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

[Lemonthyme]

I am having some success with taking him out for a short (AP) nap in the morning either in his pushchair or car, I'm talking mega short, only 5-15 mins.  Then he goes down for an afternoon nap in his cot without complaint.  It's not pushed back the EW much yet (5am today but a week ago 4:30am wasn't uncommon) but my next tactic is I'm going to get thicker curtains for our hallway as I think light is coming in when we resettle him from his early wakings.

[Bex09]

Can I just ask you all, what kind of routine you have when your LO sleeps for 11hr nights and not 12? My DD was doing 12 hrs when we first went down to one nap and everything fitted in great. But now we are having a bit of a dodgy patch where she is tending to do between 11 and 11.5 hr nights again. Now I know that isn't bad for her age at all, but I am finding that with an A time of 5 hrs (ish) I am finding it hard to get her day to be 13 hrs. Should I try to push both her A times to 5.5 hrs? She can handle that A time usually. What do you think?

[Ambinsi]

To Bex09 -
I had no idea their day "should" be 13 hours...do you mean to the minute?? I never worried about that at all, maybe I should. I didn't think a half hour here or there was a big deal (I can't stress the clock too much, I'll make myself nuts). Now I'm wondering if that has anything to do with our rocky 2-1 transition. Interested to read what others respond!

[Bex09]

lol Ambinsi! No your day doesn't have to be a set amount of hours at all hun, sorry I didn't mean to worry you!  I haven't explained myself very well have I? When DD first went to one nap she was having a 12h (ish) day and a 12h night from 7pm until 7am, which was wonderful. But recently she seems to be wanting an 11 h night, so if I stick to a 12h day (5h A time, 2h nap, 5h A time) then she does an 11h night each day her wu will get earlier and earlier iyswim? So if she wakes at 6am, does 5h A time, nap will be 11.00-1.00, 5h A time will put BT at 6pm. But she then does another 11h night, she wakes at 5am and so on. I have tried pushing her A time to 5.5h today and so far so good, so we have done...

wu - 6.30am
A time -5.5h
12.00- 1.50 (usually 2 hrs though  )
A time - 5h 40
BT - 7.30pm (hoping for an 11h or more night so wu of at least 6.30 again)

I was just posting to see if anyone else had a routine that was based on an 11hr night really for ideas. Sorry again if I confussed you.

[Ambinsi]

I totally get what you are saying....if you explained this in a previous post I didn't see it which would explain my confusion. I just kind of jumped in here to vent about my own drama, lol. How rude, right?? Sorry again, but yes what you're saying makes total sense.

I'm very impressed that your DD can handle that much A time....mine seems to be hovering between 4-5 hours at the most. I've tried to slowly extend it but the more I push it the more OT she seems to get. I've kind of taken a step back, so today was a 2 nap day. Ugh.

[*Ali*]

Does she automatically wake at 2hrs Bex or do you wake her if she is still asleep after that long? I would be tempted to let her sleep and see if she still does 11hr nights. So if you want a 5hr A time and 7pm BT let her sleep until 2pm whatever length that would make the nap.
Our routine when Cadan only sleeps 11hrs (instead of his usual 11.5hrs) is roughly
07.00 WU
A= 5hr30 (instead of his usual 5hr15)
12.30-14.45 Nap (usually 2hr15 naturally but I let him sleep until 3pm if he wants)
A = 5hr15 (or whatever is left until 8pm BT)

We also had a 12hr night with 3hr nap and 4.5hr A times when we first moved to 1 nap just after 12mo. Shame they don't stay on that routine a little longer eh?
HTH.

[lulunut]

Lemonthyme-My Lo did EW's FOREVER!!!  I remember being frustrated because he couldn't make it to 12pm because he was up at 5am. I felt so stuck on 2 naps.  I started to AP him in a bed on the floor in his room.  He would most times sleep an extra 1-1.5 hours.  Then I started to push his am A time.  It didn't happen until about well, just recently about 17-18mts that he has been sleeping later.  He does about 5:45am now.  I still do the same thing and some days he will sleep until 6:30.  He does good A times now so I can push him until 12pm if I keep him busy, but if we go anywhere in the care after 10am he falls asleep and i am stuck with a CN before dinner.  So I try really hard not to do that!
Bex-we do 10-11hr night here.  This works well for us.
        approx 6am wake
                  12pm nap 1.5-2 hours( I found that longer than 2hrs leads to EW for him the next day)
                  7:30BT
Ambinsi-hugs for you!  Stay strong, you may still have a bit of 1 or 2 nap days ahead of you.  I also found that it depended on our schedule for the day and what time he woke up.  I just went with it.  It all worked out in the end.  It wasn't until about 16-17mts that I just went with the push and waited out the few days of OT.  We still have the odd 2 nap day now.

[Lemonthyme]

Thank you.  I've tried so much and he was awake at 4:40am today.  Maybe it's just that he's in a transition period and needs to get through it.

[newmama12]

Hi everyone! I posted a thread, earlier today in the nap section and it was moved here. It was about the 2-1 transition and EWs. Just saw this thread, so I thought I'd pop in here!

My ds will be 1 tomorrow! I am trying to, slowly, move him towards a one nap day b/c his EW's are getting to be too much. He's a great night sleeper, a great day sleeper (3 hours most days), but his nights are getting shorter and shorter.

A typical day for him looks something like this...

