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

[lulunut]

Great news Spodnic!  That is wonderful!  I hope it continues this well for you from here on in!

It's good to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!!!

[ccaawc]

wow, spodnic, so happy for u!

we are not doing too good here. mostly becos it is Easter holidays and we are out all day and sometimes dine out as well.

We had a 7.5hr nite last nite, and we had no STTN for almost 3 weeks. naps has extended to 2+hrs but A times have shorten to 3-4 hrs. I think dd is very OT.

I am thinking if I should let dd nap for as long as she wants during the day to catch up or if I should limit her nap so she does longer nite, but she doesn't sleep in no matter what.

really need some sleep....for myself

[lulunut]

cc-sorry you are not getting much sleep right now.  I found that when I shortened his A times he slept better at night.  
it has reduced the EW and NW.

I wanted to give him 5A times to get him to 1nap but he only slept an hour.  So I cut his A time to 4 and he does 1hour.  His next A time is 3-4. I watch for cues.  He will sleep 45-70 min.  Then last A time is 4-4.5. So he gets 2hrs naps in and he has been doing 10-11hr nights.  He is just not ready for 1 nap yet.  I sucks because I don't get Y time during the day but I spend that time with DD doing "school work."  It's also calmer with 1 child than 2 so I get to have a cup of Jo.  I also goto bed earlier so that I can deal with the 2 during the day.

It's hard but I know eventually we will get there!  Chin up!

Also if you choose to limit her nap it could backfire or set a time that she can't sleep past to allow for max A time before BT.  Just my thoughts!

[Mama2C]

So DS was on 2 naps (6:30 wake, 9:45-10:30 nap - i wake him, 2-3:30 nap - i wake him, 7:30 bt) then I cut to 1 nap as he was waking up early (like 5:30, bright eyed and happy) so we did 5:30 wake, 12-2:30 (or 3) nap and 8pm BT. But still the 5:30 wake ups continued. We did the 1 nap routine for 4 days and we thought he was doing so well. WELL last night hit - in bed and asleep at 8 and then awake from 10:40pm-12:40am crying, unable to settle, jolting awake, needing to be cuddled (he is never like this!) and just showing signs of OT...his molars are coming but don't usually bug him much at night and I have him meds at 11pm and they ddin't help at all. Anyway, he was finally settled at 12:40am and woke up at 5:30 again crying, jolting awake, etc...I settled him on/off until I gave up and started the morning at 7:30...so today we try 2 naps. He had a nap at 9:15 and woke up in a mess of tears at 10 (the dreaded 45 min OT sign in our house!). Anyway, next nap was at 1 and so far he is sleeping for 2 hrs...

I will do a 7pm BT (before he gets OT)...what do you think? To me it seems like he was OT (jolting awake etc)...back to 2 naps it seems...

[jackman]

Mama2C - I would agree that it sounds like OT. If anything you might want to try alternating 1 and 2 nap days, especially with a 5:30am WU. Although your lo napped 3hrs, having several days with 1 nap on such an early WU and long A's will lead to OT accumulation. My DS is 16mo and right now he wakes at 6ish and his nap is at 11:30am. So I think until your DS can handle longer A's without severe OT that surfaces after several days, I would try and do 2 nap days. It is unfortunate as the 2 naps are such a pain!! Hope your night is better.

[Mama2C]

Thanks jackman! I think it might be a combo of OT and teeth...had a look in his mouth and I see at least 2, possibly 3 molars coming...he has been showing signs of teething the last couple of days... tonight I put him to bed at 6:30 - gave him meds before - and he played in his bed for 30 mins and then just cried and cried for me. I finally had to pick him up and cuddle him and he just wanted to BF (A big teething sign). I let him BF a little while and then put him back down in his bed and just had to rub his back for about 30 mins until his eyes started to close. He didn't want his soother and just finally fell asleep frm exhaustion. I am a bit worried about how the night will go - expecting a really rough night...

[jackman]

Ahhhh teeth. Yes we are/have been going thru teething as well. Good that you gave meds at BT. If needed, try a dream meds around 2-3ish in the morn to get you thru and it might even help with the EWs. FX'd for a good night.

[Mama2C]

Teething can be horrible can't it? He got his first molar about a month ago and was great with it - but now it looks like THREE are coming at once. Poor baby! I was really worried that he would wake up at the 45 min point but so far he has been asleep for over an hour...so hopefully he can get some solid sleep and me too...
I will try the meds DF...last night and today I did ibuprofen but it didn't really seem to help so I might switch to tylenol...

