Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition cont'd pt 3

[*Ali*]

Just to clarify, she has been doing about 4 hrs A time and I jumped it to 5 hrs.

Oh OK. I was basing those A times on the routine you posted above which I thought meant her first A time was 3hr15-3hr45 and her second A time was 2hr30-3hr30. I did think that was quiet short for an 18mo.
Moving from 4hrs to 5hrs is still a big jump proportionally though. I think you could certainly aim to reach the 5hr A time but she will probably need to do it in smaller increments to avoid OT. That might mean a few weeks of her napping at an inconvenient time though while she adjusts.
What if you aimed for a later WU at 8am and then napped her at 12.30. Do you think she would do a 3hr nap again?
Otherwise if you need to be out when she needs to start her nap would she go to sleep in the pushchair and continue it at home parked up somewhere? 
I do agree that at 18mo she is probably ready for the switch to one nap.

[Mama2C]

Just wanted to add that when we were doing the 2-1 transition, DS would take a 20-30 min AM CN but his A time after his CN was 2h30 min. Any longer A time would lead to resisting his second nap.

[kiansmam]

After lots of sleep problems i've finally got kian on one nap. The problem i have is that he is only sleeping for 45mins at home and 1.5hrs at nursery. Will this lengthen with time? I don't know how he's doing it tbh lol x

[abaker89]

So she slept from 7 pm last night till we woke her at 8 am, a 13 hr night.  I made a huge effort and got her down about 12:40.  Then she didn't fall asleep till 1:25 and woke after 50 min, which is better than 30 min but still not enough.  It is so hard to get her down at lunchtime, will it just settle out in a few days?  I don't know how she did it those other couple times we did one nap days, the most recent was wake at 7ish, nap at 11:45 and before that she had one that was wake at 7ish and nap at 1.  Not sure why those worked at all! 

She is now begging to go to bed at 6:15 pm but I will need to wait till 7 pm, so much harder with two babes in the house!

Aileen

[*Ali*]

Great news on the long night Aileen. It might take a while for her body to get used to the new routine so maybe try to stick with it for 3 more days and then reassess...?
Kiansmam - Does he get up for the day and then go go down for his nap at the same time at home and nursery? Could it be that the condidtions are different? How are his nights? Are they longer now he is on 1 nap?

[Khalam's Mama]

My k only did 1hrs nap when he 1st moved to 1nap but they soon lengthened out to 2hrs give or take 30mins so do give him time to get used to it.

[lulunut]

My DD did the same for a bit with 45 min-1 hour naps and 1-2 NW until she got used to it.  My DS is now doing the same I can proudly say!!!  Most days he does very well with 1 nap, we do 2 naps maybe 2x a week now!  Yay!  It does come with some NW and short naps but, I see light at the end of the tunnel!!

[abaker89]

Great news, she had another long night 12.5 hrs and then took a 2.5 hr nap after a 5 hr A time.  I actually had to wake her cause we had a birthday party to attend.  And the best news is that my 4 yr old has gone along with the whole schedule change, wants lunch at 11:30 and was asleep today at 1:30, YEAH!  She actually seemed to welcome the earlier nap and it gave us an earlier bedtime so more couple time.  We'll see how it goes...

[torontotwinmom]

Hi everyone,

So last week we took the plunge and went down to 1 nap.  It's going okay (not great, but okay) and I wanted some advice on how to deal with the 'hiccups' that come along with shifting routines like this!

So today, this is what their day looked like:
awake: heard someone around 6:15, they made enough noise to get up at 6:45
DS had a ~10 minute nap around 10 am in the stroller; DD had a ~5 min stroller nap around 11:30
Nap: 1:00 - 2:30 (DD woke up crying, she has been doing this for the last 2-3 months; she woke DS up)
I put them to bed for the night at 6:30 (since they only had a 1.5 hour nap all day), but DS didn't fall asleep until 7ish)

My "goal" day is bed 7-7, nap 1-3ish. 

- do I still put them to bed for their nap at 1 - to get them used to it - or should it be earlier while they're transitioning?
- do I put them to bed early at night if they had a shorter nap or are up before a certain time?
- is it better to try and keep to 1 nap days, or should I be throwing in the odd 2 nap day to make sure they get caught up on sleep?  Or is that too confusing for them?

