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

[Buntybear]

Oh dear well I would have left him but didn't realise DH had gone in to try and get him back to sleep. Then brought him in to me at about 6. Didn't sleep tho. Still an early start is my excuse for rocky road for breakfast!

[Jodieplus2]

Hi
I wonder if anyone can help me. My little boy is 14 months old and I think ready for the transition, as he has been waking chatting for the day at 5am just lately, and sometimes he no longer settles straight to sleep at 6.30-7pm..
His current routine is as follows:

Wake- anywhere between 5-6am
Nap- around 9.30-9.45am- although I think I can start pushing this later now. I normally wake him from this at 11am, in order to get him down for a second nap by 2pm
I wake him at 3pm from this, so sleeps 45-mins to an hour. Our problem is that we have to go on the school run for my older buy at 3pm, so I am starting to struggle to fit 2 naps in now.
Bed- 6.30-7pm.

Can anyone confirm that I am right in doing the following, and do you think he is ready for it?
Pushing his morning nap until later, waking him at 11am, so I can still get him down for a short afternoon nap about 2pm. Gradually shortening the afternoon nap as AM nap gets later until eventually get AM nap to late morning- let him sleep as long as he likes and knock out PM nap.
Hope that isn't too confusing, just need a little reassurance that it's the right way to do it.
Any other tips would be great please.
Thanks!
Jx

[Buntybear]

Jodie - this is what I plan to do. Alternatively you may want to go for a short am/long pm nap but that may not fit with the school run. In the meantime you may want to think about capping that second nap to 40 mins and then 30 mins etc? That is what I am trying (not that it helped today - see above!).

[lulunut]

Wow!  I love to read everyone's thoughts.  It really is trial and error.  I am still getting the 5am.  Looks like it's common!

Daylene-what is your schedule on one nap days?

[~Karen~]

For those of you who know me you'll know that I change my mind with regards to sleep routines on a regular basis.  For those who don't know me so well, you'll get used to it, lol!

So........we've had to do a one nap day seeing as he went back to sleep till after 8am this morning.  I also had plans with a friend to go to a baby rhyme time this morning so glad he went back to sleep otherwise wouldn't have been able to go. 

So........from today I'm going to try and do one nap days.  He's not ready for it but he's all over the place for sleep and the only "routine" I can stick by in an afternoon nap between the hours of 1230pm-3pm (yeah, great if he napped that long hey?!).  I'm hoping that as he's an "angel" baby he'll just get used to it and adapt pretty well. 

Will let you know how we're getting on.  Of course if he keeps pulling ew then this ain't gonna happen!  Oh and I'll probably have changed my mind again by tomorrow and have him back on two naps 

[bug_blues70]

Wow, I got behind and then kept putting off catching up and now I'm like 5 pages behind!! Skimmed, but don't remember much.

Good luck to everyone!

Claire - you mentioned possibly too much day sleep? That can cause restless nights for Ellen - in fact I think that's what's been going on lately and I just realized it yesterday. We've had horrible nights for so long and I think it's b/c I've been pushing so hard for one nap that I lost sight of what was best and what might work for Ellen. I've been letting her sleep her 2-2.5 hrs in the morning always hoping for a 1n day (and enjoying the me time!!) and then sometimes had to put in a CN anyway to help her make it. Well, she's not ready for 1n and the 2hr+ nap with a CN is apparently way too much day sleep. 3 hrs used to be her max, but looks like not anymore. So yesterday I tried capping her first nap to 1.5 hrs and doing a 20 min CN. Last night was the best night we've had in a looong time. She only woke once and it was b/c our pilot light went out and she was really cold.  This morning I had to wake her from a pretty deep sleep at 6am, which was 11 hrs of NS b/c we had toddler group this morning  and I wanted to be able to get a CN in before the group. It was cancelled anyway cuz their heater broke   So instead of an EW (which I've been getting lots of) or even an 11 hr night after 2 naps, I wonder how long she would have slept... hopefully 12!!! We'll see tomorrow

[sherry lynn]

Megan - that's great news. I would stick with that routine for a little while. That is almost exactly DS1 routine in reverse right before he was finally able to make it on one nap.

Karen - I think that the one nap might help with the EW, being that he is an angel baby, and I'd bet he will adapt really easily and start waking at 8. If he wakes at 8 it seems that he might be able to make it on one nap ?

