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

[awinkza]

Hi all-

We have been doing a set nap time for a few days but I am concerned that she is still getting too little sleep and getting OT. She is pretty exhausted by the end of the day and actually before the end of the day, but I am not sure if her nap will eventually lengthen or if we should try something different. I guess it has only been 3 days, but her nap length is so erratic I am wondering if we should try a morning catnap and a little bit later afternoon nap?  I saw Lauraims is doing 15 or 20 minutes for a morning catnap and I am wondering if that might be a good idea?  I have also seen some people that alternate 2 naps with 1 nap and I'm curious how that works. Not sure that is a good idea for us as I think a set schedule would be better but today we only got a 30 minute nap so I'm wondering if maybe we should try something else. She also woke up about an hour after getting to bed tonight but eventually resettled herself, then woke around 10:30 p.m. (I did BF her that time).  Are there guidelines that help determine what might work best for certain lo's?

I haven't tried the BF ban at night yet - I am always worried she will be really hungry and I think it would be miserable if I was hungry and couldn't eat   Am I overthinking this?

[lauraims]

The small catnap in the morning works really well for me hun.
We're doing,
3.5hr first WT, (sometimes 3 if a rough night)
20min nap (might start consistantly doing 15 as waking at 5.30am)
2.15hr second WT
2-2.5hr nap
BT - not 100% yet. Was doing 4hrs WT but going to try 3.5 now IncAse that's the cause of eW.

Lastnight we had 7-6.30 night straight through !!! 👏👏👏
Yesterday was a different day nap wise as we had plans so altered her day a bit
3.5hrs - 30min nap
3.5hrs - 2hour nap
4hrs - BT ( tried for earlier but think she was OT so took awhile to settle.)
Hmmmm

[First mum]

Hi Lauraims, I would stick with the catnap at 9 regardless of wake-up.  My lo has ew when her overtiredness sets in so that's my que to do a few nights of ebt to help her try and catch up.  I know when I'm getting it right as she will stir and sometimes cry out around the 5-5:30 mark but will either resettle for about another hour or play quietly in her cot.

Have you noticed a pattern with shorter nights if the main nap is longer than 2 hours?  I watched for about a week and a half and knew it was the reason.  It's really hard especially when I know she has had a rough night with teeth or ears to try and be consistent and keep her day nap set.

Awinkza, no harm in trying the morning cn.  I found it helped so rolled with it for as long as she needed.  I did it at 9am regardless of wu and capped at a max of 15 mins.  I then stuck with a set lunch nap at 11:30 which is pretty consistent for 2 hours with bt of 6:15-6:45.

[trimbler]

Hey, sorry for slow reply, how's was the earlier BT, Laura? I'd have said to reduce that last A by 15mins and see what happens, if she just messes around then perhaps she wasn't OT and you may need to push instead (?), if she goes straight to sleep but still seems like she might be OT then you could try earlier. I'd been pushing to 7 and hoping that a further push might sort out the long NWs, but found instead that she was so tired, I had to do EBT and that was the key - seems like 6.30pm is probably her ideal BT atm, although she's had a few other issues recently and I've wanted to get her down earlier but haven't been able to for logistical reasons... What's Im's total wake time? What do you think it should be? I think we need around 14h TS here, maybe a little more - I'm sure DS had lower sleep needs at this age.

Awinkza, I like the short am nap (when it works!) as they can build up enough tiredness for a good pm nap, without having massive A times. I'm not sure about alternating 1/2 nap days, with DS I just offered both every day until he was rejecting the am nap most home days, and then we dropped ct. But I know lots of others have done really well alternating nap days, or playing it by ear and seeing how tired their LO seems.

