Support for dropping the nap part 11

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Sounds good We're all over the place with sleep at the moment. I think his sleep needs have gone up a bit while he's cutting these molars.  The bottom ones are starting to properly come through now. I hope the top ones follow soon cos I want them over and done with.  I feel like the 1-0 is even more messy right now cos nothing is the same for more than 3 days ever, and the rules have all changed cos of these molars. If they're even having an effect on anything...! I'm counting on putting some of these EWs we're getting down to teeth, but don't know really til they're all through

[Haribo2012]

I feel a bit like the potty training isn't helping the sleep either  xx

[haribo89]

Thanks for all the advice, I will see how we go and keep it all written down, hopefully there's a pattern. My OH does BT so I feel bad for him when I give her a nap and it results in hours of fighting sleep for him. 
We always do quiet time with a dvd in my bed now, shes not relaxed or slept in her cot  at nap time for 3 months or more but will nod off if watching tv in my bed.
Yesterday was a NND and she slept from 6.40-7, her nights are getting longer on NNDs but today she still fell asleep at 2pm so I gave 15min. When should I PD for bed? I'm wondering if I'm just getting her BT wrong on CN days and that results in a 9.30-10pm sleep time.


I think I will see about changing username, two haribos both with LOs in the 1-0 is confusing ;-)

[trimbler]

Sorry I don't really have advice for younger LOs or 15min naps, just reading along.

I have a different sort of question - on nap days, BT has been later, especially when NNDs were the exception so the naps weren't really catch up naps, just normal. So meals have been stretched out more, snacks in between haven't been a problem. But now on NNDs dinner has to be earlier to fit in the earlier BT, which means lunch needs to be earlier too and now snacks seem to be interfering with meals so he's not so hungry for them. So for example yesterday he had a mid morning snack then struggled to eat lunch (which couldn't be delayed due to afternoon commitments), then he hardly ate any dinner (despite no afternoon snack), only had a little, then bath, then suddenly announced he was really hungry just as DH was about to finish his BT routine Can't do much about snacks as he still needs them and I don't want to end up with less food being eaten overall as he's not a great eater in the first place! Anyone else have this?

[rachsk8]

Trimbler: If my LO doesn't eat much dinner, I usually offer him a BT snack/supper and glass of milk as we are reading stories. Just something like crackers or whatever he will eat really.  We are practically done with the nap now, but his appetite still fluctuates a lot... again, no idea if it's to do with being more tired somedays or just a 'normal' toddler/preschooler thing!  Thats just what I do, anyway.

[Aishi]

Trimbler I was giving smaller snacks in between meals when I had to do them earlier and did a bt snack too. However i found that dd wasnt waking any earlier if she had a smaller dinner...

so set bt at 6.30 is working well here...I pd at 6.20 and she is asleep by 6.30 regardless of wu. But with later wus shes having nws for eg yesterday she woke at 7.15 and was asleep by 6.30 but had nw from 5-6. Shes still asleep now at 8.05. I know shes learning to self regulate but would you wake in the mornings even if u don't have to ie for school run and should I stick to 6.30 bt for tonight? ?

[trimbler]

Thanks for snack tips!

With fewer nap days now, DS is often struggling to get up but we have no choice with preschool during the week. He'll then say he wants a nap that day but of course it's different once nap time comes along and now that naps are negotiable it's getting harder to insist, I'm not sure enough myself to do that. Maybe we need to try shorter days now? Used to find that 7-7 worked well for the occasional NND (at first it was 11h days, but we did have to increase this as he got older), but maybe it needs to reduce again now? What have others found when NNDs got more frequent?

[jessmum46]

Aishi I didn't wake in the morning ever unless I had to for nursery, just let her sleep.  So things did fluctuate a bit but they are definitely more settled now

[Aishi]

Thanks katherine. I left her and she woke at 8.30!! She said she was tired at bt so I pd at 6.30 and she was asleep by 6.55. Guess shes better at this self regulating business than I thought she would be!

[jessmum46]

She's a good 'un

[Straffles]

Hi all,

I've just given Benji his first NND :/

He didn't get to sleep til past 9pm last night and woke several times overnight so I let him sleep and he was up just after 7.30am.

