14.5 mo. 2-1 crazy!!!

[sherry lynn]

right before we made the switch to one nap we went back to the long AM nap. All of a sudden he was cooperating again with going down in the PM, I'm not sure why.

But, what I liked about that is it let me figure out his real A time in the morning.

When you cut their nap in the morning it's hard to know what their true A time is because you don't know what kind of nap they would have taken. I wonder if that will help you

Since cutting the nap hasn't really helped increase night sleep I wonder if it would be worth going back to the longer AM nap? Since he is taking the PM nap still?

I was really surprised to see that he couldn't handle that much A time. What do you think his A time might be in order to take a good nap.

Having said that though I could not let him sleep one minute past 1.5. If I did he would refuse the PM nap, but he was doing that after 20 min in the morning anyways by that point, so I figured at least he got a good am nap. And I would just do early bedtime if he refused to go down.

I think we finally made the transtion after he refused to go down in the morning after 3.5 hours. Then I just pushed him as close to lunch time as I could and crossed my fingures. At first he would only sleep 1h10m, but then he eventually slept through longer, or he was able to be resettled. That made for really long afternoons at first, but we made it through.

You just posted when I did, what do you think of what I suggested. I figure at this age if you are going to let him sleep an hour, you it's almsot just orth it to let him sleep a full nap. My computer is freaking out, sorry if this is messed up
 

[babyboy26]

Hmmm...maybe I should go back to the long am nap and figure what his A time is again.  I think I switched when he started refusing the pm nap some days, and the days he didn't, he would take longer to go down at bedtime. 

I honestly don't know what his A would be to get a good am nap anymore...it's been so long.  Since nights have been short, there's no telling.  This am he woke at exactly 1 hr.  That was 3hr40m of A time.  He did have a super short night, though...only 9hrs50m. 

So, since yesterday I tried for one nap on 4hr45m, maybe I should try somewhere in the middle, something like 4hr15m and see what kind of nap I get out of that.  I am worried about the pm catnap though, as I think it was robbing his night before. 

[sherry lynn]

Yes, I had the same issue with the PM catnap. It was very common for us to only have 10-10.5 hours when on two naps. But, it did help even just in the manor of figuring out how far away I was from being able to keep him up 5 hours.

yeah, maybe tomorrow try 4.5 hours? Then maybe only a very short nap in the PM. You were letting him sleep longer in the PM weren't you, if I remember correctly?

[mimi1017]

I'm going to venture into giving some advice as I am going through this transition for about a month now with dd.  When it first started, it was horrible for two weeks where she napped for 45 mins. the whole day, one day it would be in the morning, the next day she didn't want until later in the day, it was a mess! I posted on how depressed my dd's sleep was making me, because I never really had such a problem with nap refusals.  Having said that, it seems that she is slowly balancing herself out and doing 5-5.25A time in the am with a 1.5hrs nap and about 4.75-5.5hrs. before bedtime.  Like I said, it has been very rough, but things seem to be sorting out (knock on wood).  I remember you saying that you have a textbook baby, as my dd is, and one thing I noticed is that if she was dropping a nap, then there was no messing around with it, because she would just scream the moment I would attempt a second nap, no matter how tired she was.  What I'm trying to say is that although you may have a looong A time before bedtime some days, try to ride it out, he might make up for it at night and hopefully wake up later, so it balances out his day.  Personally I found that whenever I tried shortening naps on her, it wasn't a pretty sight, so I learned to ride it out as much sweat and tears as it has caused me.  For the first time EVER! This morning she woke at 5am, but went back to sleep and up for the day at 7am, with a nap at 12-1:30.  It is true what some posts say here too, that once they start transitioning, their naps do get longer, so hope this helps.  Hang in there, it's rough, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for myself and all of us going through this.

[babyboy26]

Thanks for your encouragement, mimi!  I tried to post 3 times yesterday, but my computer has been acting wacky!  Anyway, night before last, after a 45m pm nap from 2:50-3:35, he again took ages to fall asleep...played until 8:05, and then up yesterday at 6:25.  A lousy 10hr20m night!  I tell you, I think he definitely needs a longer A before bed, which is why I switched from doing that pm catnap in the first place. 

