Help with EASY (2-1 nap transition?)

[Jadea]

I'm having trouble figuring out the EASY for my one year old.  A couple weeks ago he started to fight both of his naps. He was still taking them and sleeping for 1 hour each nap, but he would sit in his crib and play or whine for 30-40 min before going to sleep. Now he has gotten to where he fights both naps with a passion, and won't be persuaded to sleep at all. He was on 4 hours A time across the board, but his own fighting started pushing it back to where he's more like 4.75 hours.

Today I pushed him out to 5 hours morning A time to see how he would deal. He was fine the whole time, cheerfully playing and only showed tired signs while I was doing his nap routine. He went right to sleep without fighting, playing or whining. I was hoping that he would sleep 2 hr which would allow for another 5 hour A time and then BT, but he only slept 1 hour 15 min. Should I bump his A time up a bit more? I'm hesitant to move him to 1 nap even though it seems to be what he wants because I've heard that most babies aren't ready for just 1 nap at this age, but I don't know what else to do since he refuses to take more than 1 nap.

Yesterday's EASY

6:00 w/u (6:00 - 7:00 am played in crib refusing to go back to sleep)
10:00 - 11:00 Laid baby down for nap but he just played and refused to nap.
11:00 - 12:00 AM nap
12:00 - 6:00 A time (I laid him down at 4pm for a nap, but he refused it altogether)
6:00 BT
1:30am NW

Today's EASY so far
6:00 w/u     (I want to get this moved up to 7am, but with EBT he just won't sleep in)
11:00 - 12:15 AM nap went smoothly, no fighting

Planned for today:
4:15 - 5:00pm  Planning to try to get him to catnap? I doubt if he will take this nap.
BT either 6pm if he doesn't nap or 8pm if he does.

Please help me figure out if I'm on the right track or what I should try differently!! Thank you so much in advance.

[HenaV]

Hi,

I think you are on th right track. How did today go?

Re: nap 1 - are you capping the nap or is your LO
Waking himself?

In terms of BT, I would stick to a 13h day mac if he has both naps. By extending the longer you may find your DS gets OT which here perpetuates EW.

Hena

[Jadea]

HenaV thanks so much for your reply! In answer to your question, I'm not capping the first nap.
DS started tired signals at 4pm and went down for a catnap with no fuss. When I laid him down at 7:15 for bed he cried a little, but started quickly his rolling around routine for self soothing. He continued rolling trying to sleep until 7:50.

I'm starting to think he is UT,  and I need to move to 1 nap. 

If we have to do a catnap how long do you think is best? 30? 45? (He has also been fighting BT frequently)
Is there a good solution for extending the am nap so we can eliminate the catnap? Or is that developmental?

Below is what I'm guessing his EASY should look like ideally. Please post any opinions on tweaking it!

7am w/u
E - 8
A 7- 12
S 12 - 1:15

E 2:15
A 1:15 - 5
S 5 - 5:30?

E 5:30
A 5:30 - 8
S 8 BT

OR

W/U 7
E 8
A 7 - 12
S 12-2

E 3
A 2-7
S 7 BT

[HenaV]

I think you're pretty much spot on with option 1. The only think I would try is an earlier CN - prob 4.15/4.30- 5pm depending on if you Think your LO needs 30/45m. With a nap of 1h15m in the morning I'd be tempted to try 45m.

I would stick with it for about a week and see how you go. What do you reckon?

H

[Jadea]

DS woke up this morning at 5:30am, we did 1.5 hr wiwo till 7 am then finally got up. I don't think he would do a CN after only 3 hr A, but I will give it a shot.

Today's plan:

w/u 5:30
E
A 5:30 - 10:30
S 10:30 - 11:45 (or longer if he'll sleep longer)

E
A 11:45 - 2:45
S 2:45 - 3:30

E
A 3:30 - 6:30
S 6:30 BT

[HenaV]

Boo to the 5.30 start but the plan looks good. If he naps longer in the morning I'd push the CN out and consider reducing it to 30m.


Good luck!

Hx

[Jadea]

He slept 1.5 hrs at am nap. So I will try to get a catnap in at 3:15 till 3:45 if he will take it.

[HenaV]

So looking at the plan you posted earlier, he slept from 10-12noon? If that is the case, do you thinks he'll be ready for a nap 3h15m after last WU?

