one nap a day awake times, help!

[Aringa]

Hello ladies,
I really need your advice. My baby is 12 months old, for the last 2 months or so she's been transitioning from 2 naps to 1, finally she is taking one nap a day, which lasts for two hours mostly. But we've got another problem - it is night wakings. During transition she was taking sometimes only 20 min nap per day, but she used to have a good 11 hours night sleep. Nowdays she is taking 2 hours nap, but she keeps waking sometimes up to 10 times per night This is our current shedule:
6.00am wake up
11am - she is in bed. It usually takes her up to an hour to fall asleep
12.00 - 2pm nap
6.50Bedtime
I've tried earlier bedtime, but she screams for an hour before she goes to sleep, although when I put her down at 6.50 she seems to be OT. She is doing very well long stretches of awake time in the mornings, but in the afternoon she is mostly grumpy and by the bedtime she acts as she is OT. I would be grateful for any advice. Thank you.

[ZacsMumme]

I wonder if considering she fluffs around at nap time if you need to push the nap out a it later so she is sleeping in there not spending ages to settle. So try for 11.30 let her sleep as long as she likes BT 4.5 hrs later or so.

The other thing is she could be a bit OT, or got OT from initial UT IYKWIM...in this case I would try an earlier nap, as long as she likes then offer a late CN to get to BT or EBT depending on nap WU. Ie
WU 6
Nap 10.30-1230/1
CN 5-5.30
BT 7.30

Sometimes during the transition they get a bit messed up... When is your first NW and how does she behave during it?

[Aringa]

Thank you ZacsMummy for your reply. I've tried to put my daughter for a nap earlier then 11am, but then she never falls asleep, I gonna take your advice and try to put her for a nap later in the morning, just I am so afraid she will get OT and in result refuse to nap at all, but I need to try.
She never takes CN late in the afternoon, I tried in the past - she screams in her cot and never sleeps. When she wakes up at night  - she is just moaning, whimpering, cause she is awake and can't get back to sleep, sometimes chatting for 15min or so and then goes back to sleep. I guess she OT not UT, cause she goes back to sleep quite rapidly when she wakes up. She wakes up many times at night on these days - every 1 - 2 hours. On top of that, when I put her in a cot at bedtime, she cries at least for 20min before she settles herself to sleep, she hasn't been doing that for ages.
She's never been a good sleeper at daytime, 2 hours of sleep during the day is a lot of sleep for her. I am just wondering -  could she be by any chance undertired, cause her sleep needs are definetely lower then average baby. I am even considering to cut her daytime nap to one hour or even less if necessery, in order to protect her night time sleep, which was much better before she's transitioned to one nap a day. Although I don't know if this is a good idea, cause naps are really important for babies.
Today I am also going to try earlier bedtime, but I am dreading it, cause I am afraid it can take hours for her to fall asleep. Anything is worth to try.

[ZacsMumme]

If UT it will be before that nap I think, then OT by BT. Try pushing the nap a touch first and see how she goes for 3 days. If that doesn't work I would try EBT next. I'm 99% sure it's not too much sleep that's causing the NW, just 2-1 wonkiness x

[Aringa]

I tried yesterday earlier bedtime - I put her down at 6pm instead of 6.50 and it made things better much better - she wasn't screaming before falling to sleep and she got asleep in 20min which is not too long. But she was still waking number of times at night - at 8pm, 9.30pm 12pm 4am and woke up for a day at 5.50. It was definetely better tonight, just she was still waking up at night, this makes me a bit cocerned. Today I won't keep her longer then 4 hours awake before bedtime. I gonna try later afternoon nap as well - at about 11.30 and I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you very much for your help.

