Toddler Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition Continued

[~Jen~]

Hi, Just reading along as we are in the middle of 2-1 and about to join toddler board. 

Question on the short am/long pm.  I just cut another 5mins off the AM nap (days getting too long) and we are now at 20mins.  At same time, he has started taking longer to go to sleep in the AM and extending that first A closer to 4hrs.  (He was doing 3hrs30)  I'm finding with the longer A time, he is crying when I wake him after just 20mins.  I'm sure his old A time gave us more of an U/T AM nap but now he probably wants more sleep.  Will he just get used to the 20mins after a few days?   

Where do I go from here? When I need to tweak again, do I continue to cut the AM nap until nothing left or is there a point where you switch and just push that morning A time and go for the 1 nap?

[Nauvoo]

Great questions Mstrboo.  I was wondering the same thing.  Did you cute from 30 min to 25min and then to 20 min?  How did it effect your A times cutting the short am nap?

[Tweakster]

We cut to 20 mins and he does between 3 - 3.5 hrs A before the short AM nap, we use a set nap time for this nap of 9 a.m.  He doesn't like being woken either but he goes right back down after lunch so around noon (2 hr 40ish A time after 20 min nap) and then sleeps for 2 hrs so he's grizzly for the shortest A time of the day and to be honest it's been about 2 weeks and he's getting used to it.  His longest A is at the end of the day and he's so well-rested after his 2 hr nap that he's great through to bedtime.

I think what ends up happening is you keep offering the short CN at an early point in the AM so they are reasonably rested after the 20 mins...and your PM nap moves back a bit.  At some point they are probably likely to refuse AM altogether and then you are getting just your long midday nap.  You start to flip flop between some 1 nap and 2 nap days (if your LO will go for this, mine will not and when we make the final push to 1 nap that will be the end of 2 naps!) and occasional days with early bedtime while they are adjusting.  Someone can correct me if I am wrong though :-)

[gavinsmum1]

Hmm, Wendy I was just checking out your EASY, which is similar to my EASY.  We JUST went down to the 20 min am nap and I'm wondering if my second A time is too long, could you have a look?

today was this:
wake 6:45
nap 10:20-10:40
nap 1:55-3:10 (woke at the 35 min mark crying, resettled, but woke again at 3:10 crying)  I'm thinking this was an OT nap.
bedtime 7:15

It's kinda hard to say what A times should be right now as he's got a cold.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, yeah I think it's too long.  But then Finn is younger than Jesse so hard to say...but especially if he's got a cold I would expect his A times to be shorter anyway.  We really only get away with 2 hr 30/40 A time on a 20 min nap.

[Nauvoo]

Well we had a 12 hr night last night.  It is nice to have.  My LO is a regular 12hr night sleeper but recently with all this 2-1 transition she has been doing a lot of 10-10.5 hour nights.  I don't want to say it's OT though.  If I put my LO to bed at 8pm she wakes earlier than if I put her down at 7pm.  The amount of time she sleeps at night seems to be directly related to the time she goes to bed even with identical A times and naps that day.  Crazy!

[*Jo*]

well i think we may have to cut the morning nap to 20mins, even after a 30min AM nap hes still only giving me a 40min PM nap, hes really exhausted but he just wont sleep! its 2.30pm and we managed a 1 hour nap out of him this afternoon (DH is in there now trying to extend the nap but the stupid freaking neighbours dog is barking...im gonna kill it!!!!!) but thats the longest nap we have had in days *sigh* hes a miserable mess, im snapping at him all the time because hes such a miserable mess, looks like another early bedtime... and we all know what that means.... an early start too

but there is no way we are ready for one nap, he has a meltdown if he doesnt have his morning nap Aaaaaagh its driving me insane!

[~Jen~]

Hi, just jumping in here.  We keep floating b/w 20 and 25mins AM naps.  I've been experimenting with A times after the 20 mins.  Yesterday I found that 3hrs20 worked for us and we got 1.5hr nap but that might have been a fluke.  Our normal day is something ke this:

Wake 6:30
Nap 1 10:20-10:45
Nap 2 2:20-3:50
Bed 7:30

But now just by taking 5 mins off the morning, he seems to struggle with rest of day.  I will try and shorten that middle A closer to 3hrs and see how he does.   THat will help him have a longer stretch before bed too.

[gavinsmum1]

We have the trifecta (sp?) of terror here.  Teething, ear infection, and a cold.  A times are all over the place, naps are unpredictable, NWs like CRAZY and longer nights.  Last night was 12.5 hours, but 5 NWs. OUCH!

