New here and need help please!!

[blessedbear]

Hi just stopping by to offer support.  Looks like you officially dropping the CN.  I thought your guideline of 3pm is good.  My LO looks like we will be ready to drop.  As it is getting dark so early I used to put her down 4:30-5ish but yesterday she resisited so finally I got her up did bath, bottle and bed by 6:30 with a 6:20 am wakeup time this morning. (That is about right)  You may have to work through EW since you will be putting him down earlier but I rather deal with that then battling for a CN with no result and you put them down earlier anyway...

[Flightmommy]

Thanks Blessedbear!! Wow, 6:30pm to 6:20am sounds like a dream!! And I agree with your previous post...sleep does beget sleep, i've always believed that. However, lately, when I put DS to bed early, like last night at 6:55, he still wakes early (5:30am!!)...I just don't know how to get him to go back to his wonderful 12 hour nights.

[Shiv52]

How's it going?  We've all been down with a tummy bug all week so haven't been on much.  We've been having a nightmare with sleep all week too but one thing that did come to mind was the difference between EWs/NWs.  We do an 8am wake up here.  Any thing before 7am I count as a NW.  If my LO wakes before that I count it as a NW as starting our day too early just messes with our routine for the rest of the day. 

If my LO wakes after 7am she generally comes in to bed with us and has a cuddle and a chat and we get up at 8am as usual.  Nap is at usual time despite the extra A time as it was so low key.  Before  I 7am I consider it a NW and do what I would do if she'd have woken at 2am/3am.  I would go in and say 'still sleep time, night time'  give a cuddle and do ssh-pat etc to get her back to sleep and to make it clear its still night time.  A lot of time with me there doing that she will go back to sleep rather than days I've left her and she just makes her self more awake.  We have never really had EWs but when we did I spent a few days in her room sleeping on the floor so I could resettle the minute she stirred.  A few days was enough to get through the EWs before they became habitual.  We then start our day at normal time and go from there.  Obviously if she's totally exhausted we go for a slightly earlier/longer nap but still stick to normal routine.  Here though early bedtimes never worked.

So I suppose I just wanted to suggest you decide what is a NW vs an EW because then your plan is different.  In BWSAYP when you are originally introducing an EASY routine you follow it and resettle for the length of sleep times.  I have always followed the same advice when dropping naps and it has worked well.  We dropped the catnap cold turkey and the same when we did the 2-1 switch.  Once things needed a tweak I looked at typical day/night sleep, A time etc and worked out where my LO was at and stuck to it.  Within a week her body clock adjusted and the new routine was in place.  I still watched her cues and may have had earlier/longer naps but generally tried to stick to the routine. 

I've been reading through your other thread and i gather things are still a bit up in the air so just wanted to check in on you. 

Siobhan xx

[Flightmommy]

Thanks so much for checking up on me!! Yes, as you can see from my other thread, things haven't really gotten much better. Today's am nap was 55 minutes after 3.10 A time, which has worked well for the last couple of days, but maybe today he was OT due to yesterday's disaster nap day and so I should have cut back a little on the A time. He's now back down for his pm nap after 2.55 A time (was aiming for less, but as always, hard to tell when he'll fall asleep) and it's only 1pm, so unless he takes a miracle 2 hour nap, we're gonna have a real OT monster cause he fights the CN now, so it's not even an option. I'm thankful he sleeps through the night though, so at least every morning is like a clean slate and I can keep trying for a better nap day.
 Hope you and your family feel better soon! Thanks again for you concern!