H

[jyr838]

Hello,

I am new to this and have  LOTS of questions. But I'll try to curb my enthusiasm.

I seem to have the same issues as the OP.

My son is 15 months old and has been fighting his afternoon nap sometimes rolling around awake for 1.25 hours before we finally go in there an get him out. We are trying to figure out our transition and this is where we are at currently.


w/u:6:45/7
E:7:30/7:45 (Breakfast)
A:7:45-11:15am
E:11:15 (Lunch)
S:12-1:30 (he wakes up on his own)

E:2:30 (snack)
A:1:30-4:15
S: 4:15pm (putting him down hopping he'll cat nap but he likely won't)

A:5:00-9:00
E: 6:00 Dinner
S: 8:30/9pm sleep (BT)

If he doesn't take the afternoon catnap should I try putting him to bed earlier? (7pm?) I'm just worried that this means he is going to wake up super early the next morning.

Will his nap eventually get longer? with it being only 1.5 hours that's basically the length of one of his naps when he was taking 2 a day.

Any thoughts, ideas or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Juni

[Jadea]

So looking at the plan you posted earlier, he slept from 10-12noon? If that is the case, do you thinks he'll be ready for a nap 3h15m after last WU?

H

He slept 10:30 - 12, then I tried for a nap at 3pm (15 minute attempt) and again at 3:45 for a half hour, he just tossed his lovies out of the crib then sat and played and or complained the rest of the time. I haven't been able to get a nap into him without at minimum 4 hours of A time. I tried again at 5pm (just to see) since my boy was acting OT and miserable, but alas no mini CN then either.

To make matters worse we had evening errands that had to be run for our vacation that's starting tomorrow, so DS didn't get to bed tonight till 7:30. Currently beating myself up over things that couldn't have been changed. :-(

[HenaV]

Bless you, don't beat yourself up hon, everything can be fixed, some things just take a bit longer. You could change things up. So how about trying a CN in the morning and the longer sleep in the afternoon?

So with a 5.30 WU, perhaps do something like this:

CN: 10-10.30/45
Nap: 1pm
BT: no more than 13h after WU?

This way, you perhaps will get him to nap enough to push through to the afternoon and still be tired enough to have a decent nap in the afternoon. And if the afternoon NAp is rubbish you still have the option of EBT?

What do you think?

H

[Jadea]

Update: After the fiasco yesterday and his 7 hour last A time I was really surprised at how well DS slept last night. He woke once to eat, and slept 10.5 hours instead of his normal 11 hours. I'm starting to wonder if it's that he's UT and needs to go to a schedule that's closer to 1 nap?

Regarding your suggestion, we inadvertently followed your advice though I hadn't read it yet. We had a hectic morning and he went down for nap late then only took a 45 min nap (on his own) so when I read your suggestion I decided to try it. Here's the results below:

w/u 6:00
E
A 6:00-11:15
S 11:15 -12:00    went to sleep very easily (is 45 min UT? After 5:15 A time?!?)

E
A 12:00 - 3:00
S 3:00 - 4:00    went to sleep easily, but only slept an hour

E
A 4:00 - 7:00
S 7:00 BT (Went to sleep easily though he was entranced by the oscillating fan at Grandma's house)

I like that he got 1:45 total nap sleep, instead of 1:15 or 1:30. Should we push harder for a long nap? Any tweaks that you'd recommend?

[HenaV]

The thing is if it ain't broke.....

How would you say your LO was on 2 short naps?

I think your LO is probably ready for one nap tbh, it's just getting him there. For us 45m nap was usually UT and 30m OT. I would perhaps stick with what your doing for at 4days to a week and see how things settle down. You could then look at pushing the nap out say in 15m increments every few days until you able to eliminate the 2nd nap iykwim? It maybe one one nap days (if the nap is short ie - 1.5h or less) you have to EBT.

There is a sticky at the top of this board re: what your toddlers day looks like - it might be worth you having a peek and see what others are/ were doing with their LOs at this age



The transition from 2naps to 1 can be a bit tricky bit tbh in think you're doing a great job. You know your LO better than anyone else - keep following those instincts! Got everything x'd for you x

[Jadea]

Definitely going to keep this schedule for at least a week or so, he slept perfectly last night. He had no wake ups from 7pm till 6am. Thank you so much for your help!!!

[HenaV]

Yay! That's great news. Keeping everything x'd for you