Anyway, I went with your advice, sherry lynn, on a 4.5 A yesterday, letting him sleep as long as he wanted.  He went to sleep at 10:55, and only slept until 12:20, so 1hr25m.  I'm not sure if this was OT or UT, as when he woke, he whined for less than a minute, then began chatting.  DH suggested that we just try to keep him up and maybe do early bedtime instead of doing the catnap.  We were out and about in the afternoon, so I thought if he fell asleep in the car for 10 or 20m, great, if not, oh well!  He didn't sleep in the car (rarely does that anymore), so I put him down at 6:55.  He was asleep at 7:05, and...drumroll...slept until 6:30...11hrs25m!!!!!!!!!!  No NWs.  This confirms to me that he must need a longer A before bed. 

I think I need to just go for one nap at this point and hope that it eventually lengthens to 2hrs.  Now the dilemma is...since he had a night that was 1 hr longer than the previous night, do I still do 4.5 A, or should I try to push it to 4.75A and see what happens?

[clazzat]

I'm not really an expert at this, but I wouldn't stretch his A time today, even after a good night - I don't think that one good night is enough to base an A time stretch on, and if you are just starting to do one nap then you could get OT really quickly.

[sherry lynn]

How did it go?

I had a feeling that it was the second nap robbing night sleep. I've seen that from so many moms during the transition.

[babyboy26]

Well, I did end up stretching that A time before I read this.  I was watching him closely, and he didn't seem at all tired by 4.5 hrs.  I decided to try pushing it a bit since he did have that long night.  His nap was from 11:25-1:30...2hrs5m!!!!!!!!!!!  Can you say "happy mommy"?  He woke up very happy, chatting away!  So, his A was very close to 5hrs.  He went to sleep at 7:25 tonight.  He managed his A very well before bed.

I'm not saying I've got it yet, but it is certainly a start!  Fingers crossed for another 11hr + night so we can have a repeat of this tomorrow!

[mimi1017]

That is excellent! Keeping my fingers crossed for you, as it didn't work out as I thought for me.  Today my dd woke at 5:15 unable to resettle back to sleep like the last two mornings, so she took a 1.25 hrs. nap this morning after 4 hrs. A time and a 40 mins. nap in the pm after 3hrs of A, and then I thought she would be down by her usual 6:30pm bedtime, but instead she fell asleep by 7pm (exactly 4.50 hrs A)...so we'll see what type of morning I'll get, although I have this funny feeling it'll be at 5ish again to repeat the same cycle as today...hmmmm :-/

[sherry lynn]

Kara - YEY!!!! I hope you get a repeat.

[babyboy26]

Well, it is 6:40, and he is just starting to stir around!  Yey!!!!!  Hope it continues!!! 

Sorry to hear of your EWs, Mimi.  Hope it gets better!

[sherry lynn]

What are you doing out of bed!!!! You're supposed to be resting until he gets up. I imagine it's nice to get some Y time first thing in the morning. Lyle tends to get up too early and is too unpredictable for me to bother getting out of bed before he gets up.

[babyboy26]

Lol, sherry lynn!  I am usually up around 6-ish, as DH is getting ready for work.  I go to bed early, so it's not a big deal for me to get up early.  I just don't like it when Mikey gets up early, as I know he didn't have a long night of sleep, and that throws off the day.  We had another 1 nap day yesterday...1hr45m, asleep at 7:20, and slept until 6:45 this morning.  I am liking this

[sherry lynn]

Lyle is generally up at 6, I don't care much for it myself either

That is great news. It sounds like he really was ready. I hope it continues to go well for you.

[babyboy26]

Arrrgggghhhh....just lost my post!!!

Sorry to hear about your 6am wake-ups...what time does Lyle go to bed? 

As for us, another successful one-nap day...woooohooo!  He actually had a 5hr A yesterday, as we were out and about.  I was a little nervous about it, but he was asleep at 11:45, woke briefly at 12:50, then back to sleep until 1:50, so yay!  He didn't go to sleep until 7:45.  He was down right about 7:30, but he did some quiet chatting for about 15m.  Thankfully, not the noisy, bouncing around the crib kind that he was doing last week!  He just woke up at 7:05!  I think he is getting used to it!  He must like about a 6hr A before bed, as that's about what he's been getting all week.  Strange how he likes a shorter A in the am and a longer A in the pm.

I am so, so happy that you convinced me to give the one nap a try...it's just like you said, when you've tried everything else, you only know if they can handle it if you try.  It is so much nicer to know when the nap will be!