1 nap still not working

[*Jo*]

ok, just wanted to "report" how today went, he actually has a bit of a cold now, he has dark green snot and its a blocked up nose so that of course will affect everything! but have the vaporiser on in his room to help him breathe

so we went to playgroup this morning (not sure if this was a good idea wiht his cold) he fell asleep at 12.20 in teh car, i transferred him to his bed and he woke up at 50mins, i went in and patted for ages till he fell back asleep again, his nose was really blocked and i think this kept waking him up. he finally woke up at 1.55pm so about an hour and a half all up with the wakeup included, so not bad at all really! then i thought, this will be the perfect time to make bedtime a bit later and start our shorter nights, but he was a bit miserable this evening so ive put him to bed now at 7pm and hes gone straight to sleep, man i hope i havent gone backwards now and ended up with a 10.5 hour night like the other days when he had a 1.5 hour nap! i just figured if hes not well then he will need the sleep...

so my question is now, should i push with set naps now that he has a cold? now that ive actually decided to do it hes sick and i dont want to make him stay awake if he needs the rest. what do you think? not to mention i think im coming down with something too, massive headache and stinking sore throat

[babybarr]

I guess it's up to you - with DS regardless of him being ill I still keep him on a fairly regular routine cos he doesn't tend to sleep more when ill and likes to have the same amount of A time.  But if you think Caleb needs to sleep then you are probably right to let him. 

It's always when you have "a plan" that they become ill!!

[Tweakster]

Finn is ill now and routine has gone out the window.  He was up for 1.5 hrs in the night and then again at 4:45 - arrrgh.  So really I would just try to keep on routine Jo but accept that it's not likely to run smoothly.  I would still aim for that set nap though, if it's a good restorative nap then it will help him more than hurt IYSWIM.

I am glad Caleb had fun at his playgroup, it's so fun to watch these kids interact...they are so cute.

[katie80]

Agree here too.  I'd try to stay close to the routine, but obviously it doesn't always go as planned.

I know you don't think much of set nap times for Caleb, so if you don't want to go there, that's ok. 

As for this, I hope you didn't think I meant you were ignoring any advice.  It was more along the lines of, ultimately you know him the best, so really you're going to do what you think is best!

I have tried them a couple of times and it has scared me to see some of the results, however I've never really been consistant long enough with them so yes I am going to try and do that now

Also wanted to let you know, I was in that very same frame of mind.  But, really what you're describing is what my LO was doing, no A time consistently gave a good nap.  I finally decided it couldn't get much worse than a 40-50 min nap per day, so I did the set time.  I did still get many shorter naps, but after a couple weeks, my LO finally started lengthening out and the naps got more consistent to about 1.5 - 2.5 hrs.  Not sure that helps right now, but keep it in mind.

[*Jo*]

Katie - I know you didn't mean that, it's just these lovely ladies have suggested it more than once or twice to me and I've never really tried to do it consistantly so I didn't want you all to think that I wasn't taking your good advice

Well we had an 11 hour night so not too bad at all considering I thought we were going to have a shorter night than that, he did wake up at 3.30am crying bit fell back to sleep. Now I'm not sure which is illness relates or routine related anymore. And seeing as he was up at 6am I'm not confident about having him fall asleep at the set time today especially as he's I'll and he has swimming this morning which always makes him exhausted and he usually falls asleep in the car on the way home but that will be 2 hours before the set nap time

[*Jo*]

eeeee, im so excited! this is the first time in ages ive had good news to report, today we did the set nap time still and he slept... wait for it..... 1 hour 35mins! and no waking in the middle of it at all! yahoo! i did give him paracetamol, but that wouldnt have made much difference really because Ive done that previously and its never made much of a difference. so i pushed bedtime 10mins, didnt want to do too much because i do have to consider he is not feeling well and i think this 7pm bedtime has become a set time too by mistake! so he was in bed at 7.10pm tonight, i will gradually move it forwards so that we end up with a 7am wakeup and a 8pm bedtime

thank you ladies sooo much, heres hoping this continues!!

[babybarr]

Great news!!  I always like to hear good news.  Keep me posted and fingers crossed for a good night.

[Tweakster]

Yay Jo! 

[katie80]

Yep, so glad to hear this!   

[koe2moe]

wow... how nice!! 

[*Jo*]

and a 12 hour night!!!!! yippeeeeee!! im so worried this is just a phase and he will go back to doing what he was doing before!

now my next question is, now that ive set a time, with him getting up at a reasonable hour now, the set time is a bit short of an A time for him, should i move it to say 1pm? so that the day evens out a bit, but doing gradually? so for instance, before, he was waking at 6/6.30am and sleeping around 12 (with the set time) now that hes waking up at 7/7.30, having his nap at 12 ish is too soon

[Tweakster]

If you feel it's stable you should be able to move it out quite easily.  But I would be tempted to stick with the set time a big longer to make sure the clock is really set IYSWIM.  Sometimes there is a regression period.

[*Jo*]

ok, will leave it for a bit, at least till hes over his cold (which is another reason i thnk he may be napping so well cos hes sick waaah) see how he goes after that.

ladies you have been fabulous, i <3 you! I have even been SO less stressed about it with these naps, i really listened to what you said when you said "do a set nap time and just accept whatever nap you get" and for some reason that struck me just right and ive just accepted whatever nap i get and i dont dread it anymore!!

this is why all through Calebs short life I have come here and found the best people that I could turn to you ladies have stuck with me for 10 pages!!!! not many people would do that LOL

[alohahellokitty]

So glad you've had success!!!

[Tweakster]

Well it's not like we have better things to do, we can't get our own kids to sleep so we might as well help others lol
Just kidding!  We're all here for each other, that's what it's all about.

I hope it sticks Jo and really when you do just relax about it and take a bit of control of the when, it really does seem to get better.  It's not to say it never derails, but you remember your 'happy place' when napping was going well and you felt good about it and it carries you through :-)