5 mo bad napper had a routine now lost ???

[shresmummy]

Oh geez! We are back to square 1. The weekend successful naps were short lived. I got myself into a huge mess today.

I let him sleep till 7:20 this morning to make up for last nights dramas.

Wake 7:20
Nap 9:40-10:15 (he was whining a bit so I put him down thinking he would be tired from cot party)

Nap 12:20-12:50  (oh no! He woke up and refused to resettle. I don't know if 2nd A time was too much or too little? But he was too playful once again can't tell if it was ot hyperness.)

Nap 3-3:40 ( I tried since 2:45 but he was fidgeting about. Finally rocked him and got a grand 40 min nap  )

I did bt at 6 and he went down without a peep by 6:10.

Yikes! What a day. Hope I don't pay for it tonight. Plus tomorrow is preschool day so the earliest I can get him down for pm nap is 12:30 regardless of the am nap length. What should I aim for the am nap A time? I am thinking 2.5hr as before unless our night is atrocious?

Today's shorter am A times what messed it up today do you think?

[shresmummy]

Ok we are having a bad night so far. He went to bed easily at 6:10 but woke at 6:50 settled then woke again at 8 hysterical! He screamed his head off like a crazy person for 10 mins and I had to give him the boob for comfort just o get him to stop crying for a few mins. Weird! Then he settled by 8:15 woke crying again at 9:15 but settled with a few pats.

I don't know why but whenever he goes to bed at 6 he has a rough early part of the night. I hope it gets better......

[sherry lynn]

*hugs* I hope it works out in the end

I'm not sure if you are at this point yet, I don't know if it will help or not, but...

I got to a point, with both of my boys, that I just didn't put them down before a certain time. I just couldn't put them down before x time, or the day just wouldn't work out. This might be what you have to do on nursery days. If you are worried that he will take a crap first nap, but him down at the highest A time you think he can handle, that way it will give you better odds for him not being so OT for the PM nap, does that make sense?

[shresmummy]

Hey sherry that does make sense. I have been aiming for that somedays. Usually the time is 8:45am.

What a shocking day so far.

Wake 6:30 (had another cot party from 3:30-4:30)
nap 9:10-9:55 (was very jolty and interrupted. Had to stay with him. I tried putting him down at 8:50 but he fussed and cried.)

Nap 12:40-1:20 (refused to resettle. )

I am aping a nap now it's 3:05pm

I just realized he is 28 weeks today. I am not sure why whatever I try backfires! I just can't seem to read him?

[j.and.e]

Do u think he cud be overstimulated? Quite hard to calm things down with a 2yo running about! I try and carry ds2 around a bit before putting him down. I usually find he settles well whatever time he goes down, but sometimes wakes up after an hour. He is 28wks too, and usually has a short a and a short am nap, then keeps going much longer (sometimes 3hrs on a 1hr nap). If i put him down early he does another short nap. E.g yday WU 6-6.45 Nap 1 8.30-9.30 Nap 2 12.45-2.45 nap 3 4.40-5.05 bt 7 (settld at 7.15) woke for his dream feed then slept thru! (we have had rubbish nites forever!) xx

[shresmummy]

I too try to. Carry him around for ages before a nap. Today it felt like I was carrying him all day! That evening nap was also 30 mins and ended at 3:30! I had no choice but to keep him up till 6 because I had to attend to dd. I tried to ap another nap around 5 but he resisted so much I gave up. I fed him  to sleep at 6.

I want to erase today from my memory! Last week he was ok on 3 short naps of about 45 or 50 mins each. Then we had that weekend from a parallel universe where he napped well. Then since yesterday its been 3 awful naps a day of 30 mins each and as a result short a times in-between and just a total mess of nights with 2 hr waking where he initially plays thengetscranky. Can ot do that too? Such a shame cos he was having such good nights last week despite some crazy a times.

Something clearly has to o change but i have no idea what.

[sherry lynn]

Just wanted to give *hugs*

How's it going?

Tonight is the first night on my own in awhile, and I'm nervous. Both boys woke at 5:45 this morning. So I woke Emory from his nap at 2 to try to make sure I can get him into bed early enough to be able to get Lyle into bed at a reasonable time. Even, 6:45 is probably going to be too late, but what can we do, right?

*hugs*

[NikNik]

Such a shame cos he was having such good nights last week despite some crazy a times.

I get this with Ella too- she will do great on short naps for a few days and seem really happy and cheerful then everything falls apart for a few days. Maybe it just takes a while for the OT to build up. If she has had shorter naps for a few days, I try to catch her up whenever and wherever I can. The funny thing is, she really does seem to be a happier baby on short naps. On days where I get great long naps, I tend to have a grump who really makes me work for even a smile. If she was STTN, I would let her be up all day if it kept her smiling.

