Support Thread for 2-1 Nap Transition cont'd pt 6

[ginger428]

F, I see. We have huge windows, though not full length.  Yes, blue light is in natural light and most electronics.  I read it is not in house lights... those are mainly white and yellow.  But I don't know exactly what that means.

go out into the rest of the house which is super bright.

This made me realize that we've been getting less light in the rest of our apartment... the full trees in the summer block the sun.  I loved it in the winter when the tree was bare because all the sunlight would flood our living room.  I wonder if this has affected his 'clock.' Anyway, whatever the case, we can only work with what we've got, right?

WU was 5:44 but he rested (not slept) until 6:15.  We went for a walk at 6:40. He's currently napping longer than he has in weeks... going on 1.42. Hmmm... catch up nap? Another 1 hr NW last night. Oh... he just woke. 1.44. Not too bad.

[First mum]

Hi Ladies, no post from us for a few days as I've been unwell and just trying to make this 1 nap work?!?  My LO has been pretty good with an 11:30am nap.  We are getting between 40mins (at daycare) and on average 1.5hrs at home.  Such a relief she is sleeping at daycare again, we just need to work on the length.

We are all coming out the otherside of illness but something that is creeping in is the EW.  We have had a couple of 4:30am wu and nothing we do can get her back to sleep.  Her day looks like this

4:30 wake-up
6:00 out of cot (usually hubby or me has been trying to resettle)
6:30 brekkie
7-7:30 breastfeed
cat nap for 15 mins anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30am
11:00 lunch
11:30 nap
2-3:00 snack
4:30 dinner, bath, play, books
5:30 breastfeed
6:00 asleep

Pretty much exactly the same if we have a 'normal' wake up of 6-6:15.

We've been on the 1 nap now almost 3 weeks, in total I think we are getting on average 12-12.5 hours sleep per day.  Would you change anything?  Is having such an early bedtime contributing to the ew?  We have always had such an early bt so with ot creeping in I don't really have anywhere to move other than trying for a cn in the avo which my LO pretty consistently refuses.

Really appreciate your advice and support x

 

[ladymugg]

I'm not sure but the early bedtime might not be helping. Why don't you try pushing it by 10 mins for 3 days, gradually increasing by half an hour to 6.30 and see what happens?  That will take you about 9 days to get to 6.30 and in smaller increments might not be so noticeable as I know I pice mentioned that she is very tired by BT.

I keep being oblivious about teething as the cause of EW so thought I'd share. Had a week of EW and then discovered 4 molars had hit.  So maybe teeth? 

[First mum]

Thanks ladymugg I love how are thought processes are similar    I had just read and posted in another forum conversation about ew linked to ebt!!    Yip am thinking I am going to give it a go.  Am thinking if I do it as you say in small increments hopefully that will help her manage any ot that is still lingering with the transition.

[First mum]

Just another thought???  Would you also shift her dinner time 15mins each day as well?  We currently have a 4:30 dinner.

[ladymugg]

Not sure... But at 15mo early waking shouldn't be linked to hunger., their stomach size is such now that they should be able to last a while. 

FYI dinner time is 5-15ish at our house (but does not have a BT bottle or WU bottle, she's a milk woth a snack girl now).  Am thinking of moving this later because she seems to be able to handle it hunger wise from afternoon snack time.  Breakfast at 8am which is a little bit of a long stretch but then again that doesn't (and shouldn't) contribute to an early wu.   That's why I'm thinking of making dinner more like 5.30.5.45ish. 

[First mum]

Yeah I've thought that for awhile now.  Even with the really ew her brekkie and breasfeed have never been earlier and on the odd (very odd) occasion we have had a 7:30 sleep in she quite happily waits another 30-45 minutes for brekkie.

Am thinking more change for my LO    fingers and toes crossed!!

[ladymugg]

Good luck!!  EW is a big head scratcher sometimes but I'm sure you'll get there.  There are the things they always say (is the room dark enough, warm enough, quiet/white noise?) but I kind of expect most people are onto those things. 

One thing I do know is that if you push the BT out by half an hour or even a little longer you will get more play time especially if your partner (and you) work which is just lovely as a family. 

That's one of my reasons for trying to get dinner time a little later, so some nights we can eat a meal together (although being realistic there are always things on for us lost week nights, even if one of us is just going for a run).  But it all helps!

[ginger428]

First mum, I think pushing to 6:30 at least is a good idea.  We did that and currently are at 7:00, trying to push to 7:30.

