Toddler Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition Continued

[marlowsmom]

Jenn I do the same thing.   Marlow is a notorious 1.5 hour napper so if she goes down at noon then she will wake at 130pm and she's up until 730pm bedtime.   

 She woke at 730 today but she had a NW at 430am.    We went grocery shopping late in the day and DH gave her crackers to eat while shopping which threw off her dinner so she barely ate when we got home.    She woke at 430 hungry.   

Today is a one nap day and I'm trying to figure out how I can get her to take a long nap and still go on a little day trip.    Her nap is going to fall right in the middle of the day.

[marlowsmom]

BTW A quick question:  Why do we need to push the naps?     Most days Marlow takes two naps just to keep the OT away.     Should I push her limits of what she can handle?   Usually if she wakes at 7am then she gets one nap but if she wakes earlier then I give her two naps.   On the days that she wakes at 6 or 630 should I still try to get her to take one nap??     I figured that this whole 2-1 process is about following her lead as to what she can handle.    Is that right?    Is letting her have two naps going to be detrimental to her in the long run because she will take longer to adjust to one nap?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

I don't think so. I think just going by what she needs is the best thing. If she is doing well on two naps, I would leave her be. With us, Ethan gets really bad EWings if his am nap is longer then 15 minutes. Sometimes he seems really tired and sleeps for longer and then we always get an EWing. I guess I think that having good nights is more refreshing then the daytime naps. I don't know though! I think if you keep up what you are doing, it works better. Like if Marlow starts getting OT because you are only giving her one nap, she will be miserable, have NW's, EW's and then you will have to resort back to two naps anyways so no point going there. You know what she can handle, so I would stick with it. I think lots of the 2-1 switch is age dependant. She might be in the process of working towards one nap but she isn't ready to be there yet! I think you have a good handle on what your LO needs and are doing awesome!

[marlowsmom]

Thanks Jenn.    I figured the same; just give her what she needs.   I've heard from others that I should be pushing the AM nap but that results in EW because she gets OT.    I prefer her to be well rested.     She usually has a 20 min snooze at 10am but today since she woke at 730 she's going for the long haul of 5 hour A and nap at 1230am

[Tao]

Hi Ladies,

I hope you don't mind my popping it. I've been following and reading your posts and, Sharon, I'm glad to hear that are you SO in tune with what Marlow needs!

I have been having so much trouble getting Sophie down for ANY nap at all. I'm not quite sure what's going on but we need to get back on track soon for her sanity and mine, LOL!

When I stopped working is when all this starting happening, and I"m not sure if it's SA or teething or just extreme OT cycle. This is what we were on before the chaos:

5/530 Wake
940-1010 Nap
200-300 Nap

Then one day she decided not to go down for her morning nap so I thought maybe it's a schedule change. For three days she fought her morning nap so she ended up only have 1 nap that was very short, maybe 40 minutes to an hour. So, I put her down later the next few days at 10 and it still took her 50 minutes to go down! By this point I'm thinking she was OT due to all the one nap days because she's fussy and just seems tired. I would give her super early BT's at 5 p.m. too but I don't think all the added night sleep is helping because she's having earlier and earlier wakings due to OT I believe.

Yesterday she woke at 5 a.m. and this morning at 4:30 but I just leave her be and she'll be on and off sleep until 6 when I finally go in to get her.

I have a WIWO thread going because I think SA has a lot to do with it too but for her naps she will literally stand at the corner and wail/stop repeatedly until I finally go into get her because it's time to eat.

* Does this sound like OT build up to you guys?
* Should I just keep pushing the 2 naps for a few more days to try to get her back on track?

Thank you so much! I'm so confused!

[marlowsmom]

I think it's OT build up and I would try to put her down way earlier instead of her set AM nap time.   Marlow had a full night sleep, woke at 6am and was tired by 845am!    She went down and slept for 30 min, up for 2.5 hr and was already OT.   2.5 hours!!!    She finally went down, after an hour, and slept for 2 hours.     Friday she was really OT and slept 2.5 hr in the AM then 2.5 hr A , then 1hr 10 min PM nap.     She STTN.
My point is to go for a way earlier bedtime for her nap tomorrow.    Once you get her down let her sleep as long as her body needs.     Give her a much shorter A time that normal.    Wendy told me that Finn will sometimes do 2.5 hours in between Am and PM naps.       There isn't a formula now; its all going by your instinct for what she needs.    That's been my experience so far.

