Cold turkey to 1 nap - OT disaster - & now resisting 2 naps aarrrgggghhhh!!!

[Shiv52]

Hope you get a good night. 

5.30am WU's are not what I want to be seeing a week before the clocks change!

See both my girls only ever do an 11/11.5 hour night.  We don't get 12 hour nights here so I never ever do bedtime before 8pm as I am not starting my day before 7am!  M's bedtime was 8.30 with an 8am wake up for a long time.  Its now 7.30pm since she's started nursery.  R is still 8pm and tends to go to 7/7.30am.  I would NOT be a pleasant mummy with 5.30 wake ups or 6.30 for that matter!

[clairebear79]

I would NOT be a pleasant mummy with 5.30 wake ups or 6.30 for that matter!

LOL that made me smile.  I don't think O is a 12hr night baby either, but I do need to be up at 6.30-7am for work on certain days of the week & am a fairly early riser by nature anyway, so a slightly earlier start of 6am onwards doesn't bother me so much.  Just not 5.30am early!  Yuck!!!

[Shiv52]

What will also make you laugh is that my 12 month old had a long am nap at 11-12.50 and then REFUSED her CN and just went to bed at half 7 and was asleep in seconds!  Rascal! 

[Roseii]

Fingers x'd for tonight Claire, tomo is a new day

Shiv there's something in the air cos DD2 has been loopy today-didn't wake til 8.15am, was planning on keeping her up and the kid was falling over herself so I let her sleep 11.20-12.40 (I woke her) Then she took another nap at 4.10pm-4.40pm (I woke her) and asleep at 7.15pm  I feel quite convinced I'm in for a 4am start to the day 

xxx

[Shiv52]

Silly babies! 

[Truly Blessed]

Sam was an 11 hour night baby ALWAYS untill just recently and BANG! suddenly a 12 hour a night baby. You just never know  .

Claire: Stick with it Hon. You did get a result today  . I'll PM you tomorrow.

(x)

[clairebear79]

Thanks ladies.  Woke crying a few times at 9-10pm & again at 5.40am then was up at 6.45am today. 11h 40 sleep & boy did he need it! 

Grandma txt me to say she PD at 11am (4.25hrs) & he slept 2.5hrs!  Up at 1.30pm.  So shoot for 6.30 or 7pm BT?

[Roseii]

wow great nap hun!! Erm i'm not too sure, play it by ear? Or aim for 6.45! xx

[Shiv52]

I'd go for 6.45/7pm!

Great nights sleep!!!  Fab nap too! 

[~Sara~]

Woohoo!  That's a good night...I'd also try to get as close to 7pm as possible, since he's not a 12h night sleeper.

[clairebear79]

thanks ladies.  yes it was a good night but I believe this was only b/c he had a lot of catching up to do from getting OT over the last 2 days.  I am also sure this is why he did such a long nap today.  Though I did ask grandma if she could come over to our house every day if he naps that well for her!   

Can I ask your thoughts on DS's behaviour tonight, ladies? 

I got home from work at 5.30pm, he was excited, squealing & shouting at the top of his voice, charging from one end of the room to the other, despite DH's efforts to keep him calm with quiet activities like reading.  When he started to fuss/cry at around 6pm we got him ready for bed.    What a performance - crying, arching his back, throwing himself backwards, fighting to escape me & for me to chase him.  PD at 6.20pm & its taken him until 6.50pm to fall asleep.

Now to both me & DH this seemed like he was already overtired.  Did your LO's behave like this through the 2-1 too?  And are we missing the boat & putting him to bed too late here?  Or could it just be a case of overstimulation from being lavished with attention from grandma all day

[Shiv52]

I'll be honest and say that is pretty normal 1YO behaviour.  I'd say it has little to do with tiredness and more to do with being excited to see his parents and wanting to have some fun and he was disgusted you kept trying to quiet him down and thats why he fussed and cried and then the reason he got upset was because you started getting him ready for bed.  I'd have let him play and not started quiet activities until much later.  I'd say 1.5 hours of 'quiet' time is far too much for a 6.45/7pm bedtime. 

I think 6.20 was far too early to try for bed hun.  Its too early when bedtime is supposed to be 7pm.  6.45 is as early as I'd have went.  When being consistent 15 minutes either way is ok but more than that can mess things up. I also think at this age they need to be physically tired to sleep well so lots of parents run their LOs ragged in the evenings and then a half hour of wind-down for bed. 

So in short it sounds like normal 1YO behaviour to me. R just crawled about like a maniac and we played on the slide and trampoline then had supper and read books and relaxed before bed and she's out like a light. 

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya Hon,

 I just wanted to add that Shiv made a good point about WD. Sam used to have to be quiet and low key for so much longer when he was younger, but now he can be doing high energy play close to BT (with Daddy of course! I used to tell him off LOL  ) and then 30 minutes is enough to allow him to calm down when he's exhausted. Goal posts really do move quite quickly when babies become Toddlers.

(X)

[clairebear79]

Thanks for the honest opinions ladies.

I thought the idea was to do all the really physical stuff earlier in the day & to keep things a little bit calmer after tea so as not to let LO's get too overexcited before BT, b/c if they get a second wind they will struggle to settle to sleep I guess I don't need to worry so much about that after all. 

Having said that, I don't want you all to get the wrong idea from what I wrote - we don't EVER spend 1.5hrs doing reading/quiet time!  Its usually just 10mins after his bath/wash & before his bottle.  Tonight, DH was just trying to encourage DS to calm down a bit b/c grandma had been playing chase with him before we got home & he was very excitable.  He played nicely with his toys & kept bringing books for me to read with him & then all of a sudden he started bursting out into tears for no apparent reason & this is why we got him ready for bed.

He woke 30mins after he went to sleep & again at the 1hr mark so I know he was OT, even with a much shorter day & a fab nap.  Lets hope he wakes at a reasonable time tomorrow.

Oh, can I also ask about EBT as I am a little bit confused  All the 2-1 sticky info says when you start pushing out the AM nap you need to combine it with EBT to mop up OT.  So isn't that what we should be doing in this situation   Or does it not apply for us b/c we don't really have a routine to speak of so we need to do set BT until the routine is well established?

[Shiv52]

Oh, can I also ask about EBT as I am a little bit confused   All the 2-1 sticky info says when you start pushing out the AM nap you need to combine it with EBT to mop up OT.  So isn't that what we should be doing in this situation   Or does it not apply for us b/c we don't really have a routine to speak of so we need to do set BT until the routine is well established?

OK sorry I probably confused things because you can do early bedtime but after a good nights sleep and a fab nap it is the time to keep things as consistent as possible.  OT is inevitable and if you have a good night and nap then that is the time to push through a bit.  Early bedtime yes if you get a silly nap and can't get a CN.  I tended to keep bedtime fairly set whatever though.

So what is your plan?  Are you going to alternate 2 nap days with 1 nap days?  I take it you will stick with 4.15 first thing for a few more days and then up it if you aren't getting a CN?