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

[Kiwi_one]

I'm amazed how quickly you ladies seem to have gone through the transition. We've been on shorter CNs since I was posting, down as far as 20min but then it increased again while she had a cold. Now that she's better she seems to be needing a push with her A times as the PM nap has shortened. She wakes up around 1hr screaming to be gotten up if I just try to replug. I'm probably the culprit there; I want her to go down for that nap earlier so I can sleep while all the girls do but obviously it's not paying off if she short naps!

We accidentally missed the CN two days ago (I suggested a picnic tea not remembering that she would be due down when we left) so yesterday she refused it and she did okay both nights. We'll see what today brings. I've extended the second A a bit so if we get a good nap, perhaps I'll not even offer the catnap.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

To be honest I'm surprised how quickly we moved through it too!  I don't think we've stuck with the same A time for more than a week since he was about 4 months old - we've been constantly upping A times since then. We're now up to about 3hrs 20 for his morning nap and I still think he could handle another 10 minutes but i'm staying where we are for a bit longer if I can....

[Mandy.kamal]

Lolvelylillyandjack- do you push the A and hold for 3 days regardless of the nap length?
I ask because I think DS needs a big A push (our OT cycle left us behind on pushing As) so Should I push 15 mins and hold even if I'm guessing he can handle more?

And do I only push the first A time until I get a good nap then stay there and begin pushing the second A time and then finally the third A before bed?

Sorry, I forgot all the basics while we were in the OT trenches!!!

I am SO glad jack adjusted so well since you've been back home!!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Yeah, I've been starting with the first A, increasing by 15 minutes and holding for 3 days at a time.  Quite often the first day I upped A time he'd do a longer nap and then on the second and third days would slightly shorten them again.  I'd then work on the second A time.  It often shortened to an UT nap after a better first nap so if I saw that happening after 2 days of upping the first A then I just upped the second A by 10 minutes anyway.  If he did an OT nap I'd try to resettle if i could but quite often I'd just get him up and shorten the next A by 10 - 15 minutes.  If I was about to up his second A anyway I'd only reduce it by 5 minutes.

I was never very scientific about A times before bed.  I just knocked half an hour off his normal A time after a 30 minute nap but what did it in the end was pushing his last A time as much as I thought I could get away with if he'd had decent naps in the day (normally about half an hour longer than usual). We did 15 minute cat naps for a while and reduced A time by about an hour after those until bedtime got to be about 45 minutes later than usual and then I stopped offering it and just pushed on with 2 naps. Whether we did 2 or 3 naps depended a lot on wu time in the morning.  I found our day would gradually getting longer and later til we had a late night,  then a later wu, which gave a 2 nap day and we started again!

Hope that all makes sense - wrote it in a bit of a rush!  Shout if any of it doesn't make sense!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

I should say in addition to my post above that jack seems to be on the high side of A times and I realised quite quickly that he rarely did an OT nap,  and that if he did it was background OT and he hadn't been awake long enough to get past the jolt.  We've had a LOT of 34-38 minute naps which were all UT naps, often with background OT which he actually needed an A time increase to get past.  But for a long time I didn't know what they meant.

Anyway, just thought I'd add that as it might be that jack can handle higher A times more easily.  I'm a bit obsessive about naps and write it all down so I just figured out what he could handle from lots of trial and error and some help on here

[Mandy.kamal]

That makes perfect sense; thank you so much for explaining it to me!!

I'm hoping an A push is what we need to get longer naps and stop the NWs. Our day was getting too close to looking like 6:00-6:00 and I would prefer it closer to 8:00-8:00 so my DH can see him on the week nights. I have completely dropped the CN hoping it would help him extend the other 2 naps but nothing yet. I did an EBT tonight so maybe we can start fresh tomorrow.

I posted my last 2 days EASY on my Naps post so hopefully ill get some advice so I know pushing his A time is the best decision.

Thank you again!!!

[Lyna]

HI everyone,

Our Lo began having incredibly EW a few days ago. I am pretty sure it is because we should have dropped the cat nap and now we have the "stealing from Peter to pay Paul" situation with her sleeping during the day time that she should be sleeping during the night. However, she is waking up so early that we need the three naps to make it to a reasonable BT. I have been pushing her A time and I know we are at the limit because we are getting good naps. She used to sleep from 7-7.30 to 7. Now our day is looking like this:

WU: 5.30
E: 6
A: 6.15-8
S: 8
WU: 9.30
E: 10
A: 10.15-12
S: 12
WU: 2
E: 2
A: 2.15-4.15
S: 4.15
WU: 5
E: 5
CF: 6.3
BT: 7

Any suggestions on how to make the transition from this point would be very appreciated.

