Anyone Want To Talk About The 2-1 Transition? Thread #18

[*Kara*]

Ugh - Is it just me or do you feel like you are reliving the nap extension horror of months 4-6?? 

[ZacsMumme]

YES - It is so depressing

[Smurfette]

Lol! Month 4-6 was more like 4-8 for us!

I think I'm just gonna stick with one nap days with a set time of 12:30 (give or take a half hour) and see where I'm at in a week. We've had four days of it and it seems to be getting better and better. I mean when my child won't nap in the car, I think she's telling me she's ready for one nap...I think! This may come back to bite me, but so far it has been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice to not think about A times and constantly adjusting her day according to the night, the nap length, etc.
We're still getting 5:30 wake ups but I've been able to nurse back to sleep and she goes another hour until 7, giving us a 12 hour day/night. *sigh* Please Lord, let me be doing the right thing!!!
Welcome to being a mommy, eh? Always with the self doubt.

[*Kara*]

Dear lord - we had the night from hell.  Easily went down at 755pm... about a minute of quiet sighs... and then silence... slept very soundly until she woke screaming at 11pm... took until just after 1am to get her back down.  She was tired, but just unable to fall asleep... she was sneezing like crazy too... must be the tail end of that cold she had last week   I managed to get her down for a nap at 1010am after a 645am wake up... still sleeping soundly at 1115am... not waking her at all today - she has some catch up needed!

Smurfette - It sounds like it is going well!  Just go with it for a while longer and let her body adjust  

[new mummy]

Kara, HUGS!! xxx

These past few nights have been pretty bad - since I started to interfer with his naps and wake him up. Still get NW but he's usually upset everytime he wakes up which is difficult. Usually I just had to pat him back down to sleep for a few seconds. Now its like all 6 NW I have to sit for 15mins and get him to sleep. :-( . The days I have let him nap long during the day (3hrs max), he woke up playing between 2am-3am.

So have decided on the following EASY for next week and see how it goes, what do you think?

A: 7.30 usually (bt sometimes 5.30-6am EW)
A: 4 hours awake (he wont go down now after 3.5hours A time :-/
S: 1.5 hours (am nap)
A: 3.5 hrs/ 4hrs
S: 1hr (pm nap)
A: 3 hours or less
S: 7.30 latest.

[new mummy]

Also quick question, if LO goes down for a nap after 4.00pm should I make this a CN? If so, how long should a good CN be? Yesterday I woke him up 15mins as he decided to nap at 5pm! He wasnt a happy bunny, but slept ok till midnight.

[*Kara*]

I think you might have to stretch his days out a bit hun... I find that the transitional periods when dropping a nap rarely keep a 12 hr day (not that we have ever had one here!).  If he is up at 730am, I would let him sleep as long as he likes in the AM, then give a CN of 45 mins or so around 430pm.  This will still easily have him in bed at 8pm     If you still get a fight, cut the CN back a bit (to 40 mins for a few days)..

I find that a one hour nap at this age is the same as a nice 2 hour one when it comes to A time after it!

[*Kara*]

Well, I got solid proof today that Alexandra is so not ready for one nap!  Daddy was home today and she ended up a little OT for her AM nap (she was showing tired signs really early - so I assumed she was bored, not tired)... refused to settle even with serious AP.  I abandoned all attempts at 11am (started at 1020)... kept her up to eat lunch at 1130am... she ate fairly well considering the red-rimmed eyes she had going on!  She went down without a peep at 1215pm and didn't wake until 250pm - without a single sound during the nap... woke very happy!  But it all went downhill fast around 530pm... cried for an hour... refused to eat dinner... had to give her a small bottle instead... so upset   She went down for the night without a peep at 740pm.. fingers crossed that we get a good night.  Funny enough, she did have as much nap duration as she does most days with 2 naps... it was just too long A time for her...

[lily528]

wow that's a GREAT nap...I'd kill for that...I don't even know what I am doing anymore...after 3 days of pm nap refusal I tried pushing her moring A so her 1 nap was a little later in the day...as before she was up from 11:30 a.m. til BT which was at 6pm due to no pm nap :/....ugh a mess...AND now we are having 5:30 a.m. wakings!!!! what happened?!  we were doing sooo well for a solid week great long TWO naps and sttn!....though she has sttn the last 2 nights her naps..if you want to call them that have been awful and we are having these horrific 5:30 am EW! 

Yesterday she did a 35 min a.m. nap at around a 4 hr A...then after a 2.5 A my mom tried cause she seemed tired...she SCREAMED bloody murder...so she rescued her and tried again at 3 hr A and she napped 1 hr :/ better but still not enough for a total day sleep...1.5 hrs?!  ugh...