[*Ali*]

Hi Torontotwinmom. What was their day looking like before you moved to one nap? I am just wondering if you have given them a big jump in A time to move to this new routine. Is there a particular reason why you want the nap at 1pm? That seems very late to me and means they are up for 6hrs before the nap. If they are falling asleep in the buggy so long before this do you think they might like an earlier nap? My DS has been on 1 nap for 6mo now but still only does a little over 5hrs of A time before his nap. When we first moved to one nap we did 4.5hrs A time, 3hr nap 4.5hr A time.
To answer your questions:
Yes I would aim for a nap much earlier than 1pm, at say 11.30 or 12 depending on what you think is their ideal A time.
Yes I would go for an earlier BT if they short nap. I used to work with A times so would just go from what time they woke up from the nap.
It is very common to go from 1 nap some days to 2 naps other days. If you do 2 nap days you may only need a 20 min nap for the additional nap.

Have you seen these links?
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163278.0

HTH

Ali

[torontotwinmom]

Thanks Ali!

If they have an earlier nap (i.e., 11:30, 12:00 etc.) when do you serve lunch?  And what do you do regarding bedtime?

Our 2 nap days went something like this:
wake ~6:30
nap1~ 9:40-10:10
nap2~ 1:40-3:00
bed 7:00
DS would take 30-45 mins to fall asleep at nap 2 and at bed.

[*Ali*]

Yes you have to be a bit creative with meals when they nap at funny times. I would do either a big snack or half of lunch just before the nap and then lunch or the rest of lunch just after the nap, depending on when your LOs are most hungry.
What do you think is your LOs' ideal A time after a dedent nap? I would just make BT that length of time after the nap. So my DS's ideal A time is 5hrs after a 1.5hr or more nap so if he woke at 1pm then BT would be 6pm and if he woke at 2pm BT would be 7pm and so on.
So based on your 2 nap day routine, moving to a 6hr first A is a huge jump and I would recommend you do a much earlier nap and then move it later gradually based on their cues of when they are ready to do so.
Do you think they are ready to move to 1 nap already? If they are used to napping at 9.40am I would be tempted to keep the 2 naps for a while longer and gradually push that nap later and later so that you are gradually increasing A time. You know your LOs though so if you think they would be happier on one nap then do it by all means but I would definitely go with a much earlier time for it.
What do you think?

[torontotwinmom]

I have no idea what their ideal A time is.  We've been doing naps by the clock for the last 5 months or so, and it's worked well for us. Since Feb I've been doing bedtime no more than 4 hours from last nap.

Their morning nap was short (30mins), and I always had to wake them up from it.  They do have a little mini-nap each morning now (en route to or from our morning activity).  I'm surprised that the morning nap should be that much earlier?

[Bex09]

Hi, I am just after a little advice please with my DD's day. She has moved pretty well on to one nap now after months of muddling through the transition. For the most part her day goes...

wu - 7.00
S - 12.00-2.00 (sometimes 2.30)
BT - 7.00

Which is great. The problem is a few times a week she will wu at 6.00am. I know an 11h night is still good, but I then struggle with the next day in terms of shifting everything and she usually ends up doing a 13h day, which encourages the 11h night again and we get into a loop. I am wondering if the 13h day is causing OT, which then causes the 6am wu. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

[*Ali*]

Their morning nap was short (30mins), and I always had to wake them up from it.  They do have a little mini-nap each morning now (en route to or from our morning activity).  I'm surprised that the morning nap should be that much earlier?

Not quite sure if I completely understand, sorry. I think I might have not explained myself well though. I meant if you do one nap then that should be much earlier than 1pm so that they aren't awake from 7am to 1pm. Does that make sense?
Bex, I think you have a few options:
You can either keep her nap at 12 even if she wakes early. If you do this though I would try to keep the last hour low key like quietly reading or listening to music etc.
Or you can try to keep the nap 5hrs after her WU and see if she sleeps longer.  If she doesn't I would go with an earlier BT so she isn't awake longer than 5hrs after the nap then hope she sleeps until her usual WU time the next day.
Alternatively you could try for a 2-nap day but keep one of the naps supershort (20mins) followed by a short A time. 
You may have to play around with with these options to see which suits her best. Personally I normally go by A time from WU but don't let my DS nap before a certain time.