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

[LovelyLilyandJack]

I was expecting a cn day every few days but even on long days or rubbish nap days it's so hard to get him to cn and the days we have it's resulted in a cot party at 2am.  I don't remember that with Lily (which isn't to say it didn't happen!) so I think maybe he just does better with an ebt.  So I'm not sure if this transition is different from 2-1 or if it's just that Jack is.  Or maybe we're just past that point now cos we did have a week or two of mixed 2 and 3 nap days I suppose.  Either way I think we're pretty much past 3 nap days now unless he just has one of those days where he short naps all day - hopefully not too many of those coming!

Layla - it sounds like your LO is doing really well.  If she starts doing short naps and the grumpiness gets worse you could always go back to 3 naps for a day or so, but she sounds good to me!  My daughter was on 2 naps at 5.5 months and could have done it earlier I think.  It sounds like you've got the two ends of the extreme in terms of nap dropping ages with your two though!

[TB9]

Sounds like she is doing great Layla!  With both my girls it seems that the 3-2 worked better cold turkey.  Even the days she goes to bed mega ot she doesnt have many nws, usually just one and she easily settles back to sleep

LL dd1 dropped her cn by 5.5months too and then was down to one nap around 9/10months, so im sure thats where we are headed with dd2 as well.  Kinda looking forward to it, since it means we can do even more stuff during the day!

[Layla]

Haha, i knew things were too good to be true - 2hr nap in the morning followed by 30 min nap in the afternoon. She's playing with her feet right now. Interesting to see if she'll take her cn today - if not, we're going to have one tired little girl on our hands in the evening

I am thinking 1.5hr am nap is enough so will start waking her from now on 

[LovelyLilyandJack]

How did you get on,  layla?  Did you get another nap out of her?

What do you all do when your LO wakes early ish and has good naps but ends the day with a long A time?  Today we've had:

WU: 6.45
A: 2 hrs 40
S: 1hr 30
A: 2 hrs 40
S: 1hr 40
A: 3 hrs 5 before pd,  giving a bedtime of 6.20.

Say he's asleep by 6.30, he'll probably be awake by 6 or 6.15 tomorrow,  which will give us a long day.  Assuming he does 2x1.5 hour naps again,  he'll be done with naps by 2.30/2.45 and will want his next sleep at 5 or 5.30ish.  Do you just do a short cat nap and a long day,  or do another EBT,  which would probably result in an even earlier WU the next day since he's not OT so unlikely to tack on at night? He could have done slightly higher A times today but I was being easy on him cos I felt OT was building up a bit but even sowwe're not quite at that magic 3 hour A time yet....

[Layla]

What do you all do when your LO wakes early ish and has good naps but ends the day with a long A time?

See around this age I started going by the clock and wouldn't do a morning nap any earlier than 9am... or as close to as possible (8:45ish) as otherwise the whole day would be thrown off and the cycle of early bedtime, early wake up would continue. I found that with a good nights rest, it was easier to stretch the morning A time but if you're worried that he will get overtired then maybe try 2hr50mins in the morning and about the same before pm nap with 3hrs A time before bed? I know some are doing shorter cn (30/20mins) before bedtime but I found that an earlier bedtime as opposed to short cn and a later bedtime was always better.... but that's just me

How did you get on,  layla?  Did you get another nap out of her?

Yep, put her down at 4pm (thinking she would fall asleep easily since om nap was only 30mins long) but she fussed and fussed and fell asleep around 4:30pm and slept till 5:15pm. Bedtime was at 7:15 and she fell asleep easily but then she woke up and cried at 8pm and I tried pu/pd (just got her more upset) and by 8.30pm I BF her and put her down. She fussed on and off for another 20mins and finally fell asleep. Then she woke at midnight (fed her) and at 5.30am, where I tried to feed and back to sleep but she didn't go back to sleep . This morning she was awake until 8:45am, which is when I got back from school run and fingers crossed she'll have a decent morning nap. I am still going to wake her from it at 1.5hrs because I don't want a repertoire of yesterday's day. Now I need to work out whether the overtiredness was from the catnap and late bedtime (which isn't really late at all but because she wakes around 6/6.30am, maybe it was?) OR from short pm nap.... I wish she would just tell me

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Well we were up at 5.45 today so he's going to get a long day whatever.  I think I'll see how much I can stretch that first A and go from there. If I put him down even 10 mins late he often does a short nap so I can't push him too much and get away with it sadly! We'll see how we go and hopefully back to normal again tomorrow.

[Layla]

How is everyone going? We had a terrible last couple of days with morning nap 1 hr (i wake her so that pm nap is longer) and pm nap around 1.5-2hrs but it ends somewhere around 2ish pm and I've been doing bed at 5.30pm and she's waking up at 5-5.30am. I guess she's getting the right amount of sleep at night but I can't seem to push the afternoon pm time anymore. This morning she woke at 5.30am and I put her in bed with me, fed her and she fell asleep at around 6.20am and slept until 7am (dd1 came into my room and that woke her up). Is this considered part of night sleep or a very early morning nap (which I am worried about as I don't want that to reinforce EWs). I kept her up until 9.30 and put her down just now. I am thinking I should stop waking her 1hr into morning nap and just work on increasing pm A time on 1.5hr am nap and hopefully that will give us a longer afternoon nap? Oh dear, so confusing!!!