Today its so far a repeat of yesterday...35 min A nap at 4 hr A...told my mom to maybe try at 3 hr A....what do you think?  also told her to watch her signs though and if she seems tired before to just put her down...we've been up since 5:30!....ugh I don't know...help me ladies...what happened?  how does something work AWESOME for a whole week then go down the tubes like that?  where do I go from here?  that good week was all watching her signs but this past week has been crazy with my dad in the hospital and a friend passing away...I haven't had much time with her at home...I need direction here ladies....do I try and go back to watching signs?  or go with the capped a.m. (though SHE is the one capping it right now) and hope the pm doesn't get refused and starts to get longer?  she is 13 mos old...this COULD be the 2-1 for real...but last week it looked like it was not going to be in the near future...with TWO 1.5 hr naps a day...she IS sttn a lot more at about 11.5-12 hrs straight...whatcha got for me girls?  help me lol

[*Kara*]

Melissa - first off:  sorry to hear about your friend and your dad. 

As for what to do... I am not one to give advice!  After that one nap day that went from great to awful by dinner time... I have nothing to add... I need help too!  I am getting AM and PM nap refusals... I think I am almost gonna have to stay home for a couple of weeks to reset Alexandra's body clock to a one nap deal... I hate forcing the change on her, but she is getting less than 13 hrs total sleep right now... she is really hard to settle for naps (could be a bit of cumulative OT setting in), she mantra moans for a good 10 mins every time... and I often have to intervene and AP cause she starts to escalate beyond a mantra   She has never tried so hard to fall asleep for naps before.

She is more than able and can take a 2.5 hr nap if I keep her up long enough and she will settle very quickly for it too... It's just the second half of the day - she ends up miserable after about 3 hrs A time and then it's right around dinner... too early for BT, but too late for a CN... ugh.

[ZacsMumme]

Melissa I wonder if those good days and sttn were teeth or catching up on ot. Now she has caught up she is ew. Maybe try increasing her a time ESP the first one to combat the ew. Sorry to hear about your dad and friend

Kara can you post easy? I struggled with cn after long am and ended up being a drive or bet if it failed.

[*Kara*]

Sure Sara....   I think we have some developmental stuff to deal with as well as maybe some teeth on the move :/  She is SO CLOSE to crawling...

This is the last couple of days:

610am wake - Gross.  I have left her until 630 both days... she just babbles to herself in total darkness
640am bottle
845am solids breakkie (she has been reluctant with solids the last couple of days - teeth?)
10am small top up bottle because of missed/small breakkie (only 2 ozs)
1010am Nap #1 (yesterday she woke at 1145 very happily; today - she is still sleeping at 1045 my time)
1230pm solids lunch
3/330pm bottle
415pm first attempt at CN yesterday - refused.  gave up at 430 and back downstairs until just before 5pm... managed to get her down 5 - 530pm (woke her)
8pm in crib - babbled on and off until about 815pm.  STTN with no NW until 610am.

The night before last, we had one screaming NW around 10pm and she wouldn't settle in the crib, picked her up and she easily dozed back off... back in crib 5 mins later and no other issues that night.

Sunday, she refused her AM nap completely - that was the one nap day.

[ZacsMumme]

mmm I wonder if it is just developmental and due to the developmental refusals a bit of cumulated OT hence the shorter nights? Your EASY looks good. I was thinking the CN may have been to early but its not at all.

[lily528]

sara...ugh so another 30 min nap after 3hr A...so you think I should extend the first A and that will help the EW?  I was thinking cause she woke sooo early she wouldn't be able to do too long of an A...I DID try 1 nap for 2 days and I pushed her to a 5 hr A...both days...she napped 1 hr...and I did an EBT of 6 pm...so it was something like this...


6:30 wake up
5hr A
11:30 nap (1 hr)
5.5 hr A
6pm BT

then with her starting to wake at 5:30...I thought well how can I do one nap?!....she'd go down at 10:30!!!! was afraid to push more than 5 hrs...then if she still only slept 1 hr she'd be up by 11:30...in keeping with a no earlier than 6 BT she'd be up 6.5 hrs!! you know?  I just don't know...

[*Kara*]

Hmm, Melissa, I wonder if you stuck with the one nap if she would naturally stretch it out closer to 2 hours over a week to 10 days... It does take time for them to adjust to a new schedule... and yes, there will be a bit of OT, but she should come right after a couple of weeks time... then you can work on shifting her day entirely to get the wake time you want.

Well, we had a morning nap that was very restless (UT/developmental??), she wasn't too bad to get down but I did have to AP her - makes me think UT, but learning to crawl could cause issues with settling too, right?  That said, she does settle at night on her own within 10-15 mins at most 90% of the time.

I think we might be in that awkward phase of some one nap days with a two nap day thrown in every 2-3 days to catch up :/