[Mama2C]

Well, after a rough BT, the night was awesome. He was asleep at 7:40 and at 3:30am I gave him what was intended to be a meds DF but he woke up (he is a light sleeper). He sat up to take the meds and went right back to sleep. He slept until 7:30am!!!! He has never done a 12hr night! For the first time in a long while I woke up before him!!

SOOO what do I do today for naps?? Aim for one long one? What time? 12?? With an earlier BT and then perhaps tomorrow will be a 2 nap day? Or would you still do 2 naps?

[Mama2C]

Me again - so DS was getting cranky, and when I asked him if he wanted to sleep, he headed for the stairs, so off he went for a nap. I'll keep it short, like 20-30 mins (assuming he does sleep!) and then he can have a longer pm nap. My DD cut out her am nap at 13 months and it was a breeze for us so I am not used to these 2-1 transition problems!

[jackman]

Sorry I missed you Mama2c. There is probably a big time difference between where we live. I'm on the West Coast of the US.

I'm sooo glad your night was great! What do you think made the difference? It might have been the 2 naps and not pushing your DS to do one nap and causing OT. Sounds like your DS caught up with the 12hr night and still trying as he seems tired. When my DS has a good night, the next day he still seems a bit tired. I think it just takes their bodies a couple of days to recover from several days of OT. At this point, I would stick with the 2 naps even with the late WU as I think your lo is still quite young to be on one nap. Just to give you an idea of naps, when my DS was taking two we did something like this:
WU 6:30am
Nap 1 10:30am-noon
Nap 2 3:30pm-4pm
BT 7:30pm

We always did better with long am/short pm in case there was pm nap refusal in which case we did early BT. Hope your naps and night are a great one again!

[Mama2C]

We never could get the long am/short pm as we pick up DD from the bus at 3:50 so he could only ever take a pm nap at 4 and he'd be too wired to sleep after being out and seeing his sister come home! Short am/long pm is the only option until the summer.

I'm actually surprised he slept 12 hrs...I really think the meds DF made a difference. I tried tylenol instead of advil and it worked so well. He was stuck in this awful 5:30 WU for a week so I think the EWs plus 1 nap just completely did him in! Going back to 2 naps is definitely what he needs.

He was completely ready for his pm nap today at 1 so I just went with it. No point in pushing him to go longer when he is already trying to catch up...right?

The reason I wanted to go to 1 nap was that he was sleeping too much during the day (30-40 min AM and 2-2.5hr PM) and was only doing 10-10.5hrs at night...perhaps I should just start to cut back the pm nap? Aim for a 1.5hr pm nap? I just feel bad always having to wake him...

[jackman]

Good for you about following your DS' cues. That's always the best thing to do when they are sooo OT!!

Yes, I understand completely about trying to extend nights with one nap. That is a trap I think that alot of us fall into when we know we are in the midst of the 2-1. I tried the same thing when my DS turned one and it totally backfired on us. He was in an awful OT mess as he couldn't handle the A times needed to go to one nap (just keep in mind that lo's need to do at least 4.5-5hrs to trans to 1 nap). In the end, it took us a week to overcome the OT by going back to 2 naps and I did what you suggested, started cutting our naps. I would try a combo of 45min and 1.5hrs to see if it helps with NT sleep. I never really had luck with the 30min naps as I hated the thought of waking DS too. Basically, after trying 30min for about a week, we took the leap and that was around 15mo. Good luck.

Glad the dream meds worked. :-)

[*Ali*]

Mama2c, if by watching your LO's cues you find he is ready for a nap around 4.hrs A time I would let him sleep as long as he wants and do one nap day. Even if he only sleeps 2hrs you could do an early BT after another 4.5hrs. This is the typical routine we were doing at 13mo and it worked great especially when he was doing 3hr naps like your DS seems to also be able to do.
It could be that it was the massive 6.6hr A times after an EW at 5.30 and then another long A time resulting in a long day overall with BT at 8pm that was causing your LO to be so OT with one nap rather than just the one nap itself iyswim?
Anyway, if as Oanh says you find 3.5hrs is a better A time for him then 2 naps would be better.

[Mama2C]

Thanks so much for your replies jackman and Cadie's mum!!! He has always needed a short morning A time...as a newborn I would nurse him, change him, sing to him and put him to bed...about a 40 min A time! I'll try cutting his naps back for a bit and see how it goes...

We're also starting to experience SA at BT so I will need to find a board to figure that out!!