[Tao]

Hi Sharon,

This is SUCH great advice. Today I put her down at 9 a.m. and absolutely NO crying, standing or fighting it! Amazing! She had been screaming for days every time I put her down for her nap, but like you said I think it's because she's SOOO OT by then.

Did Marlow get OT from one nap days? I'm coming to realize that one nap days, though we may put them down for an early BT can cause OT buildup really easily. Sophie has been SUPER fussy lately and clingy. I can't put her down anywhere without her wanting to be held. Do you find that Marlow is more clingy when she's OT?

How many days of the "let her sleep as long as she wants for a.m nap" last for? Is it based on her temperment?

Thanks for the advice. I'm ALWAYS learning from you!

[Tao]

Hello..

She tricked me! I thought she was asleep but she was just turned the other way chewing on her teddy. Though, she was nice and quiet which is a great improvement, she didn't end up going down until an hour later! I'm going to let her sleep for however long she wants and see how it goes.  What MAY be the problem is that she will wake at 5 a.m. like clockwork, but then since mommy is not ready to get her sometimes at 5:30 she'll be back down but I'm guessing it's only for a short while before I get her at 6 because she's awake again. I wonder if this is making it hard for me to "guess" the right amount of A because I don't know whether or not the "going back down after she wakes" is actually refreshing enough or if I should just count it as a 5 a.m. wake up.

Does this make sense? LOl!

[consmummy]

Hi, mind if I join you?

Declan has just turned 1 and while he's not yet walking he's not far off, so I feel this is the place for us.

So we're just at the start of the 2-1 transition. I have an older child and he was high sleep needs which in a way made it really easy to go to 1 nap as he was so easygoing. I don't recall it being a struggle at all.

But D is a whole other ball game. For one he likes his early wakings. For a long time 5.30 was the start to our day, although this is gradually now stretching out to 6-6.30.

Just recently he's been fighting the pm nap so I thought i'd give the transition a go, see how he gets on. He always took the am nap on schooldays no problem, probably because we're walking in the pushchair and that always works like a charm on him.

So day 1. It was the weekend and we were at home. He was up at 6.10 and refused an am nap at 9ish. Yes it was an  early A time but he was yawning and rubbing his eyes. So I got him up and he was fine. After lunch he was struggling- tripping over on his walker, clumsy, etc. So he went down at 12.30 and bar a waking at 1.50 he slept till 2.40 so a great start.

Today he woke early at 5.45-dirty nappy and no getting him back off. So I gave him a short nap of around 20 mins. In hindsight I should have let him sleep a tad longer as he was rubbing his eyes and laying his head on his highchair tray at lunch! So 1250-2.30 nap.

Am I heading along the right lines?

[Tao]

Hi Consmummy,

2-1 transition is very tough, even for my DD who is going through it right now. Like yours, my daughter has very early morning wakings which makes it really hard for a 1 nap day even with the early BT. Actually, we are going through very bad OT buildup right now which was a result of my giving her too many 1 nap days. What I've noticed is that you may find the first few one nap days to be great where they will have nice long naps but then gradually they start to short nap as OT builds up more and more. This is what happens with mine. I think if he fights going down in the morning, maybe push morning A a bit later and then, like you did, give him a shorter a.m. nap so that he'll be tired enough in the afternoon. If he's able to have such a great afternoon nap, it sounds like you are doing well.

I'm definitely envious of such a great p.m. nap. Right now I'm struggling to get my daughter to go down at all!

Good luck!
Christine

[Tao]

Hi There,

So she ended up going down in the a.m. after an hour of playing around in her crib from 9:15-10:15 and I just let her sleep to get her caught up. She slept from 10:15-11:30 which is pretty good considering her nap pattern lately. I tried putting her down again at 3 but no go. She started screaming and after trying for a while, I got her up so I could do an early BT.

