Anyone Want To Talk About the 2-1 Transition? Thread #13

[EloysH]

well  I tried for a cat nap at 4:30pm after 3.5 hours A time, what a joke. He just stood in the cot moaning like he was bored 

So I went for early bedtime, it took an hour to get the critter down, I started him at 6pm, not alseep till 7,so it was an awful  5.5hour stretch again.  Please please I hope he doesn't wakle heaps of times tonight again!  He only had 1 hr 15 mins day sleep yikes!

Well I am looking forward to an EW tomorrow....at least we can have a two nap day 

Karen,  that sounds like it ended up pretty well then... good boy for going back to sleep!

Kim, glad to hear that Ew's went away after a while 

Clare: I would totally be  aiming for one nap now if I were you... I can't believe you have been so self sacraficial for so long and APOPing that last nap.. he is a lucky boy  .  I did similar stuff with my Ds1, I used to drive him in the car everytime he refused his afternoon nap!   I don't think 12 months is too early.  Ds1 transitioned properly by 11 months, but he was refusing his cat nap for about 4 weeks before that 

Megan: sounds promising!

[Buntybear]

Thanks, need some reassurance! 

[EloysH]

yay! K hasn't woken so far its 9:15 pm    I think he might be down for the night.

[sianie]

I agree Eloise, I think once the 2nd nap becomes too late in the day &/or it's a nightmare to get them down for then I would drop it in favour of an early BT. I also think that doing this helps their body clocks to adjust to 1 nap much better....I think sometimes doing some 2 nap days followed by 1 nap days can throw them a bit & mess their sleep up.

I went cold turkey with DD when she went to 1 nap (although she was 14/15 mo so able to handle the increase in A time a lot better)....we just pushed her AM nap later, dropped the PM nap & did early BT's & just rode out the OT for a few days until she adjusted. Of course this doesn't work for everyone!

Claire, hopefully once Olly adjusts to nursery he'll start sleeping longer there so you can do more 1 nap days!

[~Karen~]

Yay Eloys!  I know it's good that he'll go back to sleep but I know he's waking up because he's OT so need to get back on top of that.  Have put him down for morning nap but he's still having a chat to himself!  

[sianie]

FX Eloise!

BTW, congrats Claire & Karen on your green stars! 

[kimmbba]

Eloise, how did the rest of the night go?

So Sian you said something that made me think about another thing.  Do they adjust and "get over" the OT eventually...I mean in theory if they begin to sleep better this would happen, but do they ever reach a point where they are just so tired that they'll sleep longer/more because they have to?

My hesitance all along to just go for it with the one nap was the fear of OT and the nightmare stories I've heard about built up OT.  At the moment, I think that's part of Ethan's issue, but the runny nose isn't helping I'm sure.  Yesterday, I got him to take the CN, he was miserable when I woke him, fell asleep about 7pm, and was still up at 5:30 wide awake!  So he really didn't gain much there.

[Daylene]

Kim ~ I have a theory about this.  It's not rocket science.  The only way for them to "get over" OT is if they get more sleep.  Just cutting down A times and squeezing in 2 naps isn't a guarantee this will happen, though for some LO's it helps, I'm sure.  Not so much for Tara.  When Tara is OT, I can cut her A times by 15 minutes, that's all, because if I try more she gets into an UT/OT loop that doesn't solve anything.  And giving her 2 naps means I have 3 A times to factor in, which means less night sleep.  If your LO doesn't sleep much at night and just flat out won't, then giving him an early BT probably won't help him catch up.  Although as they get older, they do learn to sleep more at night and less during the day.  Gradually.

What Sian mentioned actually does work pretty well with Tara.  A little OT, she's fussy, wakes early from naps, etc.  But at a certain point she actually does start sleeping more to catch up.  I'm not so scared of the OT build-up because I know from experience she has a sort of "reset button."  I'm sure not all babies do this, but apparently some do.  Somebody said (I wish I could remember who) that spirited babies sleep well when their A times are just right or waaaaaay too long.  That's Tara.  A little OT is bad, but a lot of OT is actually good, because then she starts to sleep well again.

[sianie]

Hey Kim!

I think it depends, to an extent. on your LO's temperament. DD, although a spirited little madam has always been angel/textbook when it comes to sleeping so she's always dealt with OT pretty well. With her I knew that after a few rough days of her being tired she would just adjust & start doing longer nights to compensate, which she did. From then until now (she's starting to drop her nap completely  !) her routine has been pretty much the same. DS on the other hand is a lot more sensitive when it comes to sleep & does get affected by OT (NW's/EW's etc).

I think where you're coming from with the OT build up etc is true, especially with younger LO's during 2:1 as they are a lot more prone to OT. DD was 14/15 mo when she went to 1 nap so was able to handle it a lot better than a 10/11 mo iyswim? But I've also found that the CN can be more trouble than it's worth sometimes during the transition so personally I would favour an early BT (plus NT sleep is much more restorative that DT sleep). Sorry this has got long-winded, lol!

[kimmbba]

Thanks ladies...I know this has been said before, but I thought I needed to try to get him to do 2 naps.  Maybe it's because I keep hearing that he's too young for the switch...but I think you're right the CN is NOT working and I think I just need to accept an early BT and "early" wake up and just go from there.

I'm back to two NW at this point again, that I need to get rid of but I'm going to tackle one thing at a time...

[~Karen~]

We did two naps today and he defiantly needs two naps.  They were both about 1h 10mins and I woke him up from the second one.  We basically get two naps totalling about 2.5/3 hours, followed by a 10.5/11 hour night.  Or if he sleeps in and we have to do a one nap day he's only been sleeping about 1.5 hours and then about 13 hours at night.  However, I'm getting an OT nw if that happens which makes me realise he still needs the two naps. 

[~Karen~]

Congrats on your stars Sian!

[sianie]

Thanks Karen....you too! 

Kim, he's not necessarily too young to go to 1 nap, every LO is different & some do transition early, you need to do what works for you & Ethan. If the CN just isn't working then I would stick with your 1 nap & early BT for a few days then re-evaluate how it's going. Keep us posted! 

[Edesanja]

Our routine that we've had since 6.5 months and has only needed minor tweaks needs something a bit more dramatic (he's almost 10 months now). I have only skimmed back a couple of pages but is there anyone else doing short AM, long PM??

Until last week our routine was
W 645
Nap 1 1015-1100
Nap 2 1400-1530/1545
Bed 1900
Asleep before 1930

now he's rolling around and fussing when I put him down and doesn't sleep till 1040. I think I still need to wake him by 1100 though to get a good PM nap and not have it start and end too late.

I just looked up my notes from when DD was doing 2-1 (we started 45min naps until 10 months, 30 mins at 13 months 20min naps until 15months). So I think I'm going to try 20-30 min nap so that he is up by 1100 and then 2hrs30A time. (this is what I did yesterday and he was really fragile between naps. Hope he gets used to it soon!)

DD is talking up a storm in my ear so I hope this makes sense. I better go play!

[~Karen~]

Jenny - That sounds like a plan.  We're still doing long am nap/short pm nap generally although today was 2 x 1h 10min naps and that worked quite well as well.