Throwing lovey and 1 nap days

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Hi ladies....

A couple of new things have popped up for us in the past couple of days that I'm not sure how to deal with.

The first is that Austin has started throwing his lovey out of the crib when he's supposed to be going to sleep.  Then he screams bloody murder until I go and give it back.  After we do this a couple of times it's usually later than it should be so I usually shh/pat him (with a firm hand on his bottom so he can't get up!) and he goes down.  Any tips to get him past this one or is it just a phase we'll have to deal with?

Also, we're out of town for this whole month in a new city where I'm working at the moment.  There are lots of new places to see and explore but our current EASY is kind of restrictive.  Today we went for a hike in the last A time, which worked pretty well except for the fact that we were basically running down the mountain to get home for dinner/winddown/BT on time!!   Of course Austin's sleep is really, really important to us but he is getting much more flexible in his old age () so I'm thinking that it would be ok to occasionally do a 1 nap day so we could do some fun stuff like the zoo?

Here's our current EASY...

6/6:30 - wake up, play in crib in dark
7 - out of bed, BF
8:15 - Breakfast
9:45 - Sleep
10:15 - Wake him
11:45 - Lunch
12:30 - BF
1 - Sleep
3 - Awake (usually have to wake him)
6:00 - Dinner
7 - Bath, BF, story
7:30 - Bed

So if I were going to push him to do 1 nap one of these days, how would you suggest I try doing it?  Last weekend when we were getting in the car for a long trip (and he doesn't sleep well at all in the car - I know, I know, so strange! ) I let him sleep as long as he would for his AM nap and he slept 1h45!  So maybe I just push out that first A time a bit more and hope for a longer nap and then an early-ish BT?

Thanks so much! 

[mylittlelovelies]

Hi!
i'm not sure if this idea would help you, but we went to the zoo recently when our DD was 1 year exactly (so only a tad older than your LO) and we gave her a little bit more morning A time (say a 10am nap) let her go as long as she wanted...to 11:30ish i think it was and then went to the zoo. We actually stayed for AGES past her next A time/ sleep time and she eventually fell asleep in the car on the way home at about 5pm...she never does an A time that long usually, but she coped well because she was so interested in looking at things, plus i have an Ergo baby carrier so put her in the back pack on my back for the last couple of hours so she was close to me but could still see everything and that worked brilliantly. I actually think she would have fallen asleep on my back if we'd stayed another half hour, but we went back to the car. So then i only let her have 30 mins and woke her at 5:30ish...she wasn't happy but then back to bed about 7:30pm. It wouldn't be what i'd want to do every day as she was a bit tired the next morning, but it gave us plenty of time at the zoo and she still had that last late cat nap so she wasn't too OT at bedtime.

Usually we do the short AM / long PM nap situation (like you posted)...so this was kind of the opposite to usual but it worked well.

Good luck working it out! someone else might give you better advice on just doing 1 nap...i haven't quite hit 1 nap territory yet so am muddling through all that myself still!

Jessie

[mylittlelovelies]

oh, also my DD has had patches of throwing her lovey (a blanket) and dummy out of the cot too...and its usually because she's UT for the nap and just doesn't want to go to sleep. Just like you did i could prob pat/shh her to sleep, but its usually a sign she needs a little more A before the nap so she's tired and cooperates with going to bed.

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Thanks so much, Jessie!   So glad your zoo trip worked out well.  I was thinking I'd try something similar to what you posted so perhaps I'll go for that.

Good thought about the lovey-throwing.  Perhaps he's ready for 3h after the 30 min AM nap.

We will get through the 2-1!!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

PS - Just had major fits and lovey throwing and PM nap refusal for a bit.  You're right - definitely UT!  Will stretch that A time tomorrow.  You'd think I'd have this down by now.   These LOs keep us on our toes, huh?

[Tweakster]

Kate if you are working towards 1 nap you can always drop the AM back to 20 mins.  It's like a non-nap really.  They normally can do between 2 hr 30 - 3 hr after 20 mins.

Enjoy your trip, and yes, go out and work around it.  Really the experiences for Austin outweigh any OT in my opinion.  He'll have so much fun!!!

FWIW Finn throws everything out of his crib, including pillow, all the time.  It's just what he does.  Now when he does it he says 'uh oh' after each throw.  Fun times hehe.

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Hey Wendy!

So you think it would be better to just go to a 20 min AM rather than push out the A time?  I guess that makes sense if I'm trying to get him there anyhow.  I guess it just feels so early to go to 1 nap (since the 20 min is basically the last step, right?) but I suppose they're all so different.  Today his long nap was cr*p so he's going down (well fighting going down anyhow) now - 6:50 here.  Makes me nervous for 1 nap - so much less flexibility!  But I guess that's just how it goes, huh?

Good to know that Austin is following Finn's lead on being a thrower.  What fun this is!  I'd prefer 'uh-oh' to all out screaming, though!  I suppose he needs to say a few other words first, though.

I like your new avatar!  Very appropriate to the season!  I need to get a new one up soon....

[Tweakster]

Yeah 20 mins can be the last step, but really, LO's can do well on a 20 min AM/long PM until they are ready to move to 1 nap.  Lots of LO's are still doing that up to 18 mths!  I think it's best to find what works for your boy.  If he's UT you can push the A time for sure and see what happens :-) One of your questions was how to push to 1 nap and that would be my 2c on the matter,  just throwing other ideas out there if that first bit don't work.

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Gotcha.  I never mind 2 more cents!   I'll chat it over with DH and see what he wants to do (as of Tuesday he's the full time parent and I'm the part-timer!! ).