[ZacsMumme]

No problem, good luck. Great news on the evening. It can take a week or so for them to adjust to the new routine

[Aringa]

Hi,
I've tried later afternoon nap with no success, unfortunately.. I put her down at 11.10am for her afternoon nap (5hours 20min awake time) and she was acting as very overtired in a cot and it took her1h15min to settle to sleep. She slept 40min, then woke up screaming and went to sleep again for another hour. However, in total she slept almost 2hours and she seemed to be well rested. I made her bedtime after 4 hours of awake time (as yesterday) and it took her 45min to fall asleep - crying on and off. From my expierence, she should keep waking at night if it takes that long to fall asleep or she might wake up at 5am tomorrow, lets see.. Just wanted to ask- if I should still keep on putting her down later for her nap or I should leave as it was (5 hours awake time, but usually it takes an hour for her to fall asleep)? Should I cut her day sleep? This long afternoon nap improved so much her day behaviour although it has very negative impact on her night sleep. I also feel so guilty keeping her in a cot if she is not sleeping.

[ZacsMumme]

Ok Hun, lets take a step back then. Why did you stop the 20min nap? Was she refusing it? What was her EaS when doing it? - maybe this will give us come clues to get a routine that suits her better.

I don't think 10 mins later would have had such a big affect on OT etc. is she teething? In a developmental leap maybe? These often cause upsets in nap/BT etc.

[Aringa]

Hi,
Tonight was horrible. As I was predicting, she was waking up constantly, up to 10 times per night. She is not teething and nothing else is bothering her on these days.
As I mentioned before she's never been a good napper. Never ever. We had constant problems with her day sleep, but night sleep was absolutely fine. Our routine before I moved her to one a day nap was:
6.00 wake up
9 - 10 I put her down for a nap
Sometimes she took it, sometimes not. If she did it could be from 35min to up to 2hours
2.00 - 3.00 pm I kept trying to put her for afternoon nap in a buggy. She totally refused this nap in a cot. If she took it, then it was usually 30min, if she slept longer, I used to woke her up, cause it negatively affected her night sleep. Also, she never took this nap, if she had very long morning nap.
6.50 Bedtime
With this kind of shedule she was sleeping very well at night. Since afternoon nap mostly didn't happen, she used to be very grumpy in the afternoons. I moved her to one nap, because she started fighting even her morning nap. I just moved it later and although it takes her an hour to fall asleep, she sleeps for 2 hours. But I completely can't figure out why this causes NW. By the way, I remember once she took 1hour MN and then 1hour AN and that night she was waking up excessively. Somehow good daytime sleep makes her sleep worse at night. ???I also got advice to make her morning nap shorter - 20min or so, but she ended up refusing afternoon nap as a result having 20min nap in total. So, this wasn't a solution. Strangely, if she has poor naps - she sleeps better at night. She seems to be exhausted at daytime, but at night she doesn't wake up a single time. I know that it is so oposite for other babies and it makes me totally confused.
Could this mean that I want her to sleep longer than she actually needs? If I keep on our new shedule, is it possible, that this phase will pass and she will start eventually sleeping through the night? I really don't know what else to try..

[ZacsMumme]

My boy when little never napped, he had horrid reflux but would crash at night 10.5 hrs straight at 8 weeks or so. So not all LOs wake frequently when exhausted.

My thought is the NW are still OT catch up... Does she typically have the first x time after Bt? We could try w2s to see if it helps break the habit. Do you only go in when she is crying for you?

[Aringa]