Hope tomorrow will be better. Still really confused about her A time at the moment. I think tomorrow if she wakes at 5, I will just get her up instead of letting her go back to sleep off and on until 6, because it seems to throw everything off...

Any suggestions? Thanks!
Christine

[Maiwenn's mom]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty sure my LO is ready for 1 nap a day (she's almost 17 month). Last week she's had her regular 1.5 hr-2h naps in the morning but then refused to sleep for her afternoon nap about 3 days in a row. I also noticed than when she wasn't getting her pm nap she was waking up a bit earlier than usual (about an hour earlier) - and I remember reading the less they sleep during the day, the less they sleep at night (is it still true for toddlers??).
I didn't want her to settle in a one morning nap a day so I have been trying to keep her awake in the morning (I give her a snack to boost her energy mid-morning and then do some quiet activities with her, or even let her play in her crib), then give her an early lunch and put her down for her nap by 12:30pm max.
Then she sleeps usually for a solid 2 to 2.5 hours...
overall she seems to be doing OK, even though I can tell she's quite tired by the time her pm nap comes in.
Having read this thread, I'm wondering if I should try the 20 mn cat nap in the morning - or just stick to what we've been doing for the last couple of days, hoping she'll get used to the staying awake in the morning a bit longer.
How long does the 20 mn cat nap transition usually last?


here's an overview of her current schedule:
wakes around 6:45 am
Bottle @ 7 am
breakfast at around 8:30am
Snack around 10:30 am
Lunch around noon
Nap 12:30pm-2:30pm
Snack around 4pm
Diner @ 6:30pm
Bath (every 2nd day): 7:30pm
Bottle and bed:8 pm

I would love some advice on which to do: continue what i've been doing or trying the transition plan?
Thanks a lot!!

[alethiaperry]

My son is 17mos also, who wakes at 7 or 7:30 and goes down at 12:30 for anywhere between 1.5hrs- 3hrs... then bed at 7:30pm.  I'd say if your LO is napping well (which it looks like to me), then stick to the one nap a day.  I don't think every LO needs a drawn out transition time.  Mine made the switch with relative ease and no real "catnap"... kinda went more cold turkey too.  Looks like you two are doing well to me.  I'd stick to it.  Life's great on one set nap time a day!

[consmummy]

Yesterday was D's birthday party so a hectic day. He woke at 7 this morning so i decided a quiet morning at home and one nap after lunch. I thought no way would he want to nap at 9ish on the school run, but by 945 he was rubbing his eyes and seems really tired. So I'm just keeping it low key and hopefully he'll be OK to keep going till after lunch.

I wonder if I need to take a step back and offer a small 15-20 catnap in the morning for a while. Because if we were out and about this monring he would almost certainly fall asleep in the car or pushchair.

[nelliestar]

I'm back again and reading everyone's posts with great interest!!

We have sort of stumbled upon some 1 nap days.....

 Sundays have to be 1 nap as church is at nap time so we get DS home, try to get some lunch into him and then down he goes at whatever time we can for 2 hours. That has been working great so I decided to let him sleep until he wakes naturally on a day when we are not at nursery and then do 1 nap approx 4 hrs later. DS is quite high sleep needs - he's 18 mths now. This has been going well as I have had to wake him at 8am! : o I daren't let him sleep later because of bedtime!
He then goes down at 12ish (early lunch) and I wake him after 2 hrs. Bedtime is sometimes earlier than usual as the last A time is 4hrs 30 or more. He typically goes at 6.45 to 7 and still sleeps til 8am.
Saturday we were at a christening all day so we woke him at 6.30 and he had an early nap before we went then bed at 6.30 and he still slept til 8. This 8am business has been going on for a couple of weeks now.
Nursery days are different as he needs to sleep until at least 7.30am to do a 1 nap day there so we do 2 naps if he wakes earlier.
Do you think this is all ok just going with the flow? Its so not like me but DS is soooo happy on these 1 nap days.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Nell xxxx