Is it the nap? Something else? WDYT?

[Erin M]

Hi ladies!
We've had a weird January sleep-wise.  James has had a few nights each week (sometimes most nights!) where he's up for an hour or two -- it's odd because the times change -- two weeks ago he was up 5-6:30, a different week it was more like 3-5 and this week he's been up around 1.  I noticed this week that on the days when he gets a short nap (generally because we're out and he sleeps in the car) he sleeps through.  Could we be at the nap-capping stage already?  The girls both stopped napping consistently around the 21/22 month mark and we were mostly done with the nap not too long after their second birthday, so it's in the realm of possibility.  I guess the difference is that with them, they were either refusing the nap or going to bed crazy late if they did nap.  James will nap and go to sleep at night, but will just be up for hours at night! 

Our days generally look like this
Awake: 7/8 AM
Nap: 1-2:30/2:45 (he has to be up by 2:45 so we can pick the girls up at school)
BT - 8/8:30

On the nights where he's been awake, he'll generally sleep until 9 (this morning 9:30 but he was awake from about 1:30 until 4 last night).  They're pretty happy wakings, in the MOTN he'll cry initially and then be awake.  Last night I put him in bed with me and he tossed around, tried to crawl away a few times, I eventually put him back in his own bed and he fell asleep.  When he would wake around 5, he'd just play and chat for an hour and a half and then fall asleep again. 

Any thoughts much appreciated. 

[anna*]

Sounds to me like you've not got much choice but to cap the nap and see what that gives you. I think you have to balance it against wake up time as well, so if it's an early wake up - or after a disturbed night - I guess I'm saying because it's not happening every night you don't want to cap too much too soon and end up OT.

[ZacsMumme]

Hun your routine is just like ours at that age but were a bit earlier 7-7.30 day. At this age Z seemed to go through a weird patch and needed a touch less sleep. I think we capped his nap at 1.5 then and pushed it 15 mins later in the day. After a month or so the molars started moving and he needed a bit more sleep again so I kept the nap pushed out that bit later and then offered the extra 15 mins again. It worked quite well. Maybe try the later nap if capping makes him too OT

[CCCmom27]

We had the same weird thing a few months ago where he'd go to sleep fine then wake up for a party in the night.  Then it changed to taking forever to go to sleep!  I try to cap the nap around 1 hr 15 mins.  I always have to wake him; not sure how long he'd sleep if I let him!

[Erin M]

Thanks ladies.  Yesterday, we got an hour(ish) nap in the car and I *think* he did a 12 hour night perfectly (I say *think* because the @&*$ monitor decided to turn itself off at some point in the MOTN -- that being said, he's woken me up with crying when the monitor has done it before -- he's just on the other side of our wall -- so I think I would have woken up).  Today he cat napped in the car and then wouldn't go back to sleep so we'll see about OT.  1.15 sounds like a good target, I think I'll aim for that this coming week and see where it gets us. 

[Erin M]

Well, so here we are a few days later -- the days when we've done short naps in the car (one was actually about an hour but that was the longest) he's done well at night.  Yesterday, we did a 1.15 nap at home (might have been a touch longer, it's hard to tell when he actually falls asleep) and I heard him chatting from about 4:15-5, so not quite as long as the last few weeks - I think we're on the right track.  (Though he's got a cold, so we may shortly fall off that track   ).