Jodie - the only "problem" I think you might run into is that the catnap HAS to be over at 3.  I think that will make the pm cat nap harder to work around. Since your LO wakes earlier, I think you could try the AM catnap longer PM nap, end at 3 and then still do bed sometime between 6 and 6:30. OR Which I think you would probably like more.... push out that AM nap, push it has much as you can get away with. That might help with the 5 wakings. And then, do the PM catnap when you get back from the school run? Or maybe he'll take it in the car while you run errands?

[~Karen~]

Thanks Sher.  I just don't know what's going on with him right now.  Yesterday we had a 35 min morning nap and a 1.5 hour afternoon nap so not too bad and then he just wouldn't go down at night.  He was asleep by 630pm tonight so hoping for a good night.  We may have some 5/530am feeds for a little while but as long as he goes back to sleep after so I can keep trying one nap days then I don't care!  Although you know I'm going to have an ew so have to do two naps tomorrow now don't you, lol!

[Buntybear]

Megan - that is exactly our routine for the last few days. What A times are you doing??

Well we are kind of being forced back into the transition by starting nursery. They prefer to do a nap after lunch but Olly was asleep by 10.30 today at home as he was up so early! Cripes! Feeling bit better about how they are going to get him down as keep being told by other mums and the staff that amazingly they all do go down. Just worried about routine and OT.

Karen, you are like me! Took me forever to decide to go with 2 naps and it has only lasted a week before nursery changes it! You do seem a lot more laid back about it all tho   I am a nervous wreck worrying if I am stunting his development or the like! (well maybe a bit of an exageration but as a first time mum I am bound to worry a bit!)

[Buntybear]

Karen - so you are feeding at the EW?? I am in 2 minds about that as well! Feed and see if he back to sleep or not feed (as we are trying to ger rid of NFs) and see if he goes back to sleep. Obv feeding him makes it more likely he will. Ohhh I don't know 

[sherry lynn]

BB don't let Karen fool you too too much.... it's because he has an angel baby who doesn't keep her up at night like Emory does me and Olly does you  She wasn't AS laid back with Ethan.... but she was still WAY more laid back than I was I wish she lived closer to me so that positive energy and relaxation could rub off on me a little.

Good luck Karen - this age is when that 5/5:30 feeding becomes tricky as they sometimes don't like to go back to sleep. But, if anybody can pull it off he can. I know after 10.5-11 hours of night sleep there is NO WAY lyle or ethan would have gone back to sleep at that time in the morning.

[sherry lynn]

BB - honestly - at this point in the game. If I were you.. I would try to feed and just see. At least for a few days. BUT... put him back in his own bed. That's harder on you, because you don't get to go back to sleep.... but... I think in the long run it would be worth it, what do you think?

[kimmbba]

Megan, I too have to make sure Ethan doesn't sleep too much or he has restless nights, resulting in a crappy day the next day.  I think the right amount for him at the moment is 1:45-2 hours because it seems when I let him get more he has a bad night.  Is Ellen generally waking early??

BB, I'm still feeding Ethan at 5am nearly every morning so that he sleeps until 7.  I tried to stop it, but with DH gone and things I want to do during the day, the possiblilty of being up at 5 for the day hasn't been a great option.  I don't have anything going on now for several days so maybe I'll see if I can bring myself to give it another shot tomorrow.  I was going to try W2S first...then I'll try a sippy of water.  Otherwise, if these don't work, I'll probably just go back to giving him milk for a little while and try again later.

[~Karen~]

Claire - That's exactly what's been happening here.  If I feed him, he generally goes back to sleep, if I don't he doesn't.  I can't win.  Been worried about his overall sleep so been sucked in to feeding so he'll go back to sleep!  

Sherry - Lol!  Oh boy were things different with a touchy/OT/oversensitive Ethan baby!  If I put him to bed at 630pm he'd be up at 430am!  Lewis playing up a bit doesn't seem so bad all of a sudden, lol!  

[lilybug25]

Lo woke up today at 6:30am so she had a 11hr night, I was going to do a 2 nap day but I have a friend coming over between 2-4 today so I know LO won't go down when she is here,(LO loves this lady so so much!). And even if I tried a c/n after my friend left Lo would either a) have a breakdown and just cry for the whole 45 mins or b) sleep but not go to bed till 9pm! So DH put LO down at 11am and I am letting her sleep for how ever long she wants( almost 2 hrs now) If she gets to 1:30pm I'll be happy as then I can put her to bed at 6:30 after a 5 hr a time.
I just wish she would sleep till 2 pm though, oh how I wish( tv off/ phones turned off/ I stopped cleaning and am sitting on the couch with the laptop and a book holding my breath LOL )