feeling VERY frustrated 2-1 transition

[AngelaF]

My DS is 14 months and has always been a pretty good sleeper, with daytime sleep going a bit wonky at transition times but I've always been able to sort it out. Lately, though, it's been terrible.

Last week, he took a good morning nap (10:15-11:30) on W, TH, F. He then napped from 2:30-4:30 on those days. It was bliss.

The last three days have been awful. He refuses to take a morning nap at all and when I put him down in the afternoon, it's a disaster. Saturday he slept for 20 min, yesterday for 30 min and today for an hour. I know he's overtired, but I can't figure out how to break the cycle. I've tried putting him down around 1:30, but he plays in his room until 2ish. Here's today's EASY

8:00 wake up
8:15 yogurt, applesauce, toast and milk in cup (the sippy is a whole other thread!)
10:15-11 tried to get him to nap and he just cried off and on the whole time. By 11 he was zoning and seemed like he might fall asleep but we had to be somewhere for the older kids at 11:45 so I had to get him up.
12 lunch
1:30 tried a bottle but only drank 3 or 4 oz, usually drinks 9 or 10
-put him in his crib right away and he was alseep by 1:45
3:00 woke up crying (this is new too. He used to wake up talking and laughing)


so far he's refused the bottle or any snack. He's just crawling around playing but every so often starts crying. I'm just at a loss.

He caught a cold on Sat. so I'm sure that's contributing to it, but this is ridiculous! Luckily, he's still sleeping well at night. Heck last night he slept from 6:30-8 this morning!

I need some consistency in our day! Help!

[anna*]

I know it's really hard with the bigger kids, but I think if he skips his morning nap he will need his 'one' nap much much earlier than 1.30pm. As you've found, he's hugely OT by then. If his normal wake up time is 8am, I would try to have his nap no later than 12.30, maybe even earlier - that might mean you need to do a couple of big snacks rather than a proper lunch.

[AngelaF]

thanks for moving me! As soon as I posted I realized it should be elsewhere.

[AngelaF]

do you think he's only sleeping 1 hour because he's overtired?

Selfishly, I'm trying to keep it later because my twins sleep from 2-4 so I'd like there to be overlap. But, as it is now, he's up a half hour after they've fallen asleep and I've eaten my lunch, so I guess I'd better consider other schedules.

[anna*]

Yep. When we were doing the transition, 1-1hr15 naps were always OT - especially with the waking up crying.

[skipper11]

My 18 month old is at the end of the 2 to 1 transition and if we put her down at more than 4.5 hours A time we get a short OT nap.  I'm always nervous to put her down that early for fear she'll take a short nap and then need a REALLY early bedtime, but we've learned that anything more than 4.5 hours A time gets us a short nap.  So even if we keep her up later, she still wakes up around the same time -- but she's had less sleep to get her through her afternoon! 

So today we put her down at 11:15 (after waking at 7:00) and she slept for 2 hours 10 minutes.  If we had waited to put her down til 11:45, we likely would have gotten an OT nap (1 to 1.25 hours) which means she would have been up at 1, *and* not as well rested.

Of course, that's easier said than done for me, because I don't have older kids who take a later nap.    But just wanted to second that the 1.25 hour nap for us is definitely an OT nap -- and that an earlier nap helps quite a bit for us.  Good luck!

[AngelaF]

thanks for affirming what I suspected. I'm goign to try to put him down earlier. I can remember with the twins there being this weird time where lunch was split around a nap.

With that nap in the middle of the day, did they then take a catnap? I was trying to force the catnap in the morning (I never let him sleep past 11:30 and so sometimes that means he has a 45 min. nap) but it looks like he's not having that anymore. Little booger.

[anna*]

If he's resisting his am catnap, at 14 months tbh I'd be inclined to just go to one nap and see how you go. You might be able to persuade him to take a pm catnap every 2-3 days to keep OT at bay and keep bedtime at a reasonable hour? Once we made the switch to one nap, I found that at first the naps would be 1.5hrs but over the course of a couple of weeks they started to stretch longer and longer until they were 2.5-3 hrs. Beautiful!!

[AngelaF]

I did babywhispere with my twins, who will be 4 next week and they still sleep two hours every day. Bliss! So, I know it can be done, it's just the getting there part that's so hard! He did have a few days two weeks ago where he took one nap and slept three hours. Ahhh! To have that on a regular basis would be terrific. Thanks for your help!