Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition cont'd pt 4

[clairebear79]

Kim - have you recently increased his A time???  Or have his naps just started to cut shorter naturally   Oh & what's your preference routine wise - short AM/long PM or long AM/short PM   Looking at the routine you posted above it looks like you've been working on pushing his AM A time so I'm guessing you want long AM nap???

Sorry for all the Q's just might help me/others to offer you the right guidance.

Basically if you are absolutely sure he's not OT & he's waking happy from naps, then you would want to work on gradually extending that AM A time towards 4.5-5hrs & he should take a lovely long nap of 2hrs+ & you can drop the PM nap.  Until the nap extends, you would keep offering a short CN to tide him over until BT.

However, your comments that he's been sleeping for longer if he goes down for his nap a little earlier suggest to me that he could be.  WRT your current routine, I'd say at the very least, try shortening the gap between the AM & PM nap, as if he is only sleeping 30mins at his AM nap then he is quite likely to be OT with 4h 15 A time until his PM nap. 

At 10/11months, my LO would do around 2.5hrs A after a 30min nap & this has now increased to around 3hrs (he's 13months).  You might find this gets you a longer PM.  The difficulty you may face is that even with a shorter A before that PM nap, it will still start quite late in the day.  You definitely don't want a long nap that runs later than 4pm as you will find it starts to affect BT or cause NW/EW.  So if he will go down a tad earlier for his AM nap then it will help keep that PM nap a tad earlier & then mean he can sleep for longer without it affecting his night.

Of course that may all be irrelevant if you want to do long AM nap!!!  Just thought I'd mention since it looks like that is your aim for today.  And yes 2pm ish nap sounds fine.

Ladies today hasn't started off very well for us.  Ugh! DS woke every half hour after BT til 10pm & then woke from 4.30-5am fussing & trying to get back to sleep & struggling, & then up for the day at 5.40am.  Ugh!  11hrs sleep. 

All he has done this morning is cry (b/c he's clearly OT & exhausted), until I took him to his grandparents that is, & then he was all happy    Still, we are persevering with the 11am nap & hoping that he takes a good one.  I really don't know if this is the right thing to be doing right now. 

[scucci1979]

It has to be in the air.

we got at 6:15am wu this morning. Not sure if it was due to Ut or too much day sleep.
here is how yesterday went:
wake 6:50am
nap 12-2:10pm
bed 7:30pm asleep by 7:45pm
she went to bed pretty happy. Showed no tired cues. I put her down and she stood right back up wanting to play.
I too am going to preserve with her usual nap time, hoping she will get caught up.

second time this week she woke up at this time.

[clairebear79]

I am wondering if its the mornings getting colder - what do you think???  I might put the heating on soon.  But I don't want the pipes gurgling in the morning to wake him up either LOL!

[scucci1979]

LOL. I have been putting an undershirt on her at night. I have also put her in a two piece flannel p.j set. Maybe socks is needed?

Put her down at 11:50am. she was crying for her sleep. I am such a cruel mommy.    Anyhow, she was coughing and 10mins later woke up crying. This pesky cough seems to be bothering her. I do recall hearing her cough at around 9pm last night.

[scucci1979]

not going to be a good nap ladies.

she spat up during her sleep. she hasn't done this since she was a nb.

[clairebear79]

Oh dear - is she coming down with a tummy bug?  Or teething - can cause reflux flares can't it?  Hope you got a decent nap & that she's ok.

O made it to his 11am nap today despite the 5.40am WU.  He slept 2hrs solid (phew!) & was absolutely shattered by 6pm.  I think we probably should have PD for 6pm but after yesterday I didn't really want to, so we did 6.30pm BT & he went STS.  I'm a little concerned that the extra A time will have made him more OT leading to another restless night & maybe I do need to do EBT's for a wee while to help him keep ontop of his OT - but then the thought of more 5.30am WU's sickens me.  But maybe some short term pain for long term gain is whats needed. WWYD?

[lulunut]

Hello everyone!

Claire- good for you with the 1 nap.  It's tough at first and you may need to revert back every once in a while!
Sabs-sorry your LO isn't feeling well.

Welcome everyone else!  There is great advice on here and a lot of support!

Last night we had a late guest and the kids went down at 8pm.  I got a scream at 4am but I didn't go in.  I got a 5:50 wake!  Today is a school day so 1 hour nap.  Grannie got him back down for another 20 min.  So EBT tonight.  I am having progress which is great.  It needs slight adjusting which is slowly coming but good!!

[scucci1979]

I think it is a flare. She seemed fine the remainder of the day. Overall nap was 1hr and 45min.  I am so lost ladies. I don't know why her A after nap is creeping towards 6hrs.  I always aim for her in bed at the 5.5hour mark but lately it has been taking her longer to fall asleep. Do I try putting her down even earlier so she has some wd time in her crib?
She officially woke up at 1:40pm so I thought 7:15pm latest bt.  I gave her a bottle at 7:10pm and normally she gets drowsy with it and as soon as I place her in her crib she drifts off, but lately, especially tonight, she just popped right back up.  I can hear her calling me from her crib as we speak.  What do you ladies think? UT at bt? I have a feeling it is?  WTH is going on. It can't be OT.

[scucci1979]

O.k so she woke up 20mins later coughing and started crying as she couldn't settle. Grrr.   thinking OT??? Going to put her down tomorrow evening at the 5hr and 15min mark and see how she does. How does that sound? Thinking second wind!

[clairebear79]

Oh bless.  Sounds like OT - I'd think 6hrs A was pretty long, esp if she is doing 5.5hrs in the AM too.

We had a rough start to the night with O - he woke crying 40mins after BT & was then crying every 20mins after that for a couple of hours.  He then slept soundly til 5.40am, chattered for a few mins & went back to sleep til 6.35am.  So 12h 5min sleep.  At last he has had a catch up night!

