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

[Papaya]

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

The purpose of this thread is to offer support and discuss strategies for managing the transition from three naps to two for little ones who are ~6 months and older.

Happy chatting!

[Lilysmummy]

Hi :-) Hope someone is listening to this new thread!.. Here goes... we are trying to drop the catnap and have tried cold turkey which doesn't seem to be going too well. This is what the majority of our days look like of late.... DS is 7 months 1 week and has always needed to be dragged through his A time (shows tired signs very early and will go to sleep easily if I put him down early but wakes at 45...)

E 0640  0700 Bottle
   0800 Solids
A (drop off at school)
S 0930 (1.20 to 1.30)

E 1130 Solids (started solids early at 4 months, have just changed this around at lunch with solids before bottle)
A
S 1330 (1.30 max as need to do school pick up again)
   1500 School pick up

E 1530 Offer bottle but only taking 50 ml

Now it goes haywire. DS has reflux and to do early bed times it means I have to bring dinner forward to about 1630, then bottle at about 1800. When we did bedtime of 1830 to 1900 he will go down no trouble but wakes I am guessing OT 45 mins later then needs settling. Then is fine till the morning.
Tonight tried earlier bedtime of 1815ish and he took a lot to settle, not like him at all, then woke again 30 mins later and needed more settling. He only had naps today of 1.20 and 1.10 (needed resettling in middle of that one also) so bad day all up.

Main problems I have I think are that I can't get the PM nap any later than 1:30 as I have to leave for school pick up at 2:45, and I struggle to bring bedtime earlier because DS has reflux and will throw up if I can't space his feeds out enough which has happened a few times lately. The last catnap we tried about 4 nights ago when I have gim 20 mins at 5pm and he screamed for an hour at 7pm UT.

Sorry I have rambled!!! Really appreciate any advise!

[Lilysmummy]

This morning we have had an even shorter AM nap of only one hour (if that, I only heard him talking at the hour mark). Am going to try bringing the PM nap earlier or he's going to be OT by 1:30... will try 1 and see if that helps. Very hard to settle last night, took three rounds of settling and then screamed out around 2pm which he does when very OT over a few days so definitely needs more sleep during the day than he's getting....

[Papaya]

Hi Lilysmummy! Sounds like it's going to be tricky to drop that cn completely with the school run at 2.45 - he really needs to be able to do 4 hours after that to cope to bt eh?

I think he's probably ready to extend that first A (even if he doesn't think so ) out to at least 3 hours, which should get you a 1.5-2 hour nap. 1hr -1hr20 sounds UT to me. hmmm, just wondering aloud...I wonder if you could work on getting a good long first nap, then two shorter naps, one before and one after the school run?  OR, how do you do the school run - car or walk? Could you do the nap on the go - maybe stick him in the stroller early and take your time walking to school, and he can sleep until you get home again?

Also, are you sure his reflux is controlled atm - and no food intolerances potentially aggravating it to cause discomfort?

PS: gorgeous profile pic

[Lilysmummy]

Thanks Papaya! Reflux good at the moment, I just have to watch doing his feeds too close together or he power chucks everywhere......gorgeous.....

I've only just in the last week, maybe two, gotten him from 0900 to 0930. He is pretty consistently waking around the 0640 mark and talking happily till 7 so he is getting around the 3 hrs now. Just seems so tired when I put him down. I ended up today giving him:
0930  1hr
1300 1.5hrs
1640  20 mins
1900 Bed, took about 15 mins of crying and now down.

I was wondering about giving him a short nap in the morning, trying to somehow get a long one in middle and then a short one again before 5 but not sure on timings. Came across some stuff on set naps on another thread which were interesting too...

[jessmum46]

Hey . We'll join in the chat - trying desperately to get to 2 naps but LO is still UT short napping me on 3 hours first A!  She's only just 6m.... Am pushing on but makes the rest of the day a struggle.  Today we had 40 mins first nap, then 1h20 second ending at 2pm-ick.  She's so hard to APOP a CN now it'll be a stupidly long time to bed again unless the planets are aligned correctly or something....!

[Lilysmummy]

Totally understand jessmum46... those are long afternoons with sore arms from carrying!!

We had a pretty good day yesterday but not sure how it will effect todays naps.. I had to wake DS at 0700 which hasn't happened in a while. And yest was the first day in a while we have done the CN so was it because he wasn't OT that he slept so well...? He's always done things a bit behind the norm on the sleep front, only got to 4hrly sleep wise just on 6 months so maybe we need to hold onto CN for longer. Will only work if we keep the AM PM naps at 9 / 9:30 and 1ish though.... and can't let that PM nap get later than that anyway because of school.