[Lyna]

I forgot to tell you she is 6.5 months.

[gb18]

Hi Everyone! All advise much appreciated as I am going through a seriously messy 3-2 transition. With lots of help from this forum I have been extending A times but am still ending up with 2 45 min naps so then have to have a 3rd nap of 45 mins.

Due to EW today we have had 3 naps and it is still only 3pm!!

HAs anyone had similar problems? We have had short naps since 7 weeks old. I notice someone on here dropped cat nap cold turkey. No idea how I would do that.

LO can manage 3 hr A with a struggle but then ends up ridiculously OT, unable to self settle and has horrendous NW even when A time is shortened thro the day.  Ideas please!!!

[Layla]

How old is he hun? Does he know how to fall asleep on his own? What's he like when he wakes from his nap and what have the last couple of days looked like?

[gb18]

He is 6 months. Never really transitioned on his own in his cot as had 45 min naps since 7 weeks. I have had occasional success with extending with shh/pat but this is so few and far between.

Yest EASY -
WU 5.30 - EW as unabe to resettle
E 7 - fell asleep feeding as so tired but woke on moving to car seat as had to do car journey.
S 7.30
WU  - 8.45 as this is when took out of car
Solids 9
E bf 10.30
S11 wu 11.45
E solids 1.15
S 2.15 wu 3
E 3.15
E6.15
s 6.45 - attempted EBT but no success as so worked up and OT
WU 9.30 - fed even though I know that he was not really hungry
12.30 - woke - screamed for an hour even with shh/pat therefore ended up feeding - still would not settle so ended up in my bed until 7.30. This is very rare that I ever let this happen but the last couple of days have just been shocking.

Today put down for nap at 9.45 but did not settle till 10.15 - I know that the A time attempted was short but I as desperate for him to recoup some sleep as feel he is just permanently OT from poor nights and 45 min naps.Anway only got a 30 min nap. Wakes as he always does WIDE awake instantly and shuffles around cot. I do thinkhe is tired but this is how he responds to being OT

Any ideas?

[Layla]

If he has never really slept past 45 mins, that may be the issue here. We also started set naps around this age; with the morning nap starting around 9am; despite the wake up. So, even if mine was up at 5.30am, I would do my best to stretch her to 9am (15min variation). By doing that, I was able to keep our day consistent more or less rather than constantly adjusting things. If your LO wakes early from the nap; try leaving him in the cot for another 15-20mins and see if he will put himself back to sleep. You won't be able to drop the catnap with 2 short naps, it may be possible with one longer nap. With regards to stretching A's, I worked on 1 A at a time, starting with the morning A - so I would try adding extra 10mins every couple of days, try taking him out of the house (if possible) and doing a longer windown routine when stretching A's.

HTH

[Larasn]

Hi I'm new to this conversation.  My little guy is having a party in his bed most mornings.  Another momma suggested we look into dropping the catnap and extend his day. He's now 23 weeks.  We tried a 4 hour before and it was a big fail. So we dialed him back to a combo routine.  So our day looks like this.
7 am bottle/cereal
Play
9 am nap
11 am bottle/cereal
Play
1 pm nap
3 pm bottle cereal
5:30-6:15(ish) cat nap
6:15 bottle
8 pm bedtime
9 dream feed

Last night I shortened his cat nap to half hour.  He woke at 5:20 for 20mon then slept until 7 I had to wake him.  Up to now he's been waking at 6 am for 45 min.  Always happy and chatty. 
I know his Df is early but we were doing this as a way to dial it back from so late to drop it.  Just confused what to do now.  Is it possible he's ready to drop the cn?   If I stretch his day I'm still concerned that he will wake at the same time as before and not sleep later.  This morning he went down at 9:15 instead of 9 am.  If he will nap past 11 I'll totally let him.  But not sure if he can.  Help!!!  Feeling overwhelmed. 

[Baby_A_Mama]

Hi Lara,
I just had a thread going called: "Please help - early waking, 3/2 nap transition?" (it's in the Naps section here, I'm not sure how to link it).  Layla was extremely helpful to us figuring out our situation and dropping the catnap. our LO is almost 8 months but she said she started at around 6 months with hers, so closer in age to yours.  Maybe you would find her advice helpful too. We have naps close to 9 and 1 and have mostly eliminated the catnap with a very early bedtime.

[Larasn]

Thankyou I'll look for it.