So: quick help needed if poss:  I've been doing set nap at 11am (5hrs A as he was waking at 6am), BT at 6.30pm & now he's finally woken later, do I need to keep that nap at 11am so I am consistent or do I need to keep with the 5hrs A?  He is absolutely shattered & my head says stick at 11am nap b/c that is his routine (for this wk at least) & I can work on pushing his nap later in a week or 2 once he is used to the 1 nap.  But in the back of my mind I am worrying that 4.5hrs A isnt going to give me a decent enough nap to last him til BT.  WWYD???

[lulunut]

Sabs-I think to too.  How is the teeth?  Sometimes they can cause extra saliva that causes coughing.

Claire-sorry you had a rough night.  I would stick to the 11am for a bit.  Enjoy!  Then slowly push times.  Sometimes they backfire so I would enjoy your Y time now!  Besides, don't we have daylight savings soon?  We have to adjust for that later too!!

Well, I was up at 5am again!  By myself!  He is still sleeping.  He was OS/OT before BT so it took about 40 min before he actually went down but he is still sleeping now at 6am and he's up!!

Gotta go!

[scucci1979]

I don't know if it is teeth. I can't seem to get a good look in her mouth.  Something tells me that she doesn't need much day sleep and anything over 2hrs will cause us problems. Going to try an earlier bt tonight. I really hate the fact that the ews are creeping in again. I just hope it is teeth and OT and we can get out of it soon.

[KIMMCGOWAN]

Kim - have you recently increased his A time???  Or have his naps just started to cut shorter naturally   Oh & what's your preference routine wise - short AM/long PM or long AM/short PM   Looking at the routine you posted above it looks like you've been working on pushing his AM A time so I'm guessing you want long AM nap???

Wow thanks for this reply clairebear! Great detail, thankyou.So, I have been gradually extending his A time since he was little and it has always worked a treat. So he was at 4hr15 A time and I was getting 2 x 1 hour naps and 2 weeks ago the morning one starting shortening, but then so did the pm one! Which is why I am in a tizz! He can easily do 4hr 30 and doesn't show ANY signs of being tired. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get enough A time and big enough naps. Do I make any sense?

I am aiming for a long pm nap, but maybe I am not doing it right? Should I bring the am one earlier? Normal day is:
Wake 630am
Nap 1 1030am -  4.15 hours after waking (30min)
Nap 2 3pm - 4 hours after waking (30min)
Bed 630 - 3 hours after waking

Many thanks again all.. So glad for this forum to hear how you are all coping!

[newmama12]

Hi all! Have a quick minute and thought I'd come and update. We're still, kind of, stuck in the same situation. J is, actually, napping quite well, but we're still stuck on 2 naps. He turned 14 months yesterday and I kind of want to push forward to 1 nap but with dd's school MWF, that is proving to be pretty difficult. So....we're stuck at 2. He is still waking fairly early, but it 'seems' to be closer to the 6am time frame. I don't usually hear him until he's been up for awhile and whining to get out. However, he is still so so tired by 9:30 for that first nap. I've been putting him down at 9:30 (assuming a 6am or possibly earlier WU). I let him sleep 30 minutes and always wake him up at 10. He goes down again at about 12:50 when we get back from dropping off dd. He normally sleeps 1.5 for the PM. On occasion, a little longer.

So...I know I need to push out that AM nap. Tomorrow I will aim for 9:45-10:15. I'll probably push it out before cutting it back. Once we can do 9:45, I'll cut it back to 20 minutes. It's just so tough b/c I think, naturally, he's going to want to sleep from 11-1 (or so) on a 1 nap day. But we will not be able to do that MWF due to drop off for preschool.   Oh, and he never ever fights sleep. He, typically, is eager to lay down and falls asleep quickly. This is where I'm confused b/c is he OT then?! IDK.
I always feel horribly guilty waking him up from naps b/c I figure he's sleeping b/c he's tired. But the kid will seriously sleep 3+ hours during the day and I know that it usually will cause for a short night if I let him. Tough to figure that one out.

I guess, we're just kind of stalling. It's not the worst sleep b/c he's sleeping. He is teething molars and bottom teeth, so that adds to it. I do wish we could get a tad bit of a later WU. I'm hoping for, at least 6:30am. It just kind of makes it impossible when he's tired by 9am. Then, to add to it, I have to cut his PM nap almost always when I have to go get her. Grrrr!

ETA: Wanted to add the schedule we're pretty much stuck at right now so you guys can see it...

6:00 WU (sometimes earlier, occasionally a few minutes later)
9:30-10 nap (I always wake him)
12:50-2:30ish (I typically have to wake him on MWF. The other days I let him sleep)
7:00 BT

[scucci1979]

what if you cut his am nap to 20mins and move his pm nap earlier? have you tried any one day naps recently?

Kim, if you are aiming for a long am/short pm nap. You would gradually push out that am nap and the pm nap would gradually get shorter.  Is he waking earlier from his am nap?

So ladies, I suspect molars here. Not sure as she has been very fussy lately.  The last two mornings she has woken up at 6am and I had to AP her back to sleep. I don't know!  This morning I put her down for her usual nap and before her nap she likes to have her bottle. Don't know if this was the cause, but she was not happy when her bottle was done. I think she uses it to get drowsy.  When I put her in her crib she kept crying and saying bottle.  Anyhow, it took me an extra 20mins to settle her. Overall am A was 5hrs and 40mins.    I probably should of gave some pain meds.  Is it wrong to allow her to get drowsy with the bottle. I mean we have beed doing that for quite some time now. The soothing seems to comfort her.

just heard her fussing now. 30mins exactly. OT nap. I hop she self settles.