[Mariellamom]

Hi ladies, we have been quiet here. Painting the room while DD has her one 1h20 min nap It took me a month to finish
About EW,  yeap, we didn't have them a lot but those times were frustrating.
We travelled with DD and had very late BT. BUT she slept for 4-5 nights from 10pm to 10-11am!  I was shocked as I had to wake her up which never happens here
But for the last two months I try not to do BT too early and she has been pretty good with WU time 7:30. Except for today's morning-  5:30
I think ladymugg is right, it can also be teething . At 11 months we have only two teeth and it seemed like the upper ones were going to come out three months ago. 
First mum, wish you luck with working on those EW !

[First mum]

Morning Mums,

What time do you give your LO lunch?  I'm trying to have Livy in the highchair for 11 and down for her nap at 11:30 as this is what daycare are trying for me.  11 is the earliest they can serve lunch.

Do you think that's too close to her nap?

[ladymugg]

I give my daughter lunch anywhere between 11 and 11.30.  Usually its lunch then a drink and then pretty much straight to her nap (nap is usually at 11.30). 

I think as long as your daughter can self-settle (ie: doesn't need to feed to sleep, which I would doubt is the case at this age) and doesn't have any digestion problems, then it should be fine. 

My daughter usually mucks around in her high chair having a drink and stuff for 5 minutes after the full on eating has stopped.  Sometimes we even go and sit down and play or read for 5 minutes. 

Hope that helps. 

[First mum]

Thanks ladymugg, yip that's what we are doing to.

I have another question for the group......  how long does you LO sleep for on the 1 nap and how long did it take for them to get there consistently? 

We've had a bit of a rough day, wu was 3:50 and with a couple of resettles and hubby falling asleep on her bedroom floor we got to 6am.  cn at about 8am for 15mins and down at 11:30 asleep at 11:35.  We are sitting at about 1h15 minutes and I can't resettle her for any longer.  She gets upset at me trying to resettle her, I get upset at her because she wont resettle.  Then we had an epic meltdown (both of us) I had no idea what she was trying to communicate, I tried cuddling, leaving her, sitting beside her, teething gel, pamol and then some frozen fruit.  As quick as it started it was gone and my happy LO was back??  Think I may have started it with getting frustrated that I couldn't resettle her and her picking up on it, plus the ever present molars coming/going.

Felt like I failed her  think with 3 weeks of transitioning down to the 1 nap, ew and not long enough day naps we have an ot LO.  Add to this I am trying to extend her bedtime to help combat the ew which are getting worse.  Still managed a 6:10 bedtime tonight, but rubbish dinner and pretty rubbish bf so not sure what sort of night we will have.

Any suggestions?  Feeling a bit stuck again.

[ladymugg]

First of all don't worry about how much she ate/drank tonight.  That's classic teething, being off the food.  I think you'll find that it's the teething that's causing all those issue and.  We had all 4 molars coming through over the past 2 weeks (about a week aho) and our day was pretty similar to yours... Short nap, early WU and off her food.

Just try and ride it out... Pamol when you can, lots of love and care and cuddles which you're already doing. 

Throughout that time naps were averaging 1.15-1.39ish max but now we are through that stage back to 2-2.5hrs (but that's not every day mind you) and a 7am WU today even though it's usually 6/6.20ish.

I'm sorry I can't help more but I would be 99% sure all your issues you described are those molars!

[ginger428]

First mum, hugs and you are doing the best that you can. You haven't failed her.  I know how frustrating it is because you know if she doesn't resettle, it is a very long A to BT.  Hang in there, hun. The past few mornings I'm resettling DS almost every 1/2 hour to hour starting at 3:00am. We might be getting molars, too.

How did she go down at 11:30? FWIW, I think the 8am nap is too early. Since at this age the average A is more than 3.5 hrs (actually I think it's over 4 hrs), I wouldn't put her down for a CN until at least 3 hours after she wakes. I've heard that too early of a nap will cause sleep times to go off track.  She may have been slightly OT or UT by 11:30 or the darned teeth may have bothered her enough not to resttle. I usually give meds 30 min before a nap when I know for sure he's uncomfortable. Would you be willing to try for the 9:00am CN and keep the 11:30? Any reason you're going for 8:00? Also, I started giving 20 min CN when I saw his main nap was consistently shorter. I figured sneaking in another 5 mins would be good. Watch her and perhaps she can make it to 11:45 with a 20 min CN at 9:00? Which would give you a shorter A to bed.

This transition is considered the hardest so again, hang in there. As you started when your LO was older, it probably won't take too much longer for her to settle into it and be able to handle the long A time. Ours started around 9/10 months so we were into it for months and months.