Need Help with NW

[katie80]

Well, see what the night gets you.  That's earlier than the 5 hr she was doing before, so it'll be interesting to see what she does. It was still a really long day, though.  Maybe, with the CN she can only do a 1.5 hr nap in the pm in order to preserve BT.  She obviously does better on one nap days, it's just really hard to make that work with such early wakes. Maybe Bec has another take on all this.

[MommySteezy]

C slept from 8:20 - 5:29. No NW, but still got an EW. I tried until 6:09 to get her back down but it didn't happen.

I feel really hesitant about cutting her nap short - I don't want to send her the wrong message ("I want you awake even though you are still sleepy") I am wondering if I should try moving the CN earlier, maybe to 9:00 or 9:30 so her next nap would be around 12:30 or 1:00 - which is around when it would be on a 1 nap day.

[katie80]

You sure could, any tweak is worth a try to get rid of EW. Glad you got a straight night again.

[MommySteezy]

Already a not-so-good night I'm afraid.  Tried putting C down and she has been fighting for about 45 mins now. One of those exhausting fights where she is squealing and playing in her crib and when I try to help calm her down she will try for a little bit and then start playing again, or squirm to get out of my arms and pop back up almost instantaneously. So frustrating. I just had to switch with DH bc I just couldn't handle it tonight and I can feel myself getting so frustrated.

So - I did try an early CN and she slept from 9:10-9:30
Nap - 1:45-2:30 (the put down was messy the first time - she stuck to my shirt and I ended up flopping her down on accident, which startled her - nice job, mom  )
I thought that since she fought after 4 hours last night and ended up falling asleep after 4.5 hours I would try for around 4.5 tonight. Idk...a part of me thinks she is OT and then got wound up on a second wind. I'm confused.... 

[katie80]

Was that correct for the second nap, only 45 min? It does sound like she got her second wind at bedtime.

[MommySteezy]

I guess I spoke too soon last night. C had another GREAT night. She finally went down at 8:00 (Which was actually 5.5 hours after she woke up) and woke up this morning at 6:26! Almost 10.5 hours!  

I am a little confused on what to do this morning. I was thinking of trying another early CN from 9:30-10:00 and laying her down for a nap at 1:00. If she doesn't take the CN I think I might just try for 1 nap. Or, maybe I could stretch the A to 5.5 hours and put her down at 12:00? What do you think?

[MommySteezy]

It looks like you were replying to my post at the same time I was posting!

No, that was a mistake. She slept from 12:45-2:30 - 1 hour and 45 mins.

[katie80]

Yay!

I think you may be cutting it a bit close with the CN so early like that. If you do it, I think it needs to be more around 10ish. And yes, if she doesn't do the CN, it would be a good day to try one nap.  I'd watch her closely though, she may be more ready to go down after 5 hr. Good luck!

[MommySteezy]

Hope you had a good 4th!

Here is how yesterday ended up looking...

6:26 - Awake
10:00-10:20 CN
1:39-2:55 - Nap 3:00-3:25 APOP Nap with DH (I was in the shower and didnt know he was APOPing the rest of her nap)
8:32-3:09 - NW, I heard her making some noises and looked on the monitor - she was just sitting up, not really crying or anything. I went in to get her resettled and she fell asleep pretty easily.
3:15-6:36

I was really impressed with how she did yesterday. We had some people over for a little cookout and she played hard with our friends 2 year old and near the end of the night I could tell she was getting sleepy from playing so hard. We didn't ship everyone out the door until about 8:00 and I was a little nervous she would end up OS and have a hard time falling asleep. She did just fine though. The first time I laid her down she popped back up after a little bit, but I resettled her and gave her a good squeeze and she stayed down and slept through the fireworks and everything. So proud of our progress 

Today she woke up at 6:35 and I tried for another little CN around 10:00. It took her longer to fall asleep than she usually does. She didn't go to sleep until about 10:15 and then got up at 10:35. When I tried to lay her down for her nap at 1:30 she didn't seem very sleepy at all. She tried for a little bit and would lay down but then start talking and pop right back up. I took her out of the room to reset and brought her back in and paced the room for a little bit to get her calm and she settled after a little bit. She was in bed asleep at 1:55.

I'm guessing these are some signs that she doesn't need that CN? Esp today when it took her longer to go down and then she had a hard time settling in for a nap. If she wakes up around 6:30 again tomorrow I am planning on going to 5 hours and putting her down for just 1 nap. I hope that she would sleep a little longer than 2 hours bc if she doesn't we would be putting her down earlier than I would prefer.

Let me know what you think!

[katie80]

Hope you had a good 4th!

Thanks! We're up at the ILs, who live on a river/lake, so it's been fun.

Yeah, that's the trouble with bringing the CN earlier, it's going to get harder and harder to get her down and then because there hasn't been as much A time, she won't have the same drive to sleep in the pm. So... you either need to start going for one nap or do the CN later again and cap the pm nap to 1.5 hr. You can always APOP the CN if you need to as well. I started timing it with my morning errands. So, we'd leave the house at CN time and 20 min later show up at Target or the grocery store (I always took the scenic route ).

I think you should try the one nap and save CN for wakes earlier than 6:30 or when she needs a catch-up day. You're going to have to be prepared to do some earlier bedtimes though, for it not to backfire on you. If she sleeps just 2 hr, I wouldn't do bedtime past 6:30/7pm. At some point, hopefully soon, she'll even out so she does a 2-2.5hr nap every day and 11-12hr night and then you can start pushing everything later again. But for a little while you'll have to deal with the earlier BTs. It's kind of the nature of a nap-dropping phase.

