Anyone want to talk about the 3-2 Nap transition?

[FPT23]

Btw,
Past few days I've been extending his first AT. but I just can't bc he's so ot. And evry morning is diff.

For example,
He slept frm 6:30-3:00am ..feed.. And he went back dwn. He didn't call for me until 6:30. He was super ot by 8:10. I tapped him n he was asleep by 8:20am.

I dnt understand how he ew or stayed awake if he did? He had to have been up before. I thought it was a great night but our mornings is my biggest problem, leading up to tht first nap. He for sure slept until his 3am feed....ahhhhhhh

[*Kara*]

hmmm.. he must have been awake and not said anything to let you know he was awake!

[FPT23]

Yes he's been doing this? Hmm or staying up n not sleeping? Def won't let me know.

So lately his first nap is lasting 30 mins, killing our 3-2 transition

Advice on tht? He did sleep thru until 4:30am.

[*Kara*]

I think he is a classic example of using his first nap to finish his night sleep hun... he wakes super early (a shorter than needed night)... then he is tired soon after waking as he hasn't had a good full night of sleep - of course, mom puts him down for a nap as he is clearly shattered - allowing him to finish his night sleep and perpetuating the problem of him waking really early.

My DD did this at about 5 months of age and it was awful!  I felt so bad cause she was just so tired so I would let her have a nice long morning nap... and she would keep waking early knowing that she would get that nice long nap not too long after getting up!

One way to stop it - push the morning nap out come hell or high water.  He will get wickedly OT doing it, but he is now so you really have nothing to lose except a boy who isn't getting enough night sleep   A set morning nap is the quickest way to stop the cycle.

Regardless of his wake time, keep him up until 9am.  If he short naps, cut his next A time to avoid OT but do not allow him to go for a nap too soon in the morning or the cycle will continue.

[FPT23]

He's been doing very well though and started sleeping all night again like he used to! But when he wakes at 4am or so to eat, he's tired and wants to go back down but I don't think he falls asleep and if he does he wakes, but he's not telling me, you know?

Well I have been doing a pd at 9:00am and he's short napping. And the next nap I do shorten his A time and he tks a 2hr nap or 1.5 usually. But after tht nap he's ot quickly again. The way it works out is I still have to do a cn bc his short a.m nap.

I have been pd'ing dwn at 9am, no matter the time, but I feel I'm stressing him or making him ot and he's so mad and hard to pd
I am used to extending A time 10mins at a time. So I'm a little weird about doing this haha, I don't know, maybe I'm too soft w him hahaha. But I've been doing this 9:00am nap for 3 days and not much has happened. How often should I give it a go?

As far as him not going back to sleep or waking early and not tell me....I usually fall back to sleep, should I stay up or put the alarm? Ha. Well he is sleeping straight 8hrs...and I always think he goes back to sleep at least 2-3hrs...but I guess I'm wrong. He's awake and doesn't let me know. He's known for this haha. He just stays still laying there. I've seen it he won't call me until later...just cooing and talking, he's happy. But gets tired soon which lets me know he's been up earlier and just won't tell me. Also, he's not taking the bottle much......so I think he's just ew and can't settle....

With this short a.m naps, I can't do the 3-2....which he needs. But when he's ot, Aaah, he handles it a little rough as far as when I pd ...or him to settle or fall asleep and short naps.

[*Kara*]

I think you have totally just said that you know he needs to be pushed but you fear the OT   DO IT HUN! You can handle it - and so can he.  If 9am isn't making a diff in his nap length, do 915am starting tomorrow and hold for 3 days.

[FPT23]

9am isn't making a difference w him bc he's ot and giving me 30min naps. I know he needs an AT push bc when I did it (on accident) his nights stretched again. He had been waking every 3hrs or as soon as I pd for bed he'd wake by 2hrs as if a nap. Then he went back to 8-9hr stretches.

I'm actually about to lose it. He ew and won't settle. He used to be a textbook baby but has CHANGED. When he's mad, he's MAD. settling him is out of the question. I try it all. He won't lay on me, patting can go on an hr w no success....caressing his hair wrks but not too well. Yes I've tried teething meds and feeds. I'm familiar w this cry. It's his frustrated ot cry. I had to just leave him today. I reached my end. He won't let me help. It's ridiculous. He gets like this when he's frustrated! Errrr.



I don't think its in the cards for us to ever get it. I thought he was ready for 3-2 but now short napping out of ot in the a.m and I'm ending up w cn again or a very ot baby by the end of the day....

