleep.  I hate that babies/ toddlers refuse sleep when they are OT.  Why not just get more sleep?

[Julianne1984]

Doesn't make sense at all does it lol. Well we've been getting 12h nights (5-5), tiny nw's, one nap days apart from today as we've been out. Hopefully a few more weeks and I can start shifting the day later. Oh why does it have to be so complicated sometimes... x