[Flightmommy]

Well, thought we'd had a great day yesterday...DS pulled an 11hr+ night and woke at 7:45am, so I figured it would be best to try just the one nap for that day, as trying to find enough hours to fit in two naps would have gotten us wayy too late for bedtime. I gave him  lunch around 11:30am and then he went down for his nap at 12:15pm, no problem...slept until 2:45pm!! A great 2.5hr nap after 4.5A time, he was cheery the rest of the day and went down for bedtime at 7:30pm, would have liked it earlier, but he just kept playing...either way, it was less than 5 hours A time , so i figured we were safe.
  The night went well, right up until 3:15am when I woke to use the washroom and checked my video monitor....to find Caleb wide awake and playing!! God knows how long he'd been up already, but he stayed awake until 5:20am and just kept playing and playing..clapping his hands and chatting away!!!Ughhhh, I of course couldn't fall asleep with him being awake like that. He then woke at 7:10am for the day, less than 2 hours after falling asleep!! I just don't know how this kid gets away with such little sleep...he had a 30 minute nap this am and then i put him down for his "supposedly" long pm nap, just less than 3 hours since waking from his am nap and he's been in there for 25 minutes....PLAYING AND PLAYING....AGAIN!!
  This 2-1 business isn't working no matter which way I go about it.......while he does great during the day with the one nap, we seem to have residual side effects from it during the following nights, such as these crazy long NW. I've done the one nap thing a handful of times now and every time, we've had NW either right after, or just a couple nights later. I'm tempted to say it's OT of course, but he never cries, just plays all night!! It's so frustrating, because I can't do anything to get him to sleep and then the next day, I've got a seriously OT baby on my hands!!
  Is anyone else experiencing these types of NW's??
  Right now, he's still awake and rubbing his eyes and yawning....why won't he just go to sleep if he's tired???GEEEEZZ!!

[Nauvoo]

Well I'm not seeing any difference in A times after a 20 min nap compared to a 30 min nap for my LO.  She still does 3.5hours after a 20 min nap like she did with a 30 min nap.  She doesn't seem tired earlier and it's not working putting her down earlier.  She still goes 3.5hrs after a 20 min nap.  I sure hope 1 nap is very very close because trying to squeeze naps in is no fun.   Also, waking her after 20 min is no fun.  30 min wasn't too fun either but 20 min is almost not worth the waking her.

[Nauvoo]

I'm looking for a little input if anyone has advice.  currently our routine is as follows:
wake 7am
nap #1 10:30 - 11:00am
nap # 2 2:30pm - 4pm
bed 8:15pm

The A time between the two naps is increasing and after 3.5 hours I've had to use some AP to get her to sleep.  But today we did 3hrs 45min A time between the two naps and she went down great.  However, that is really pushing our day out and making it shorter.  So my question is, if I increase the first A time to 4 hours how should this affect the A time between the 2 naps?   I was wondering if anyone had a similar situation arise for them.  I'm hoping it will decrease the 2nd A time but I'm hesitant to try it out one day.  I really hope we are close to one nap.

[hjrmom01]

Nauvoo06 (sorry, don't know your name ) what if you push the am nap out AND cut it down?  We did that and cut it to 20 mins (sometimes 15) and then the A between the 2 naps shortens so the day doesn't end up so long.  It was something like
up at 7
nap 1 10:30-10:50
nap 2 2-3:45
bedtime 8

Or, if the 20 min doesn't work...have you tried a one nap day?  Say 11:30 and then an early bedtime??

We tried one nap today. Up at 7, nap 11:55-1:30 He's been in a pretty good mood but I'm so disappointed that his nap wasn't longer

[*Jo*]

nauvoo - we are doing a similar routine to yours today, ive had Caleb on a 20min nap this morning and its been 3 hours, hes in bed now crying on and off! im so hoping this works, a total of 1.25hours sleep for the day just cant be good for him...ok scratch that, now hes talking to himself!!!!! what the heck???!!!

[Nauvoo]

Yeah, I sooooo know the feeling!
I tried the 20min nap for 2 days (that's it) and it didn't seem to make a difference but I really want to try the 1 nap thing when we get a 7am wake up, the last two days have been 6:15am wake ups. The 20 min naps just seemed like it was way harder to wake her up and she did the same A time between naps as with a 30min nap.  I kind of have the feeling that if I have to cut to 20 min I might as well go for 1 nap.   My LO is starting to take long naps in the pm which is such a change from two weeks ago (I'm loving it) so I think I'll try one nap when I get a good wake up.  Thanks for the advice Alyssa and I think your spot on.