14 month old refusing ALL naps + OT....HELP!

[alohahellokitty]

Oh Christine, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO thrilled for you!!! This is the BEST news!!!! I was wondering if you were getting some UT naps, so her A time is stretching out quite a bit. As she gets older it will continue to stretch (will go back down usually for teething or illness) and her naps/bt will begin to get later..... then the BEST part... hopefully her wake ups will begin to get later and later. I remember Anna-Li was stuck at 5am forever, it seemed. Now we get 6:30-7:45. Most mornings are closer to 7:30 which is MARVELOUS!!

I remember one of my earliest communications with you, I told you how much better my LO was doing. And I was trying to use it as encouragement for you. I remember hoping it wouldn't irritate you (b/c you were having such a rough time) but help you see some light at the end of the tunnel. Its soooooooooo hard when your in it, but if you see that someone else has come through it just a few weeks before you... sometimes that helps you know it won't last forever.

Again since Anna is so touchy I would NEVER EVER try going back to two naps. She does NOT adapt well at ALL!!! So if she's ill or teething terribly I try to do a small car nap and then one good crib nap. I know you don't have that  luxury. So maybe just stick to that one nap and then of course go very early with bt if she's needing it. If she's teething or ill you might need to move that nap up a tad as well. Try to do a lot of low key activities when she's ill. Stroller rides exc....... Quite play in her room.

Oh and keep trying to get her to play after naps in her crib even for a minuet or two. Just hand her something and act busy for a bit. Try to give her a extra minuet every time. Soon she'll wake up and just occupy herself with her bearbear or another stuffed animal.

It might be that you weren't seeing sleepy signs b/c she wasn't getting quite tired enough. Is that possible? I know with my touchy little gal I operate mainly by sleepy cues. (I have general times she goes for nap/bt but it can vary a small bit)

Its so great now that she's getting more time to expel that energy she's not fighting you as much. She's like 'momma I'm tired, I think I'll take a rest'. So that's wonderful!!! And if she ever does start fighting you b/c of OT rut or some other reason, you have firmly established wi/wo so you don't have to worry about that.

YES Christine, they understand sooooooooooooo much! My Dad has always told me that, and I've just shrugged him off. But I know its the truth. When I communicate with Anna-Li things go WAY better!! With touchy kids you just have to OVER communicate about things. Give plenty of warnings about naps/bt's/outings/car rides/ changes in ANYTHING exc...

And giving them something to look forward to after a good nap is one of the best things Ive done. I don't remember who gave me that idea. SOmeone on here... maybe Katie. It does work. I'm pretty sure it was Katie. THANKS KATIE!!!!!!!!

Well Anna-Li just got back from a 4 day and 3 night weekend with my in-laws... We are trying to get her ready for them to watch her a whole week next year as we go to St. Thomas to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. OMG!!!!!! They let her stay up until 9-10pm!! They said she was running around like crazy (they didn't know she was beyond OT, they think she has tons of energy). I've asked them to make sure she gets to bed at a decent hour and get one nap a day (even in the car). They said she kept asking for 'milk and night night'. Poor girl! She didn't get maybe 1-2 car naps and had terribly late nights. She normally goes to bed at 6:30 (while teething)-7pm. She was BESIDE herself when we got her back today! DH tried to put her down for a nap and she went CRAZY! We go back to our house rules the MINUET she walks through the door (just have to be that firm with her). So I did wi/wo for 10 min's and out she went. She is SOOOOOOOOO OT at the moment! I'm going to have to do a LOT of earlier naps/bt's to get her caught back up. She's teething canines, so she really should have been in bed around 6pm those nights. In-laws think I'm nutso to have her on a schedule. ah! I sure hope your trip goes better than that!!!

[katie80]

Christine,
I was OOT for the 4th holiday, so missed your last posts.  I'm glad to see things may have evened out for you a bit.  I hope they're still going that way!!!  Great job on sticking with it!  I hope your trips to your ILs go well!!

Liana, PMing you about your weekend.

[Tao]

Thanks everyone. SO far, we still have early wakings, 4:30 this morning...yikes! However, she is still sleeping 11.5 hours every night and seems to be doing well with the schedule. She goes down at 10:00 in the morning and she falls asleep instantly! The naps have lengthened a bit, on and off, we had a 1:25 the other day and today was an hour which is still better than 35 minutes! I put her down super early at 5 p.m. and she sleeps through the entire night.

She will sometimes wake at 9 p.m., roll around and whine for about 10 minutes but she's always gone back so it seems to be okay. It's funny though, every time she wakes, I have my fingers crossed thinking.."please go back...please go back"!

I think after a few more weeks, I will try increasing A time in the a.m. 15 minutes of so. It's just SO hard to stretch out her day when she wakes SO early but I have to do it so that I can put her down later and then get that morning later. It's one of those difficult things...

Liana- I am so sorry to hear that Anna Li was SO OT! It's funny because a lot of times my MIL has NO idea also as to what I"m doing when I BW. She thinks I'm a little crazy most of the time especially when I used to put Sophie down for 3 naps and gauge her A time really specifically. To them, you just put them down when they start to fall asleep and also MIL kept telling me, the longer you keep her up the better she'll sleep, when it's actually the other way around. I've learned to just nod and smile and then stick to my guns because I don't want to be rude. They mean well. I was thinking about Anna-Li today. Is she better? Is she going down well now like she used to? Is OT better?

Katie: I hope you had a nice little getaway! Thank you AGAIN for sticking with me. I feel like you gals are family now =).

I think I will stick to this and try increasing A time gradually and hope that the mornings push out eventually. I told my husband though, I will take EWs anyday for a full night sleep and easy naps! She goes down for both nap and BT without ONE single peep now. It's heavenly!!!! Although, I must say my DH and I have been a bit zombilike lately as we still go to bed late and wake up at 4:30!!

Hugs to you all,
Christine

[alohahellokitty]

Wow yes that 4:30am wake up is early. Good news that she's going down with NO trouble for all sleep times. That's excellent compared to where you were a few weeks or so ago!!!

Also good news that you will eventually be able to shift her day out further and get later bt's and wakeups. I think as long as you don't try to push her when she's teething you will be fine. Just try it slowly and watch her. See if there are any new sleep cues you see now as she gets older and is getting more.

Oh yes mil just thinks naps are for car rides while your running about town. They NEVER give Anna naps while she is there. We would normally never let her stay without us but we are trying to get her used to being there without us so by next year she can deal with a whole week. She is truly more OT than I've ever seen her. Again so fussy, wanting to be held constantly, fusses about EVERYTHING, cutting her 2nd canine exc........ We are at a rough spot again. GOOD NEWS though she's going down for all her sleep times without a single fuss. So even though she's OT out of her mind and in pain from the teething, she goes down easily. But we are dealing with EW'ings, NW'ings (for meds), short OT naps (will only do 1 so I do'nt have the luxury of a cn). She's such a slow teether too. Took her 2 months to get her 1st canine and we are now on #2. These canines are truly evil teeth, they are by FAR the worst! I think we are having such a terrible time with OT b/c of what happened over the 4 days when she was at the inlaws.

[alohahellokitty]

Oh on the 2nd paragraph I was trying to say 'and is getting more A time'