15 mth old and can't stay awake for than 3-3.5 hrs during day

[stardust599]

I think you need to push the 2-1 transition.

If you have an LO prone to EW (as many of us here have) you really need to drop that long AM nap as it only encourages it.  It's a vicious circle - LO has a short night so is tired in the morning, LO then has an early-ish nap to make up for the short nap but then needs a PM nap and then ends up with another shorter night due to the naps.  Or you get the long AM nap but refusal of PM nap leading to OT at bedtime and then an EW and the cycle continues!

You are going to have an OT build up while you drop the nap unfortunately :-(

I would suggest only allowing 30mins in the morning then a longer PM nap after lunch.  He is going to be very cranky when you wake him from the morning nap so for a few days you will probably have to go outside, give lots of cuddles etc. to keep him going.   In time his body will really adjust to the PM nap.  If you read my threads (think I have 2) you will see that I had an awful time trying to drop the long AM nap - LO was just exhausted by 9.30/10am and was a nightmare.  At 17months she now quite happily lasts until after lunch, has 1-3hours and 11-13hours at night :-) xx

[meredith1851]

Thank you very much! He is getting close to 16 mths now and his nights are 10-10.5 hrs and he is still exhausted in the AM. It is SO tough to get him to go to 9:45 after he wakes at 6AM. He then naps for 2 hrs (or just over) and then can't seem to settle down for a PM nap until 4ish which is obviously getting to be too late since we start BT at 7.  Since I don't feel I can push him out too much in the AM (he literally just lies down in the middle of the kitchen floor), I think I will try waking him after 45 min from his AM nap and then try giving him a PM nap.  Would that be the best approach for him? What happens from there though? Will he just give up the AM nap on his own and it will become midday? He has not been horrible going from noon to 7PM...it is just going from 6 AM to 9:45 AM that is SUPER painful and I would really love to see an 11 hr night......thoughts?

[Mama_Mia]

Have you tried leaving him in bed in the morning to see if he will go back to sleep? Or maybe giving him a bottle when he wakes, in his bed. (When M wakes at 6am I hand him a bottle and leave and he will drink it and go back to sleep.) ... If your going to cut his nap short in the AM I would probably go a little slower with it, maybe cut it down to 1.5hrs for a couple days and then down to 45min. That way it isnt such a huge difference all at once. As you decrease his AM nap length his pm nap should get longer. Then when you cut out the morning nap you bring his pm nap earlier so he is napping midday.

[meredith1851]

We let him stay in his crib for a bit when he wakes up and he seems to play and chit chat with his stuffed animals and then he wants his 'baba'.  I could try to feed him and put him back to bed I suppose.  Also, the last 2 days he has taken close to a 3 hr nap in the AM....has NEVER  done this before and wakes around 12:45, has lunch and obviously no PM nap. Thoughts on this? Is this kind of a good thing in that he is slowly tranistioning to (somehwhat) of a nice long mid day nap? To have 3 hrs has been WONDERFUL...LOL!