That is true she was sleeping well at night, when napping poorly, just because she was exhausted..
Her first awake time in about an hour time. Yester4day I put her down after 4h20min awake time, although she was yawning at 4hours mark, and she went to sleep in 30min with no crying, but woke up in 20min.Then 30min, again 30min and every hour till midnight. She slept for 2hours from midnight to 2am, woke up at 3am, at 4am, at 4.30am, 5.30 woke up for a day. It is getting worse, cause now she started waking every 30min. Should I try 3hours 40min awake time today? That seems so little awake time for her, I am worring that I keep her too long in her cot, since anyway she is not sleeping.
She is able to self soothe. I did cry it  out on her when she was 6 months old. Actually, it took 3months for her stop crying before going to sleep. She was sleeping on her own for those 3 months. We live in one bed apartament, it was very inconvenient for us to sleep in a living room, so once she was able to self soothe herself to sleep with no crying and since her sleep was very good at night, we moved to sleep back to our bedroom couple of months ago. When she is awake, she can't see me, cause there is a bumper on her cot. If she starts crying very hard, then I say something like shhh.. and sometimes that helps her to go back to sleep. I guess she feels more secure, if she feels that I am there. But I am trying to interfere as little as possible.
For me she sounds OT as well. At daytime she sleeps in a very deep sleep, cause she even doesn't change her position during that 2 hours nap. I also wanted to ask - could she be waking up night, cause she gets OT of doing long awake time in the morning, cause by the time she gets asleep, it is 6 hours awake time or more. Could you please explain what is w2s? I am desperate to try anything at the moment. And once again thank you very much for your help, I am so glad that I found this website, I really apreciate it, cause there isn't many people who understands such a complicated thing as baby's sleep. Thank you!

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs,
Do you think the repeated NW could be discomfort? Have you tried medicating before Bt to see if it helps. That is a lot of NW YK?
The other thing is maybe SA? - you mentioned you did CIO in the past. I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before but CIO and Cc is not supported at BW. Tracey believed that leaving an LO alone to cry breaks the bond of trust between mum and baby.

I dunno...your old routine looks like it was making her more OT...with her nap do you wake her? What about not waking her...see how long she sleeps for? - my DS did 3 hr naps for a while and they never affected his nights (or made him UT I mean)

Anything else going on? - how are her poops?
What is she eating and drinking.... Could she be hungry?

[Aringa]

Hi,
My baby eats home cooked food. I make sure she gets fruit and veg, cereals, meat, fish and dairy products. In my opinion, she has really good and healthy diet. She is prone to constipation, I keep an eye on it, but recently it's not bothering her. At daytime she doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, she looks healthy, so I don't want to give her painkillers, since I don't know if she is in pain at all. But I guess I'll try, nothing to loose on these days.
Yesterday we had this shedule:
7.00 am wake up
11.30in bed
12.30 asleep
2. 10 pm I woke her
7.20bedtime
She felt asleep in 5min. Didn't wake up till 10pm. Then woke up screaming her head off. I never take her from cot if she cries, usually I try to comfort her in it, but I did an exception cause she seemed to be extremely distressed. She stopped crying immediatly, but looked very upset. I guess she had a nightmare. Does it happened at this age? Could it be a night terror/ I feel really confused about this. After that she went to sleep and woke up crying after 10min. Cried for 2min and went back to sleep and this kind of wakings lasted till about midnight.  By the way something similar happened the night before - screaming 2 hours after bedtime and then crying every 10-15min till midnight. She seemed to be asleep though. After midnight she slept soundly - till 5.30am, then woke up and went to sleep at 6am. Slept again till 7am. So apart of that woke up at 10pm and crying on and off till midnight, tonight wasn't that bad. But I don't understand what is happening and wether it is something to do with her naps at all, although everything changed once I moved her to one nap a day.
She is definetaly suffering from SA for the last couple of months or so. But I sleep in the same room, I even took off the bumper, so she can see me when she wakes up. If she is realy unable to settle I sometimes give her my hand, if she is really unable to settle herself to sleep. I am worring as well about the side effects of CIO. I would never erver have done that if I didn't have to wake up every hour at that time. I just couldn't do it anymore. Although it took long time to work, it improved her sleep dramatically (till now), but I feel very guilty and probably for the rest of my life.
Since I've tried short awake time till bedtime after a long nap and that didn't work at all,  now I am trying long awake time. I let her take a nap till 1.30 pm (2hours) this afternoon and I gonna put her down at 7.20pm to see if that helps with her wakings. I just really don't know what else to try..

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs sorry I haven't been back sooner. I still think discomfort really do you medicate at the NW and she still cries on and off? Any teeth?
I certainly wouldn't cap that nap back more than 2 hrs, she is still quite young.
I'm going to ask a ap mod to move you to toddler sleep now your LO is 1 and for fresh eyes