:::sighs:::

[amyonkman]

Im not having exactly the same situation as you FPT23, but my DS was (and still is) doing some EW and was having a few NW sometimes with feeds and sometimes not, and I was at my wits end too, i would just sit and cry in my bed while he cried in his crib!  I feel frustrated too, but he has had two nights that are a little better..I was having a problem with EW and then not knowing when to put him down for his nap in the morning and when to actually start his wake up since he was all over the place, and stretching his morning A time was a mess too..but it;s just starting to get better!  Hang in there..people said that to me too and I feel like it just made me mad cause nothing was working, but I totally understand and we are finally done with the CN..I think haha.. the other day he totally flubbed his afternoon nap so he was up way to early, so I just took him for a short drive in my car to get him to sleep for like 15 min so we could stay on track with out bedtime..maybe something like would help if you ever run into a problem in the afternoon? or even in the morning if all else fails and you are super frustrated, just go for a long drive for a morning to relax and give yourself a break and hopefully he can get some rest too..I know they say not to do that, but i dont think one day would hurt   hope your LO figures it out for you

[*Kara*]

FTP - I know this sucks hun, but the push is the only thing that will get him through this adjustment - It will take a good solid week of pushing his morning nap out.. hang in there!

[FPT23]

Thank you amyonkman..... I just feel helpless.

Kara,
I just can't push his morning AT bc I nvr know his mornings

[*Kara*]

You don't push it based on A time, push it based on the clock hun... it's the only way when they are being sneaky with wake times

You can do this!  remember how awful it was a month or two ago and you were certain we couldn't help - we did   And we will again!

[FPT23]

Baah this is tru! Your all's helped solved my short naps!

Well it's bc I thought at 7mths they can't go by the clock yet
And I thought it did depend on AT bc one day he may wake at 5am the next at 7...how can tht wrk w a set nap of 9am for example?

[atlantamomofthree]

Hi, ladies. =)
I need to join you! Samuel is having more and more NW'ings lately AND they he is getting harder to settle during them!  He does not need to be eating every three hours at night-now come on! He is also waking at other times (not hungry); sometimes he's screaming his head off and other times singing and cooing! 

I'm working on extending his A times. For the past 2 days we've done 3+ hours and, as a result, experienced longer naps!  Yay! He *was* only taking average 1hr15min naps but now they are 1.5-2.5! But his nights-OUR nights! are still horrid. 

He wakes at 7 most days (sometimes 6:30) and generally this is when I first feed him. I am trying to figure out how often and how much to feed him because he just ended the 6 month GS (I'm BF'ing, but I'm having a bit of an issue with oversupply ATM). Once I figure this out I can work on our new EASY that won't include a CN. He has slowly been dropping it anyway, but with 3hr+ A times I imagine it'll be easier.

So, can I ask, if he wakes at 7am, and I need to feed him at 10:00, should I then attempt to keep him up until 10:30? What has been happening is that at 3 hours of A time he is starting to almost nod off while eating!  How do I fix this?

[*Kara*]

Well it's bc I thought at 7mths they can't go by the clock yet Sad
And I thought it did depend on AT bc one day he may wake at 5am the next at 7...how can tht wrk w a set nap of 9am for example?

That makes me a bad momma then   I have used the clock to stop EW many times... since 5 months   It hasn't hurt my kid yet!  If it means a really long A time (like the 5-9am idea), you just push as far as you can to get as close as you can to that ideal nap time.  I would shoot for 830am in this case...

can I ask, if he wakes at 7am, and I need to feed him at 10:00,

Just want to clarify a few things:

Still on a 3 hr feeding routine?  Really, should be at 4 hrs + at this age...

Solids?  Have you started?  This would help with the 4 hrs + between BF's... solids are 1 hr after a BF...

[atlantamomofthree]

No, he nurses every 3-3.5 hours. I am not a big fan of solids tbh. I give a few Tbsp of fruit or veg when we have our meals so that he is included and gets to experience the taste(s), but primarily I want him to be getting his nutritional needs met by BF'ing. I did the same with my other two. I did not do BW'er with dd (don't think the books were even out back in 2000 ) and with ds1 I kinda, sorta did some of her techniques , but I FTS more often than not, so I never had this come up.

Once Samuel adjusts to the increase in milk supply without throwing up, I can probably feed him on both sides and get him to go to 3.5-4 hours. Last night I decided to feed both sides at the DF at 9:45, since my supply is less at night, and he slept until 3:30 so that was a big improvement! He slept without the paci the whole night too.  Woke at 6:30, nursed lazily only on one side, so I'm not sure when he'll need to eat because he did not take a full feed.

Ok, say he wakes at 7am and he were to go 3.5 hours to eat-that's 10:30! So, he goes down at 10:00 for his first nap but wakes 30min later to nurse? That can't be right!  Or he goes 4 hours between feeds...so that first nap is still only an hour...? What am I missing here?