5:00/5:15am WU
8:45-9:45 (sometimes 1.5 hours) nap
1:00/1:15-2:45 nap
7:00 BT and asleep

I know that he needs to sleep less during the day, so that he can (hopefully) sleep more during the night. We're averaging 10 hours at night now. He use to do 11, with the same naps. I think he'll do better with a short AM/long PM. Problem is he likes a short A in the morning. He's usually tired after about 3 hours. That only puts us at 8am. I hold him off till 8:45/9 most days and I've been waking him after an hour. Today I woke him after 45. He's down for the PM nap and I'll have to wake him after 1.5 b/c I need to leave for somewhere.

Anyways, 'HI!" LOL! I'm here, in the same boat, as the rest of you. Hoping to get advice and support on moving to one nap and getting rid of these awful EWs!

[b_mum]

Hello,
Thought I would join in here because DS (13mo) has been refusing his pm nap for a few weeks. He went back to 2 naps after a few late nights when we were away for a wedding, but is back to screaming in the afternoon this week. I am trying to shorten his am nap starting today. Hopefully I can get in another nap this afternoon!

[Bex09]

Ali - sorry I haven't replied to your question sooner. DD will sometimes sleep 2.5h for her nap but usually wakes at the 2h mark. Recently I have started waking her after 2hs though because if she sleeps longer then we seem to get shorter nights. I have actually pushed her A time to bed out a bit to make for a later BT and it has worked a treat, fingers crossed. She seems to prefer a later BT or more A to bed (not sure which) but she is doing about 12h at night again... for a week now... yay. She actually did from 7.30pm until I woke her at 8.30am the other day and she still didn't want to get up!

lulunut - thanks for the routine. The later BT has really helped us so far. Hope it stays that way.

Ambinsi - DD has always had higher than average A times, even as a newborn, so don't worry. Doesn't always work well though... today we went to the zoo all day and she didn't sleep from wu of 8am until we came home in the car at 4.30pm! She had 20 mins sleep all day. Who knows what tonight will bring.

[scucci1979]

Ladies, may I join? I figure since your los are a little older, you have more experience. Alyssa will be one on August 16th.  I have hit a little bump during this 2-1. She is on the higher side of A times and we started the transition by doing long am/short pm nap.  We struggled with Ews for a while and then  nights went to 10.5hours. when we moved to one nap she was doing 12 hour nights. This was just this week.  Now for the last two mornings she is waking early again and nights are back down to 10hrs. I assume she is a little OT b/c of the one nap.  I don't know.

Do you see anything that I don't!

Sun
wake up at 6:45am
nap 12:10-2:25pm
bed and asleep by 7:10pm

Mon
wake up at 7am
nap 12:30-2:30pm
bed and asleep by 7pm
nw at 3am( I suspect teething)

Tues
wake up at 7am
nap 12-1:35pm (couldn't extend)
bed and asleep by 7pm
I tried to fit in a CN as were out but she wouldn't go to sleep, so hubby said why not keep her up. I probably should of put her down at 6:30pm
nw 8:20pm (OT)

Wed
wake up at 6am, was able to pat her back to sleep until 6:45am. (she was in and out of sleep)
tried for an 11am nap but started playing so I took her out and put her down at 12pm. woke up at 1pm screaming, arching her back and rolling around. I suspect pain here. Got her back down until 2pm.
bed 7pm
then the ew began. I did two naps yesterday but again another ew this morning-it was 5:20am. Yikes. I tried for one hr to put her down but nothing.

hoping to get some new eyes, support and ideas.

[*Ali*]

Welcome Sabrina. I suspect on Tuesday she short napped because she went down too early. I understand why you did that after a NW though. Maybe it was just too early for her if her body clock has been used to going down at 12.30 lately. Then as you already realised she probably needed to have an early night to avoid the OT which is probably what caused her to NW and EW.
What do you think was causing the pain that caused her to wake from her nap on  Wednesday? Teeth? Reflux? Can you medicate for it before the nap if teeth? You might have to accept her routine will be a little off until the teeth come through if she is indeed teething.
Since keeping her A time short doesn't seem to be working for her what about doing set naps at 12.30 for a few days and seeing if that helps her get back into the routine that seemed to be working for before?
Once we moved to one nap at 12.5mo I found it impossible to get any 2 nap days out of my DS unless he was woken early by something (or me) and both naps were short, UT in the car (which we hardly ever use). And he isn't hight sleep needs we did 4.5hr A times before and after a 3hr nap. Even now at 19mo our ideal days are 5hr15 A time followed by a 2hr15 nap and a 5hr A time.
What do you think?

[scucci1979]

that makes sense. I think you may be onto something.  It is now 11am and she seems to be in a pleasant mood. I was going to put her down at 12pm for a one nap day. I am now finding that two nap days gives me shorter nights.  The thing that got me upset was that on Thursday we had a perfect easy. She woke up at 7am, napped from 12:30-2:40pm and was in bed and asleep by 8pm.  She woke up at 6am. I couldn't figure out why she did such a short night. Could it be that a 2hr nap is her limit on one nap days.  She is so different from DD1. DD1 transitioned so easily and is a high sleep need girl.

[*Ali*]

Her BT on Thursday seems late compared to what she was doing on the other days you posted. Maybe it was too late and she was restless from OT when she woke at 6am the next morning...?
Maybe try the set nap time for a week or so and if that isn't working try capping the nap. I am always hesitant to cap naps since DS is generally unhappy if I wake him.