Toddler Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition Continued

[Peek-a-boo]

The purpose of this thread is to offer support and discuss strategies for managing the transition from two naps to one nap for little ones who are 12 months and older.  Continued from this thread:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=158325.0

Happy chatting--and wishing you all successful sleep!

[Flightmommy]

I'm going to bit the bullet and post first because I think i'm absolutely loosing my mind over this crazy 2-1 business. We've been on the long am/short pm for awhile and now Caleb is completely refusing the pm catnap. And because I wake him from his am nap (after 1.5h) in order for him to catnap later, which now HE DOESN'T, he ends up with only one nap that has usually ended at 1pm...even with a 6:30pm bedtime, he's completely OT and short on day sleep.
  Is this a sign that he's ready for the switch??....should I just go cold turkey and do the one nap?? Ughhhh, i'm so not ready for this and truthfully, my mommy instinct tells me that he's not either, but I just don't know what to do. Today,I tried every APOP I know to get a catnap out of him and he just wouldn't go....he'd had a 1h20 am nap, up since 1pm...he should have been tired and ready for another nap, I just don't get it!! Last week, I tried reducing the middle A between the 2 naps, and it worked...for one day only though.
  On the upside, the days where i've let him sleep as long as he wants, he did 2 or even 2.5 hour naps, so it gives me a bit of hope. Does anyone think that 12 months is too early to switch? Just wondering if you think that his nap refusal means he's ready or is there something else that I could try??
  Thanks so much ladies, i'm really lost here!!

[Nauvoo]

flightmommy, I am a terrible BW so I can only offer hugs.  I feel your anxiety in a very real way.

We have been having a bit of sickness the last three days.  First time in my LO's short life of 12months.  We're lucky!!! DH and I even had that nasty flu H1N1, but somehow my LO escaped, which is beyond me, she must have an extraordinary immune system.  I must say our naps have been a bit different with this sickness.  Different in a good way.  We are getting long naps.  Too bad sickness is the pits or I'd really want these long naps to continue.  And flightmommy I'm very jealous your LO will take a 2.5 hour nap.  Sounds like he's somewhat ready for the switch whereas my LO tends to stick to those 1 hour naps when she is well.

[Flightmommy]

Thanks nauvoo06!! So sorry to hear you guys got the H1N1...must have been horrible, but thank god your LO didn't catch it!! What an immune system, wow!! Did you/are you breastfeeding??
  Yes, I found that naps were a breeze while Caleb was sick, but now that's he's just over his stomach flu/ear infection, we're back into our 2-1 struggles. After today's nap refusal, I was changing his diaper and was telling him "when mommy puts you in your crib, it means nap time and you must sleep"...he actually looked at me, shook his head "NO" and laughed!!!! I am now more convinced than ever that they really understand everything we say...they just can't talk back, that's all....anyways, i thought that was funny and needed a good laugh after struggling so hard to get him to nap!! lol!!
  Tomorrow is a new day.......

[gavinsmum1]

Sounds like everyone is sick! Jesse appeared like he was coming down with what my eldest has had this week and he's been sleeping long naps and nights lately~ a little out of his pattern.  Last night, we had a 12 hour night after a good nap day and so today, we decided with such a good wake-up, we'll see if we can do one nap.  Well, here we are 40 min in and he's had his feet in the air for the last 10 minutes and he's sucking his thumb.  OT for sure.  We're definitely not ready to transition.

[Flightmommy]

Well, we're trying the short am/long pm thing today.....i've had it with fighting for the pm catnap on our usual long am/ short pm routine. I'm not sure how this is going to work though....DS will not go to sleep under 4 hours A time in the am, so his 30 min nap is still going to be in the lateam and then 3 hours later for the "supposedly" long pm is taking us to a mid afternoon start to the nap....no matter which way I do it, i'm running out of daytime hours...this kid has stamina!!! or is it just that we're in a mad OT loop......had a 10 hour night last night, so I know he's somewhat OT. He spends lots of time just playing or staring at walls before falling asleep....for naps and bedtime.
  This morning he woke at 6:45am and I was aiming for 10:45am start to his nap, but he just played and giggle right up until now, so he fell asleep at 11:05am, planning to wake him at 11:35 and then pm nap at 2:35ish?? Hope he doesn't do a short one on that!!
  Is anyone else doing the short am/long pm? Any pointers? And how do you get your LO to go down earlier in the am so that the pm nap can start earlier as well?? Thanks!!

[Tweakster]

Hi there, Finn's still under 12 mths but we have moved through the transition quickly and the other thread is pretty quiet.  Thought I would pop in here and get familiar with what's going on :-)

We are doing 20 min AM and longer midday 2-2.5 hrs with 10-11 hr nights.  I think that's the best I will get.

