Does the crying ever end?

[janecharlotte]

We are doing WI/WO (successful some nights and trying to keep at it).

My LO always cries before bed now. Up until she was 10.5 months (she is now 13 months) she went to bed so happy but now she cries every night. When her grandparents looked after her last week she was fine, no crying.

Will it get better- will she ever enjoy going to sleep again?

We did GW but it stalled and we decided we didn't mind a bit of crying but this goes on and on some nights

[*Becky*]

can you post your routine...x

[janecharlotte]

Yesterday it went like this:
7.15 A
10.45 S
11.20 A ( I went and woke her)
2.30 S
3.10 A?? I think a noise outside woke her so she wouldn't go back to sleep
6.15 wind down, in bed at 6.45, then it took 45mins to get to sleep so was OT

I figured yesterday she was crying due to OT but even when she has a am nap of 30mins and then a 2 hour sleep in the afternoon there are still tears at bedtime. I put her down later if she has had a good sleep (say 7.30 or 7.45pm if she wakes at 3.45-4pm)

Any tweaks would be appreciated

I don't think she is ready for 2-1 yet as she is STTN on 2 naps and we haven't had nap refusal since I shortened the am nap

[gavinsmum1]

I used to think that tears at bedtime or naps was OT, but it can mean UT.  In fact, that's more often the case with my 14 month old.  If your LO is taking 45 minutes to fall asleep after a 40 min nap, it may be that she is undertired and is not ready for bed and is therefore just crying out.  To be honest, you could probably start stretching her A times out and shortening that first am nap, if that's what you've decided is best for your/her routine.  Some LOs like that morning nap and with my eldest son, I ended up leaving the morning nap as is and pushing it forward, with a short catnap in the pm. Eventually we just dropped that short nap and moved the nap toward mid-day.
Maybe something like this would work for you and your DD:

wake 7:15
nap 11-11:30
nap 2:30-4:00
bedtime 8

If she did that well the other day with the 30 min am nap/ long pm nap, then that looks like the way to go.  If that last A time needs to be lengthened out more, then you may be closer to one nap than you think!  Hope that helps!

[janecharlotte]

I might try that, it's past 4pm and she is still asleep (we had a very busy day out). I don't want to wake her but don't want her to be up all night...

[janecharlotte]

Just wanted to say- she has just gone down (it's 8pm) and no crying!! Probably helps that it is dark now too

[*Becky*]

ok - keep us posted as to how tomorrow goes.

[deb]

Depending on when she wakes and sleeps (on normal days , she may be starting up the 2-1 transition; mine ended up on one nap around a year, which is on the early side but not unheard-of.

[gavinsmum1]

That's great! Maybe a little tweak is all that's needed at this point.  Let us know how things are going.

[janecharlotte]

So today looks like this so far

7.20 A (I had to go in and get her up)
10.55 - 11.25 S (in car on the way to swimming class)
2.20 S
3.20 A (and is cranky- I'm guessing still tired from swimming)

So my question is what time do I aim to get her down. Last night she lasted 4 hours A before bed but didn't seem so tired.

Any suggestions?

[janecharlotte]

Just wanted to post- another 4hour A then bedtime and not a murmur. I f fact she was asleep before her dad left the room.

Thanks for helping tweak her A times, it's been nice to have no crying for 2 nights in a row.

[*Becky*]

Great
Sounds like she is def starting the 2:1 transition. x

[janecharlotte]

So today I was a bit ambitious and thought we would try 1 sleep. She went down at 11.30, has just woken at 1pm. Do I try and get another late nap out of her or put her to bed really early?

[gavinsmum1]

You could try a 20 or 30 minute catnap and then a 3 hour A time after that, but it really depends on what she's capable at the end of the day.  At the end of the transition we avoided the naps at the end of the day as much as we could as it just schmuckered everything up for us, but your LO has not had many 1 nap days, so maybe a short nap is in order. 

[janecharlotte]

She managed to have another 30mins (til 1.30pm) so might just be an early bedtime (with a nice afternoon walk thrown in there)