[shresmummy]

I have a feeling my issues are due to his a times or teething. If you look at it terms of weeks he is 7 month old and the max a time I am doing is 2.5 hr. He shows tired signs at 2.5hr but when I take him in the past few days he has resisted then he gives in and sleeps for like 25 or 30 min max. He Gets up happy but gets cranky fast but refuses to resettle. Today I tried for 40 mins to resettle the pm nap and gave up then he wa happy again.f

I think I am going to have to push out his a times. I don think he is ot anymore.  But I think his short naps are due to a need for more a time. That is probably why his night suddenly  in the last week have become horrendous! The past few nights he has been up every 45 min or hour till 12. A few nights before that hewas up for 2 hrs at a go chatting!

I hav been reducing and reducing a times for the past few weeks to see if he will catch up on sleep in case he is ot. But it hasn't made a difference. I feel I have no choice now but to increase and see if things improve. At this age most babies on th sample routines are at 3 or more hours. And I am nowhere near that.

What do you think?

[shresmummy]

Oh and sherry good luck on your own tonight! Hope the boys went down okand you had a good night.

[sherry lynn]

Good luck to you to with increasing those A times.

[annette.xx]

hey there

just to let you know where im at -

ive dropped the catnap cold turkey and following the 2,3,4 rule - the last 4 hours are hell on earth but once hes down its ten times better than it was with the catnap - no fighting just sleep - its been 4 days now and yesterday was a nightmare cos he got OT at bedtime (i went out with him and couldnt keep him in calm mode for the last hour like I normally do!!) it took me a whole hour of major screaming to get him down - I nearly caved in and did the 3 naps today but reminded myself of the traumas I was having with that and even with the OT last night he did 11 hours at night!

just wondering if that may help you out? the rule basically is to just stick to 9 hours total A - you can change the combination to suit you though so it could be 2.5,2.5,4 or 2.5,3,3.5...the idea is that you always have the shortest A at the start of the day or OT will accumulate...

one thing I know for sure is that the accumulated OT from NW etc have made your am nap short so I think as drastic as it sounds and as much as you will get a fight on your hands I would force him down at no later than 2hours - I was doing 2.5 first A and still getting a fight and as soon as I got rid of the OT he went down beautifully at just 2 hours again!!!...

im hoping that soon DS will get over the crankiness around his catnap time cos he is soooo cranky but NW have halved so I prefer it this way!!

I think all the madness is them telling us they NEED to drop the catnap even if they arnt quite ready A time wise!

Annette.xx

[shresmummy]

Hey annette sound like you have a great plan! Hope the successful nights continue. Today morning he. Only truly showe tired signs at 2.75 hrs. There wa no way he was going down at 2 hrs! And for once he didn't fight me and I got a 1 hour nap! The best I had in ages. Then he was quite happy for just under 3 hrs. But I apd the first part of the pm nap and now its been nearly 1 hr 20mins.

Your ds sleeps well for his pm nap that's is probably why you can get away with the longest a time before bed.

I don't know how to deal with 4 hrs before bt! The very thought of that makes meant to run and hide! I do most bt alone cos DH gets home late from work. So I am too scared to try it! Imight only try and do 3 or 3.25 hr initially cos his pm naps are touch and go due to pre school pick up runs I can only puthim down by 12:45.

I hope things improve for us! We need a lucky break!

[sherry lynn]

Annette - that's great I'm glad you have a plan and it's working great. Hopefully it will only get better from here.

With both boys we did 3h,3h,3h and it worked well. Lots of mom's have done it this way.

I honestly have only known 1 BW, maybe two, who have gotten away with a 2 hour or so A time first thing in the morning at this age. Most have a minimum of 2.5, almost all closer to 3. We would go from 2.75 - 3 hours, depending on how he was doing, but very very rarely would I put them down before 2.75 because it rarely worked and just messed the day up.

I will say with both of mine I did just have to get tough with the catnap and say enough is enough.

[shresmummy]

Hi! Hope you had a good weekend!

Well things have become better for us slighty since iincresed the morning a times. I m doing a minimum of 2.75hr and one day he slept 1h10 mins and 1h20 the next. So much better! I am then doing 3hrs. He slept 45 mins but I was able to resettle hmm. Then today he slept 1h15 mins.

I am running into trouble because he never sleeps 1.5hr at a go. So I can't really get by without a short cn. It's very hard to get him down. Also I can't get by without it. Cos he's been waking at 5:45 or 6. And if I put him down early at night it gets earlier ew the next day.

After a 20 min what a time should I aim for? I tried 1.5th but I'm getting fighting. Can't work out if it's ot or ut.

Also any ides on how o get the naps to 1.5hrs?

Is he a low sleep needs kid do you think?