I went with set naps because nothing else was working and it was doing my nut in.  Finn is a chronic EW so we have managed to stabilize his wake time a bit. 

My days have never been better, he's just in such a better mood.

We do:
Awake between 5:15 - 6
Nap 20 mins @ 9 - 9:20 (I wake him)
Nap 2/2.5 hrs @ 12 - 2/2:30
Bedtime between 6:30/7
Trying to stick with 7 but due to molars he's getting tired with the long A at end of day.

We have luckily only had 1 NW in about 2 weeks.  Of course now I have said that lol...

[Nauvoo]

Flightmommy, we are doing short am long pm.  It has been soooo much better this way because we also were having major issues getting the pm catnap in.  It's been about 3 weeks now and things have been going good.  We did do a long am short pm nap the last two days that worked great for us but I know better than to go that route.  our routine looks like this
wake 6:30
nap #1 10:00/10:15 - 10:30/10:45
nap #2 2:00/2:15 - ? sometimes we get 1.25 hours and sometimes more.
bed  really depends on nap #2 but we usually go with a 4 hour A time after a good nap.

When we first switched it worked great because for some reason my LO was decreasing her 1st A time???  Don't know why, maybe growth spurt, teething or more activity.  I really don't know.  It just worked good.  However, we found out that with too little A time in the morning we get EW's.

[gavinsmum1]

We're also doing the short am/long pm nap scheme and it seems to be working best for us too.  We do a 20 or 30  min. nap in the am and we get between a 1.25 hour nap and 1.5 or more (on a flukey day), the average is about 1 hour 20 min.  Bedtime is usually 4 hours after the afternoon nap.  Our best day this week went like this:
wake 6:30
nap 9:50-10:20
nap 1:30-3:15
bedtime 7:15

Mind you he's been coming down with something for the last few days, so he's been high on sleep needs and just conking out for naps.  This looks so textbook I have to laugh.  Most days are not like this!!  We just roll with it and try something different when we start getting EW which has been a problem off and on for months.

[Flightmommy]

Thanks ladies for inputting your skeds, as i'm new on the short am/long pm. Today was our first trial and both naps DS played and played and took forever to fall asleep, so that just pushed our day pretty late. I want it to be earlier, but don't know if he'll cooperate. Here's what today looked like:
6:45am wake
11am-11:30am am nap (i woke him and he wasn't too crabby, i was pleasantly surprised)
 2:30 down in crib after a bottle,looked drowsy but......plays and plays, etc.....until3pm!!!
 3pm-4:30pm pm nap (he would have kept sleeping, but i woke him to preserve bedtime)
 8:15pm asleep!!
  I just feel that pm nap is too late...any suggestions on how to get him to go earlier?? Thanks!

[Nauvoo]

Well we are having some incredibly long days too, like 14 hour days and we're getting 10 hour nights from a baby who is sooooo good at 12 hour nights.  I just can't believe the turn we've taken.
We are getting some rocking awesome naps here.  2 hours for the pm nap and 30 min am nap.  I have to crack down and wake her earlier because it is causing long days.  But it is sooooo hard to wake her when I've wanted such long naps for soooo long.  I can't believe that a month ago I was complaining about how my LO would never take long naps again and now I'm having an issue with it.  What irony!
So I suppose I'll have to cut back those 2 hour naps but it will be INCREDIBLY difficult.  I must say I'd rather have long nights.   Can't have them both.

[Tweakster]

Nope this 2-1 is stinky in that you don't seem to get both.  We have never had 12 hour nights so I suppose just to continue NOT getting them is easier to live with lol.  I feel for you if you had them and lost them. 

[gavinsmum1]

Flightmommy, you might consider dropping down to 20 minutes in the am.  Before Jesse came down with this cold, we had to drop down to 20 minutes for the same reason.  Days were too long and he was still taking too long to fall asleep.  I wonder if that first A will gradually get shorter once his body gets used to only taking a short nap in the morning?  We do around 3.5 hours normally before the first nap and then smack on 3 hours after. 

[londonmama]

I was going to suggest the 20 min AM nap too.  There seems to be a big difference between 20 and 30 for some reason!  This seemed to help our EWs.  Though they always seem to creep back in somehow!

[Tweakster]

It's normally before they go into deep sleep...waking them at 20 just gives them that 'catnap' feeling rather than going into deep sleep and feeling groggy and grumpy waking.  So they do a longer nap at a shorter A time afterward.  Then your days don't get too long.