[MommySteezy]

We actually had to cap her PM nap today because she was still sleeping at 2 hours and it was 3:55. I HATE waking her up. She is so fussy afterwards and I feel like it sends the wrong signal to her 

I actually have been doing just what you said and APOPing the CN. I plan errands around it, or sometimes I will just take a circle around the neighborhood and pull right back in to our driveway and let her sleep while I make grocery lists or read.

I agree that I need to try for 1 nap when she wakes up at 6:30. If for some reason she doesn't take a 2 hour nap, would I just keep trying the PD until we get to the 2 hour mark, or APOP it, or do an even earlier BT?

I am a little nervous for tonight bc her nap went so late that with the 5 hours A she will be going down at almost 9:00 which is really late. I think I am going to try for a little earlier. Hopefully she'll go with it....fx

[katie80]

We actually had to cap her PM nap today because she was still sleeping at 2 hours and it was 3:55. I HATE waking her up. She is so fussy afterwards and I feel like it sends the wrong signal to her 

I know, but nighttime sleep is more important.  Too many short nights can lead to OT that starts to get chronic. The days are getting to be really too long with the CN, that I think it's best you start trying one nap.  She's been napping well, so she may do more than 2 hr for you and then you wouldn't have to wake her. If for some reason she doesn't do 2 hr, I'd try to extend for 20-30 min or so.  If she doesn't go for it, you could APOP, but I wouldn't want to get in the habit of doing that every time.  Otherwise, what I sometimes did when I went for one nap and it was short was to run an errand around 4ish and get another 20-30 min into her, just to make it to a 7 pm bedtime.

[MommySteezy]

C woke up at 6:43 today so we went for 1 nap! It was kind of challenging because I had a cake to deliver at 10:30 (which was right about the time I would normally APOP her CN in the car. I pulled out all the stops - loaded up a snack cup, gave her a couple toys, cranked up the radio and talked to her the whole time.  LOL - gotta do what ya gotta do 

I put her down for her nap and she was in bed asleep at 11:55 (I didn't time lunch that great since I am used to her eating it a little later). The PD was easy. She woke up at 1:06 (1h12m later) and I went to resettle and got her back down on the 2nd attempt, she slept for about 28 mins and then woke up again at 1:43. I went in and she still seemed sleepy so I resettled her and put her down and she slept for another hour! She woke up at 2:49 for a total nap time (minus wakings) was almost 3 hours!  When I got her up she was SUPER groggy and acted like she wanted to go back down! She sat there for a little bit, still waking up and lost her balance and laid her head back down like she would fall right back asleep...! I got her up though bc I didnt want her to nap too long and not have drive to sleep tonight.

Not that I am complaining BY ANY MEANS  - I am super happy with how the day has turned out so far but what do you think was behind the nap wakings? Just getting used to the 1 nap? Did she get OT in the extra 10 minutes?

FX'd our progress keeps up!! 

[katie80]

I am super happy with how the day has turned out so far but what do you think was behind the nap wakings? Just getting used to the 1 nap? Did she get OT in the extra 10 minutes?

Probably a little of both, I'm guessing even if it was straight, the night wasn't all that long the night before. It takes some time for them to get used to the longer A time and sleeping for the one long stretch. Hope you get a good night and another one tomorrow.

[MommySteezy]

Last night was not good...not sure what was going on really.

After I put her down she woke up 45 mins later. I was shocked - that hasn't happened to us in quite a while. She cried to herself for a little bit and tossed and turned in her crib. I thought she might put herself down for a while, but after about 5 mins of that she sat up. I went upstairs and got her back down pretty easily.

After that, she slept for 7h50m and woke up at 4:44. She did the same crying for a little bit and it seemed like she would get herself re-settled but she popped up eventually. I went in to resettle her and got her back asleep in her crib after 7 mins and then she woke up 12m later at 5:15. Same thing - cried for a little bit and then sat up after a while. From then on it was a constant effort to get her back down. It was very obvious that she was tired but she could not stay settled in her crib for an extended period. She would stay down for 5 mins, 2 mins, etc. etc. but never long enough. I finally stopped trying at 6:00. We were both still tired  (I have a pretty big cake/cupcake/cakepop order for tomorrow and was up late with that and then dealing with our dog who had an ear infection and was whimpering and shaking and wanting to go outside  ugh)

I was totally non-functional this morning and asked DH if he would watch her for an hour or two so I could get some rest since I still have a lot of work to do today. When I woke up at 7:30 they weren't home and when I checked in to see where he was he had her on the road to get a CN in bc he said she seemed tired. I am grateful that he was trying to help, but, of course that timing was off. Then, we had her 1 year photo shoot today at 9:30, which we could not reschedule (A. Because we have already rescheduled with her 3x, and B. Because I can not let our world be consumed by sleep - something I have to remind myself often). She did fine at the shoot but I could tell at the end she was getting sleepy. She fell asleep in the car on the way home at about 10:50 and at first my husband tried to keep her awake, but I said to let her go bc even if she got a little bit in it might buy us some time. She slept for about 10m and woke up when we got home. We let her chill for a little bit and then did lunch and a stroll. She went down for a nap at about 12:35.

Its 2:26 and she is still asleep now. I want her to get plenty of sleep since she had such a bad night and a wonky morning, but I don't want it to interfere with her night time sleeping. Hopefully that won't be the case as long as we don't let her go too late.

Any idea what all this was about? She had such a good nap yesterday. I thought we would have a pretty good night 

**I did run out of Ibuprofen and had to give her Tylenol for teeth last night. Idk if that had anything to do with it...I am guessing it wouldn't but thought it was worth mentioning.