Starting 2-1 and early waking

[lilamom]

I'm not sure of the best place to put this, so please feel free to move, mods, if it belongs better somewhere else!

My LO is 12 months, a great sleeper, but seems to be starting the 2-1.  She's taking longer to settle for naps, but, most problematically, is starting to wake quite early and seems tired.  She takes good naps and would go 2+ hours for her afternoon nap many days if I'd let her.

We dealt with 40 min naps back at 5 months and what helped most was stretching her A's a bit and just being really, really consistent with her A times for a few days.  It took a day or two but she adjusted beautifully.  I tend to analyze her schedule too much and tweak it constantly.

Would you be able to help us nail down a schedule to stick with for the next month or so?  I think I'll be able to approach the 2-1 better if her schedule is consistent day-to-day (at least we'd have a stable point from which to make changes).

She is also getting her molars and I think that has affected naps some, although advil seems to be doing the trick for now.

Here are our logs from the last few days:

Friday
5am: cried out
5:45-6:30am: dozed/talking?? happy
6:30: bottle, up
9:20ish-10:30: nap (hard time going down)
2:20-3:20pm: nap (cried a bit, up at 4pm)
7:30pm: bed (cried a bit)

Saturday
Cried out at 12:30am, also a bit at 10:30pm
7:15am: woken up
9:50-11am: nap (fell asleep pretty quickly, cried out at 10:50)
2:50-4:10pm: nap (woken up, talked a while before falling asleep, woke up 30 mins in and jabbered)
7:30: bed.. 7:40pm: asleep

Sunday (church day, so naps are always a bit off)
6:20am: awake
9:05-9:40am:  nap (woke up)
2-3:10pm: nap (cried out, then quiet, dozed?)
7:25: asleep (fussed 10-15 first, gave advil)

Monday
5:50am: awake/cried out then happy for a long time
6:40am: up
(8am: advil)
9:20am-10:35am (asleep quick, woke happy)
(2pm: advil)
2:30-4:30pm (down at 2:20)
7:40pm: asleep

Tuesday
5:30amish: awake
6:40am: up
9:20-10:35am: nap
2:20-3:55pm: nap (jabbered at 25/30?)
7:25pm: bed

Wednesday
5:30amish: awake, dozed a little, happy?
6:40am: up
9:20 (fell asleep quickly)-10:35am: nap (woken up
2:15ish (down at 2pm, played a bit)-3:35pm (woken up)
7:30ish: asleep (down at 7:20 quiet but played)

I am thinking of trying

6:30am: Up
9:30-10:30am: nap
2/2:15-3:30/45pm: nap
7:30pm: bed


Thanks so much!

[jessmum46]

Have you had a read of this yet?  10/ 11mo sleep gone wonky? Read this first!

It's tough when molars are complicating things and to an extent you just have to do the best you can, but I think your plan of capping the am nap is the way to go given you have EWs at the moment.  An hour is a good place to start, but as you get further into the 2-1 you are likely to have to cut the am nap shorter and move the pm nap a touch earlier to compensate.

I'll get someone to pop this over to sleeping for toddlers for you since your LO is 12 months

[lilamom]

Thanks, Katherine!

Yes, I've looked over the 2-1 material and it's been quite helpful.  In the post you linked to, I think my LO falls in the category of #3... taking good naps but waking earlier and earlier (this had been the trend for the past few months).

The AM nap is usually 60-70 mins and the PM one is around 2 hours (sometimes more).  I'm guessing I should just start shortening the AM one, moving the PM one up, and increasing the A time before bed (I think she could do 3.75 or 4).

She is such a big napper that I'm concerned about possibly having to cap both naps.... help??

[jessmum46]

The idea is you pick one to cap (probably the am in your case) and then leave the other one uncapped to prevent LO getting OT from too much nap capping.  The exception to that is if the long nap reaches 2h - it's fine to cap at that length as it doesn't really 'count' as capping when you are still on two naps .

[lilamom]

Ah--- that makes a lot of sense!  Thanks!

I think I'd prefer to cap the AM... it's already shorter anyway and some days when we've needed to, we've capped it and she's fine.  I know we will be transitioning to a long PM nap, which is what she does already so I'd like to try to keep that if I can.  Does that sound good?

[jessmum46]

Sounds great

[lilamom]

Thanks!  Any advice from the Toddler mods?