Am I doing the right thing??

[BeasMommy]

I posted before about my 23 mo dd impossible bedtimes - was taking 1-1/2 hrs to get her to sleep and EW. Well yesterday she refused to nap so we went out and she cat napped in the car for 20-30 mins. Bedtime for my husband was a breeze - 20 mins to get her to sleep, and she slept until 7.15am! 

SO today we didn't nap her, just had some quiet time on the sofa reading books and snuggles. She asked during dinner to go night-night so I got her ready straight away for bed and again it only took 20 mins, we'll wait and see when she gets up tomorrow. But looks like i'm going to have to suck up the fact she is dropping her nap. She did go from 2-1 naps at 9 months.

Questions....do you think I should put music on in her room to block out the background noise while she is settling? She is very aware of what is going on around or am I introducing a prob that will be difficult to manage? Also she sleeps in a bag but is getting too big for the one she is in now, do you think I should go for regular cover in prep for a BGB or stick with the bag -  she is a big girl, 23 mo and in 3T-4T clothing.

J

[Roseii]

Hello
Although she's nap dropping I'd be very careful about this and let her nap every coue of days, or make sure she gets a car/cat nap each day. Sounds like20/30 mins is ideal right now. Problem is they can do great like that for a few days then major OT sets in, so just watch her carefully.
I'm not sure about the sleep sack tbh, dd1 had a duvet at this age...
Re the music I don't personally think it's a prop at all-if you think she would benefit from it then give it a go. But if at the mo she is settling in 20 mins then perhaps you don't need it?

Xx

[BeasMommy]

Its all a disaster! I'm at my whits end on what to do, things seem to be going good then it all god bad again.
On the days she has no nap she goes to bed fine, then the following day she is a nightmare, but if she has a nap she wont go to bed, I'm at a complete loss of what to do, we used to do so well at the EASY. I think we are in this OT/UT cycle and cant seem to get out of it.

I'm getting so demoralized about it all, sorry to moan.

[georgeo]

Lots of hugs. These nap transitions aren't fun are they? We're going through the same thing. It was taking 1.5 to 2 hrs for ds to get to sleep. He would then sleep 10.5 hrs and have a 1.5 hr nap that we woke him from.  We decided to try some short car naps (30 min) but that just seemed to lead to OT as he then would have a 14 hr day with a 30 min nap and sleep late the next day. So we decided to just try no nap too and voilà like you he went to sleep in 20 min. I think what helped for us was only having a 10 hr day and then starting the wind down. That way he could sleep for at least 12 hrs. We've started having 11 hr days now. The last two days though things slipped and they were 12 hr days and although he went to sleep easily he had an unhappy nw last night and a shorter night so we went with a shorter day as the ot seemed to be creeping in. For some reason even with a very short nap he still needed at least 5.5 hrs A time.

I figured that we would have a nap day with a late bedtime when he wakes up early as a 10 or 11 hr day and 12 hrs sleep don't add up to 24 but so far he hasn't needed it.

I'm thinking try and stay flexible and take each day as its own. If wake up warrants a nap give it and be prepared for a later bedtime.