Wonky naps all of a sudden

[Mum of PA]

Hi

DS is 17 months and was sick with a cold a few weeks ago which caused NW,EW.  He has been well and sleeping fine for about 10 days or so.  He has been a fabulous napper from about 9 months onwards (before then - Ugh!) but the last 3 days have been awful.   He has between 5 and 5 1/2 hours A time in the morning and I wake him after 2 or 2 1/2 hours (depending on when he woke for the day), waking him at 2.30pm (to preserve bedtime) and he is down for the night at 7pm.  I am sure he would sleep over 3 hours if I left him.

Anyway, I know it is only 3 days of horrible naps, but knowing his personality and stubborness,  I would really like to try and nip it in the bud quickly if possible.  So I put him down with his usual wind down routine and as soon as I am out of his room he cries.  I leave him to see if he will settle, I can tell he is standing up in his cot as soon as I walk out, but he just gets more and more worked up.  I go in and put him down again and he gets hysterical.  The first day he did it, I ended up putting him in the stroller and getting him back to sleep.  Second day, I picked him up and patted his back and he went to sleep in my arms, as soon as I put him down all hell broke loose but I managed to get him back to sleep by patting his bottom but he only had 1 hour and 15 mins sleep.  Today, I tried PD (for the very first time ever) which was awful BUT it did work in that after 1/2 hour he conked out exhausted.  But he only slept  for 55 mins.  I tried PD again when he woke but literally couldn't stand the hysterics to keep going (and I also needed to pick DD up from Kindy at 3pm so wanted him to get some sleep straight away plus he was pushing me away from him which was hard to take ) so again AP'ed in the stroller which didn't work anyway. 

He is not teething and is well.

What should I do?  Do you think PD is the way to go (ugh I hate doing it, but I have the stamina to do it if need be for the greater good!)?   I really do not want to AP as he picks up on these things so quickly so should I do PD if he wakes early or just abandon the nap at that point?

His routine is:

Wake 7/7.30am
Nap 12/12.30pm
Wake 2.30pm
Bed 7pm

Thanks for any advice.

[sianie]

Hi there..

It does sound like he's getting OT, from what is the question! 

If you are sure he's not teething then is there anything developmental going on? It is quite common for LO's sleep to go a little wonky at around 18mths old (see below thread).

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=176250.0

If PD works for you then stick at it but you could also use WI/WO if the PD isn't working:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0

I would try doing an early BT whilst you are having nap issues. Are you getting any NW's/EW's?

[Mum of PA]

Hi Sian

Thanks for the thread, I will have a good read.  We are not getting any NW or EW, in fact he is sleeping at least a 12 hour night  (some days 12 1/2) and I have to wake him in the morning. That's why I didn't initially think it was OT, but who knows.... We have done WI/WO in the past with NWs but because he was standing in the cot I decided to do PD and the fact that I just couldn't seem to calm him at all to be able to walk out.  Can I still do WI/WO if he is standing?  Would I just lay him down, calm him (not sure he will calm down though he was super mad yesterday whenever I lay him down) and walk out? Or just leave him to get down himself?

He has had a sudden vocab explosion so maybe it is developmental.

[sianie]

He has had a sudden vocab explosion so maybe it is developmental.

This could well be it, FWIW, DS has recently gone through a phase of being hard to settle at BT & this has coincided with his speech developing & also being a lot more mobile.

With my DS I tend to let him lay himself down (sometimes with him PD just winds him up). I tend to try to settle him in his cot (hand on back/ shhh etc), once he calms down a little I start WI/WO.

If he's doing a good stretch at night then maybe he needs a slight A-time increase?