Our ideal routine (I think!) is:
Up 6.30
Nap 9.30-9.50 (often she takes a while to get off so it may be 10mins later)
Nap 1-3 (always wake at 3 for school run, staying consistent at the weekends)
BT 6.30

Unfortunately we had a busy weekend and lunch/pm nap got a bit late, resulting in OT and waking early to poo! Haven't been able to catch her up after that but home tomorrow so will try earlier BT... I think we have teething going on too so not expecting perfection right now anyway

[lauraims]

Well that good run lasted 2 weeks 😣😣😣 now she's taking ages to fall Asleep in afternoon then waking up after an hour absolutely hysterical and won't go back to sleep. Great, now what ?!! 😓😓😓

[First mum]

Oh that's rough Lauraims!  What else is going on at the moment?  Is it a just a batten down the hatches and ride it out or do you think a change is needed?

[lauraims]

Hey Hun. I'm not sure. It's happend the last two days.
I'm laying her down at 2hrs10mins after a 20 min nap. It was working up until yesterday! She'd then fall asleep at about 2hrs40mins. 😣😣 hmmm don't know.

[First mum]

hmmm, maybe try for a few more days and if still resisting shave another 5 minutes off that morning cn and see if that makes a difference

Hugs x

[lauraims]

Thanks for the hugs 😊 already had an OT cry out 1.5hours after going to bed. First time in ages 😞

[trimbler]

Or you could try putting her down for the pm nap a little later, say 15mins? Or were you doing anything different just before the nap, which may have excited her more than usual?

[lauraims]

Tried 15 mins later today. Still took her 40 mins of mucking around to settle. And she wS definitely tired as her night was pretty short due to a NW from 3-4.45😣😣😣 OT has set in😓😓 no idea what's going on.

[First mum]

Does you lo tack on with an ebt Lauraims?  Could you do a super ebt tonight to try and help catch up?

[MayaandEvasmommy]

HELP!!!!! I am truly at my wits end  . We have been struggling with EW since March.  I think we have tried allsorts of different routines, I was sick of trying to work out schedules, A times, BT blah blah, so thought I would try set clock times. I have been consistent and in my head it couldn't fail  .  Well we are definitely getting better naps but I keep coming back to what I have thought for a long time, we have a LSN toddler.  On the odd occasion I don't doubt OT has been the reason for waking early, but watching her the last week we are always averaging 12-12.5 hours.  This has been our schedule

WU 5am
Nap 11am
Nap 1hr 30
BT 6.15

WU 5.15
Nap 11am-2hrs
BT 6.20

WU 4.20!!!!!
Nap 11am - 1hr 20
BT 6.20

WU 5.30 yay!!!
Nap 11am -2 hours
BT 6.30 had every faith in this routine as this is where I would like to be, thought def would result in a good wU
I could have pushed BT out last night I guess but was trying to be consistent and worried about pushing too far.
Today 4.30!!!!!!

She is an independent sleeper, she rarely wakes in night and wakes happy in a morning.  She is generally in good spirits all day, goes to bed like a dream, but everything is so damn early.  My idea was if I could get the above routine to work I would gradually push out.  I truly could have cried this morning when I saw how early it was, and worse still I will have to admit hubby was right  .  So I guess I need help in getting our routine moved up, especially with the clocks going back soon.

I mean even if I am wrong about her sleep needs and she does need a little more on occasion then great but on the 10 hours nights we have got to be looking at a better start than 4.30! I can handle 5.30 but 4.30 I just too much, im already in bed early.

Please help I feel like I am going insane.  FWIW my other daughter only ever did 10hrs too, u would think id learnt, but Eva was always so much better at sleeping than Maya ever was as a baby then it all changed.

[First mum]

Oh that sounds rough!  You mentioned that she is happy during the day, have you thought of pushing the nap later in the day and going for a later bedtime?  Say 8pm then if you are getting 10 hours it would be a 6am wu? 

[MayaandEvasmommy]

I just don't think she will go any longer unless her WU get later.  This morning she fell asleep on me at 10.45, then woke at 30 mins, got her back off but only did an hour in total, so nap finished at 12pm.  I don't think I could stretch her any later tonight, I could prob get away with 6pm tonight which would prob give me a 5am start tomorrow but any later I wold still get 5am or earlier, I panic about later BT now.  I have completely lost the plot lol x