[Lilysmummy]

Arghhhh.... so frustrating. I tried a few days or set nap times of 9 / 1 and then trying for cat nap around 4-4.30 but he refused catnap as not enough A time in between and then woke all night from OT. I think as much as he doesn't seem capable of doing it he needs the longer A time as you said Papaya. I have like I said before always had to drag him through it....I just don't know what to be working towards with the school run... that last nap always going to be a problem.

THe only thing I am sure of at the moment is that the NW's (not normal for DS) are from OT, not enough A time or both!

How are you going jessmum46? And Papaya, don't be missing Wellington too much at the moment especially if its as cold as Auckland is this morning (my guess is colder!)

[jessmum46]

We're not doing too badly - last couple of days have been pretty good (if you don't count gas-pain waking awfulness of last night )

Day 1 had naps of 1h30 (woke but resettled herself) and 2h10
Day 2 had 1h25 and 45&45 (shh-pat to resettle in middle)

DD seems to be coping pretty well with A 3h05ish so we'll stick at it   I'm having to do a lot of clock-watching though as the tired signs seem totally unreliable! 

[Lilysmummy]

Hey thats fantastic, hopefully the beginning of her settling into it :-)

DS constantly suprises me. Shcoking night last night, thought today I'll try same again and see if we get the same NW's then I'll know timings definitely not right. Then he did 45 mins at 9, and wait for it - 2.5 hrs at 1.30! And he's gone down beautifully and hasn't woken on the 45 min mark.... so fingers x'd. Can't let him have that long a nap on week days with school but its a start anyway.

[jessmum46]

Hey Lilysmummy how's your weekend been?  Good job yesterday!  That school run is going to be difficult isn't it though??

We're definitely not perfect yet but making progress - today had 1h15 first nap (argh i hate that length nap!) and 1h40 in the afternoon so pushed on through for a normalish bedtime.....she's struggling to settle a bit though so wondering if maybe she needs a bit less A time in the evening until naps are a bit more solid?  Such a guessing game!

BTW wouldn't mind being in Auckland even if it is a bit cold!!  Have visited a couple of times and it's just beautiful

[clairey_blake]

Hi All....
I hate the 3-2 transition it feels like it is taking a age to achieve......my little one is super OT at the moment, so fussy and grizzly all the time. Quick question, if I try to APOP a CN (which I can do, although quite late, between 5/5.30 - how long should I allow this to be so it doesn't interfere with bedtime and how quickly to bed after the CN?
My boy is 8 months old today and our A times are about 2hr45 - 3hrs.....
CN of 10/15/20minutes seems to see him through but am struggling to judge how quickly to put him to bed after the CN, we are getting OT wakings all night at the moment and early mornings.......
Any tips would be fab....

[Lilysmummy]

Hey clairey_blake, thats a hard one as all so different but I would say atleast 2 hrs and considering he normally handles up to 3 it could be anywhere between 2-3 hrs making it a very late night. Could you try an early betime of 6? We are having to do that and just accept that we will have to settle DS at the 45 min mark from being OT for the mean time.

Jessmum - thats not bad sleep all up :-) My DS wil not do long naps in the morning and just seems so much better putting him down a bit earlier and having a short AM nap then long arvo one - maybe something you could try it you can't get that AM one to extend past 1.15...?

[jessmum46]

That's a good thought Lilysmummy - think we'll give it a few more days of 2 naps and then see where we're at but you might be right

clairey_blake - I agree with Lilysmummy about the CN - would just ditch it and go for EBT if it's that late in the day.  Night sleep is more restorative and will help with catching up on the OT better than a catnap and late bedtime.

DD mixed it up this morning by sleeping in......woke her at 7.15 (probably later than I should have done!) having been asleep in bed before 7pm last night.  Just gone down for first nap at 10.20....she was a complete grouch this morning though so perhaps should have got her up at normal time to help her develop some sort of body clock!  WWYD?

[jessmum46]

 So today's been a bit of a mess after that lie-in - only did a fitful 1h10 for the first nap and then 20 mins this afternoon    Tried to AP back to sleep and she just laughed at me.....have left her playing around in her cot in an attempt to minimise overstimulation....will get her up when she calls for me.  Looks like it's EBT again over here!  I'm thinking perhaps getting her up at normal wake-up time might have been a good idea......

How's your day been Lilysmummy and clairey_blake?