sudden 2-1 transition 11mth old won't have pm nap

[mycatmonet]

hi everyone! After finally getting onto a good routine and great naps and only 1 nw, all of a sudden it seems 11mth old DD has dropped her pm nap and refuses it so badly i didn't even bother trying today. She hasn't had a pm nap in a week now, and only 4 times in the past 2 weeks.
DD was fighting her am nap after 3.5hr A, but an A time push to 4hrs seems to have settled that a bit. The am nap is anywhere from 1 to 2hrs. Normally 1h 30min give or take 20min.
EASY looked like this for last 2 days:
WU 5:30am
A 3h 55min or 4h
nap 1h 50min or 1h 30min
A 6h 50min or 7h 10min
BT 6pm - asleep 6:05pm or 6:10pm
(1 nw at 12.20am for nf last night....)

DD has also started waking at 5:30am for the last few days, was previously wu at 6:30am (or between 6 and 7am).

In repsonse to all this I have made bt earlier, 6pm instead of 7pm-ish. Have tried to push am A out a bit but DD has a shorter nap (ie 1h 10min) and still refuses the pm nap. So is it possible we're now on one nap and i need to try to even out our am and pm A's?

[amayzie]

My guy was refusing the second nap- that's classic 2-1. We fixed it by cutting the first nap to 20 minutes- or even 15 minutes. That means that they will be ready then to have the second nap a few hours later and it will be longer. We did 9.30 or so (it was always in the car- so whenever i was going out) and then 1.pm for the long one.

I'm thinking you still want not too long till bed time as that early waking may be a sign of over tiredness.. I think if you went to 1 nap now on these times that she'd get more and more over tired- and that's a killer

[amayzie]

Oh- and be brave about the slashing of the first nap- i was a MASSIVE fan of the long morning nap- i sort of thought that if he didn't bank that sleep it was OVER!! But it can be an effective strategy.

[Papaya]

I agree hun - in fact I've just posted almost the same thing on the 2-1 thread! She sounds super OT now and you really want to keep the 2 naps as long as possible. We did short am/long pm as well, and it really worked a charm for us.

Seeing as you're having pretty early starts atm, I would be incline to start with something like this:

WU: 5.30
nap: 9.30 - 10 (capped at 30 mins)
nap: 1 - ?? (uncapped - hope for 1.5-2hrs)
bed: 7, or earlier if pm nap is short

The short am nap should encourage a later WU, at which point you might need to push the am nap a little later and cap it to 20 mins to still get a good pm nap.

xx

[mycatmonet]

i am terrified of waking DD early from her am sleep, but she's been asleep only 40min this morn so i will go wake her up now!

Done, woke her up and felt so mean! Still scared of the capped nap, it feels so wrong lol. Fingers crossed.... Thanks ladies, appreciate the advice!

She did wu today at 6:10am, so a little later, but still only had her standard 10.5hrs sleep (had 2 nw nf, teeth were upsetting her last night, so woke at 9.20pm and 2.30am.

I hope hope hope she takes a second nap today!

[~Sara~]

Just want to send along some support!  Don't fret the shortened nap...it's the kindest thing to do, really, so that she can get a long nap in before bedtime and not be OT anymore.

Fwiw, my son did 10.5h nights for a loooooong time.  Some kids are just made that way.  Plus, your DD is teething; that can just upset any apple cart.  I am sure she will take her 2nd nap--she'll be ready for it, and it won't be too late in the PM that she'd refuse it.

[amayzie]

I also HATE waking DS up and was also really scared!! And he HATES it!! That's why i often do it in the car... then we are at a destination and we just get out of the car....

[Straffles]

Just tagging along out of interest.

I was really interested to hear you say that you got a 1HR 10 nap with extending am AT too far. I think I may have done the same thing, but not sure since I thought anything between 45 and 75 mins more likely to be UT.

Really interested to know how you go with the capped nap and working out the pm nap - I am all admiration!

I totally understand that trepidation with cutting the am nap and working out a new AT on the basis of that...

Good luck

[mycatmonet]

hi everyone, thanks for all your advice and interest!

Ok so today DD DID take a pm nap (the first time in 8 days!), BUT it was only 40min! AND it took 30min to get her to go to sleep (largely rocking in my arms!).... she was still fighting it. But not impossibly so.

So i was happy she actually had a pm nap but wished it were longer! Maybe she was ut? What does everyone think?

So today went:
wu 6:10am
A 3h 50min (was ready to nap, was asleep in 5min of pd)
Nap 10am-10:40am (40min)
A 3h 30min
Nap (pd started at 1:40pm) 2:10pm - 2:50pm (40min)
A 4hrs
Bt 6:35pm, asleep at 6:50pm (without a fuss)

I will try am nap capping for a week and see how it goes. I might try capping at 30min to start with.

DD is spirited/touchy and won't sleep in the car unless she has been awake 5hrs + and crashes on a long car ride. It's hard to apop a nap from her, the stroller is FUN so she won't sleep on a walk, she won't sleep ON me or bf to sleep. I will cap her am naps, but i am still freaking out about waking her! Luckily she doesn't seem to mind too much. 

[Papaya]

Yeah, I think that morning nap was a bit long - 40 mins is close to a full sleep cycle so she would have felt nice and refreshed, and ready to do almost a full A time! When I was capping, I found there was a big difference between capping at 45 mins and 30 mins - my LO was ready to go down again quite a bit earlier with a 30 min nap.

Hope you get a good night tonight!

[mycatmonet]

thanks papaya, she's nw once so far, at 10:50pm. I tried for ages to pd without nf but it wouldn't work. Think teeth are not allowing her to settle. So we were up nearly an hour... And here i am still awake (i have a bit of a cold and a cough and can't sleep!)...

[Papaya]

Ugh, teeth. They could have played a part in the short pm nap too then. Hugs on the cold, hope you get some sleep soon!

[mycatmonet]

thanks papaya, i didn't get much sleep last night but DD woke twice for nf (has to be teeth!!) and she had 10h10min night sleep....  So not bad but i wasted 30min trying to settle her without nf, will know better tonight.

Today's easy...
Wu 6:20am
A 3h 55min
So today we capped the am nap!!
Nap 10:15am-10:45am
DD did not appreciate that in the least, oh boy. She was all jittery for a while but then got over it.
A 3h 35min (was tired and grumpy before noon but lunch pepped DD up a bit) - pd at A 2h50min but DD resisted and it took 45min to settle her to sleep - maybe she was OT at that point? Or teeth. Could always be teeth.
Nap 2:20pm-3:40pm (1h 20min)
A 3h 30min
BT pd at 6:50pm, asleep at 7:10pm

So early days, but maybe the short am nap will work for us?

 

[amayzie]

Keep it going! Great work!

[Papaya]

I think the second A could have been a bit too long, just because you're just starting to cap. I'd try pulling back slightly, you can always push it out again when she adjusts. Although, an 1hr20 nap was often teeth for us!

Good luck for today