Down in seconds at 6pm BT.

That's a 10.5 hour night.

But how do I know what to do tomorrow? We were on a 1 hour nap giving 11hr nights until 3 days ago. Then nights went short to 10hrs and less. Then the 9pm UT BT.

How do you know when to do the next NND? And how do you know how long/short days should be?

Thanks, I'm still reading your discussions but I think you all seem to be a bit further along the line than me. I was just going to cut his nap back to 45 mins and stay with normal BT, but got advice to take the plunge into NN territory. I know you can't just go cold turkey, so not sure what I will do now.

Presumably I'll offer an uncapped nap tomorrow and subsequently cut nap back to 45 mins??

Our usual routine when working looks something like:

WU 6/6.30
Nap 1.45 (1hr)
BT 7/730

[rachsk8]

Straffles: at the start of the 1-0 I didn't cap naps, maybe I might have gotten longer nights sooner if I had, I don't know.  When DS started refusing naps (much earlier than he should have) I would do a drive in the car when I thought he REALLY needed one.  He never really mucked too long at BT, he was more of a EW kid (still is sometimes, sigh).

Anyone found sleep go wonky again around age 3?  I don't know if I need to tweak things again (and if so, how) or just ride it out.  It's just so random and I wonder if I try and keep to a 12hr day as a set BT still gives us random results.  Or are some kids just this way inclined?  I really thought we were done with this transition!!!!

Also, my DH is not exactly on the same page as me with DS sleep needs.  He thinks I over analyse (which could be true) and that I should relax and go with the flow more.  If he's on bedtime, he won't put him down until 7pm at the latest (we have had a BT of 7.30pm) where as if he has had a couple of 11hr nights with EW's I personally see that as a sign of OT creeping in and will go for an earlier BT or try for a car-nap to help him catch up. He woke at 6.15am today (second 11hr night in a row) and giving him a nap of any sort today will be tricky, despite the fact I think he could do with one.  DH still won't get him down til 7pm, which is a 12.75hr day after a short night - recipe for OT nightmare if you ask me.  :-(

[trimbler]

Tricky if you and DH aren't on the same page... Does DS have a gro clock or anything like that? Would he stay in bed until the 'sun' came up, even with an EW? Mine has usually been fairly happy to do that, sometimes he'll even drift back off to sleep but even if not I figure it's still worth it as he's at least been resting during that time.

Mine definitely got more tired around 3, but then he'd just started preschool. Think there's also a GS. Or are you finding less sleep needed rather than more? Can't comment on naps as we're only just dropping ours now!

I've got lazy with naps, during DH's holiday a couple of weeks ago DS only took about one nap I think as he was doing other things  but did get really tired. Now of course naps are negotiable so no matter how tired he is when we have to get him up in the morning, he doesn't want one! And tbh it's just easier now not to, otherwise it would disturb DD's sleep. So we're just experimenting with earlier BT, not so easy as DH is working later atm and I'm not good at doing both BTs, but that's where we are now, kind of gone ct! Maybe DH will have the energy to insist on one at the weekend...

[TB9]

Straffles - Have you tried later bedtime?  7pm bedtime is pretty early if nap is from 1:45-2:45.  Right now dd is napping until 2:30ish and bedtime is 8pm, any earlier and it causes trouble!

[PineapplePrincess]

Rachsk8, I think a 12.75 hour day is fine. Most of our days are 13 hour days and sometimes 13.5. We do set bedtime at 8 pm and he wakes between 6:30/7. We tried the certain number hour days before and a set bedtime seems to regulate his sleep patterns more. My other friend has a 3.5 year old and she just dropped her nap. Her BT is also the same and she sleeps the same amount as my son. At 3-3.5 it's not unheard of that they just need only 11 hours total.

My DH also said I needed to go with the flow a bit more and since we just kept BT the same no matter what the wake up time was, we have hardly any issues with EWU or anything else. Even the day that DST happened, my son was up for nearly 14 hours because I had to stretch him to the new 8 pm, he adjusted the next morning.