[TB9]

Yeah these transitions are so tricky, I never know what to do so I try to go with the flow and eventually we settle back into a routine   DD had 1hr10min and 1hr20min naps today, I think shes hit a growth spurt because she was waking hungry   She refused a cn, so I got her up gave her a bath and bottle and put her back to bed...no ot wakeups yet so hopefully she has a good night!

[Layla]

It's funny you say that Tink because I find that when I stop worrying and just go with the flow we tend to settle into a routine as well LOL. Well am nap was just 30 mins and I put her down 2.5hrs A time and we'll see how long the nap lasts. With the EWs, I wonder if I should just leave it alone since we will be going back an hour anyways in 4 weeks (daylight savings) and the girls have 2 weeks holidays in 2 weeks time, which will give me time to hopefully get things back on track without having to worry about school pick up/drop offs

Fingers crossed your DD has a good night

[LovelyLilyandJack]

We're doing ok but in a wierd place with 13 -14 hour days, very short cat naps and the odd EW.  I'm not sure whether to just go with 2naps and be done with it or carry on APing the cat nap really.  I'm just seeing how long he's slept by mid afternoon,  working out when he'll next need to sleep and then deciding whether to push him for an ebt or do a short (15 minute) cat nap.  I hate this bit.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll be past it though.

[Layla]

My rule of thumb with dd1&2 was that if the CN was going to be any less than 20mins then it wasn't worth it and just to offer bedtime. How long are your A's at the moment? When did you guys start stretching the A's out? With dd1&2, we applied the 3-3-3.5/4 hr rule - where the 1st nap was 3hrs from wake time, then 3 hrs before 2nd nap and about 3.5-4hrs before bedtime.... but the girls were much older when the cn was dropped (9 and 8 months) so by that stage they would have been ok with the longer A time before bed .

Sounds like you're almost there though.... well today was a disaster for us, 2x30 mins naps and she's now taking her 3rd nap. I really think it had something to do with me allowing her to take a nap from 6:20-7am (my bad!). From now on, I am going to treat the 5.30am wake ups as our wake up time, given that time will change in 4 weeks and I really don't want to be shifting her day forward if we have to move it anyway (6.30am is perfect as this is when we all get up). I just have to find a way to keep her entertained and quiet until girls are up so I am thinking of taking her for a walk in the morning and then back home by 6.30am.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

We're on about 3 hours A time so if we were on a 12 hour day we'd be grand,   it's just these 11 hour nights messing things up! He's always needed a shorter or very similar second A time to the first and if we do 4 hours before bedtime we get a nw at 9pm which he settles fine from but then the next he's tired and I can't push him again. Another week or two and hopefully we'll be on a 13 hour day with 2 naps I hope. And then he'll probably start doing 12 hour nights!

I find early morning wake ups hard too.  By the time he's back asleep it's almost like a very early nap.  Though he's solved that for me lately by refusing to go back to sleep at that time of day anyway!

[Layla]

Hi ladies - just wanted to do our final post (hopefully) and say that we're done with the transition. Its been a good week of just 2 naps and I don't have to shorten her morning nap to get a good pm nap out of her . I just had to extend her A time to 3 hrs. We're at 3 hrs across the day with 2x1.5hr naps and a 12 hr night. She's even slept in some mornings LOL.

She's used to 3hrs A time and I no longer have to worry about car rides - she will wait for us to get home before I put her down. Weird thing is that if A time is reduced to just 2:75 - she will wake at 30mins and babble for 10-15mins before going back to sleep.... whereas on 3hrs A time, she will do a very brief wake and back to sleep without the talking in between. She's even talking to herself a little before she falls asleep before nap whereas before she was falling asleep as soon as I'd put her down but I am not going to push A times anymore until naps start to shorten.

I hope now that I've written it all down, she won't change things on me

Lovelylily - I noticed your post re: doing the final push - so how does it feel being on 2 naps I love not having to worry about the catnap - what a pain of a nap
Tink - how are you guys going with the pm nap?

[TB9]

Pm nap is short    Unless she only sleeps 1hr-1hr20 for am nap.  She generally sleeps 3hrs between her 2 naps, and I am just at the point where I am just going with it   She will sleep in the am, and I know spirited babies like to get most of their sleep in at night so I am happy!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Yeah, good to be on two naps though we've just been away for a week,  which started with a very very late night, making him OT.  I think he was gearing up for another A time push just before we went away so naps are a bit funny again.  I think we're in an OT/UT loop and have had another long tiring day travelling home today. Oh,  and he had a tooth come through while we were away and I think the other one of the pair has started bothering him today...!  But before all that we were also on roughly 3 hours split between 2 naps which I was also happy with since he's just as happy on a 1hr 20 nap as a 1hr 30 one. Hopefully we'll get back to that soon!