Totally lost with 1 year old sleep!!! Please help!!

[Laineybobs]

Looking for some more advice ladies. My 1 year old sleep has gone a bit wonky again. I had been given advice before to start capping his naps in order to stop early wake ups which we did and he had been doing 30-40 in morning and then 1hr 10ish in afternoon which was working well and we had extended his sleeps to about half 6 which was brilliant! However that's lasted about a week and then he got sick and it's gone to pot again!!

We are back to wake ups between half 5 and 6 and refusing to go back to sleep but still crying and upset. And then naps seem a bit all over place. I'm still capping his morning one at about 35 mins but this last week I can't get him to do more than 50 mins in afternoon no matter what j do!

I'll post his EAS routines as they were and what they are now below and hope for some advice!!!

Before:
Wake 630
E - BF and then solids
A
S 1020 ish
Y

Wake 1050ish
E snack and lunch
A
S 220/230 for 1hr or so
Y

Wake 330/345 at latest
Bed at 715/730

For the past week or so it's been
Wake 6pm (on a good day!)
A
S 10/1015
Y

Wake 1045
A
S 1430
Y

Wake 1520
A
S 715
Y

I don't really know what to do? I don't think he ks ready for 1 nap yet tho some days he can handle quite long A times especially first thing in morning - sometimes 4.5hrs quite happily, other days not a chance? Any advice would be much much appreciated!!!

[Kellyjs]

Hey sweetie, it does sound like he's heading further down the 2-1 route I'm afraid. That second nap is classic UT.

Have you read this? I found it incredibly helpful. From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

First off I would look at capping that first nap to 20mins and keep the second nap where it is to see of that makes a difference. He may not be ready for one nap all the time as you say, but it might be that he's ready for one nap on some days with a catch up 2 nap day on others. We switched like that for a little while until I felt I could push the A times enough to get to one nap completely with an EBT here and there.

What I found is that if we had a decent ish wu of say 6am or later in the morning, I would try for a one nap day. Any earlier I would do a two, however we did it the other way round as long first nap and short pm nap and when that nap was refused more often than not, we went CT to one nap and just rode out the OT until I got the A times right hth x

[Laineybobs]

Thank you for that.

It was funny because after I wrote it we had such a funny day yesterday! He woke at half 6, so would normally nap about 1030/11ish but he didn't, was wide awake until about 1145 and then had a bit of a meltdown but managed to get him to sleep at midday. He woke after 30 mins but managed to get him back off and he did 2 hour, waking at 2pm. So rest of the day was a bit of a muddle, trying to get food right and keep him happy. I bathed him at 6 and then fed and got him into bed for 650, so he had been up just under 5 hours. However this morning he has woken at 550 and won't go back so what do I do for today?! 2 naps?! Im so confused what to do!!! Thanks!

[Kellyjs]

I'd see how he goes hun, you could apop a very quick 15mins nap around 9.30/10 if you feel he needs it then try for a 12/12.15pm nap again? That's what I did further down the transition, timed a car ride at the right time x

[Laineybobs]

Well he lasted quite happily until 1145, no grumbling and went down like a light! Hoping to get 2 hours of out him, maybe 2.5 or would that be too much?! And when should I aim for bed? 7/715? Should I expect some days of OT to come? X

[Kellyjs]

Amazing! Yay! How did the nap go? Sorry tried to reply earlier then my ipad died 

I'd probably try for a 7pm BT if the nap was good. Just bear in mind the length of the day overall as we woke at 5.50am. Around 11-12mo DD started having 2.5hr naps, think it coincided with the 1yo leap and resulted in more sleep overall for a while. It was bliss as it was summer, ahhh I miss those days 

There may be days of OT but it's a case of playing each day by ear. I remember DD being on one nap for around 3 weeks and thought we'd cracked it, but I had to do the car nap thing that one day as she was unbearable. Also we had OT NW's in the early part of the night for a while. It just took some tweaking to get the nap in the right place for her. It's all about reading the signs x

Eta.. Have you seen this link? It might help if you're going down that route. I found it really helpful. Bear in mind it still might take some tweaking to find where the nap needs to be firstly but tbh it looks like you're not too far off Set naps for toddlers: Why, How and When

[Laineybobs]

Well he woke after an hour - am j right thinking that's OT? I got him back for 10, woke again so took him in car and got another 40 out of him so just under 2 hours in total - don't know if I did right thing?! He was obviously still tired but fed up that he had woken! I'm guessing that 6 hours was too long to be awake so maybe somewhere around 5.5 might suit him better. Should he be awake longer after his nap than he is before?

What do I do time wise? He's been awake since 2 so try for 7?

What length of days should I be aiming for? To try and keep me right?!


Thank you for replying!! Helps a lot!!

[Kellyjs]

I know it's a minefield isn't it? You did absolutely the right thing. It's really hard to know if it's OT, but I would be thinking so considering that's such a big jump for him the last few days.

Yep, maybe try 5.5hrs tomorrow and see how it goes? As I said before it'll take a bit of trial and error to find where the nap needs to be. Some like a longer first A and shorter last A like mine, others the other way round. It's a case of trying to see what fits.

7pm BT sounds good, you can only try and see. Did you take a look at that link I posted? If 7pm is your ideal BT it might be an idea to stick with that and see what happens. As the link says, you can do BT up to 30mims earlier if the nap is short.

Ideally you'd want to try to keep to a 12-hr day early on, but that's not always feasible with such an early wu. And if the nap is good at around 2hrs you can afford to push the bedtime, so let's say 13hrs at an absolute max, but 12.5hrs ideally? Wdyt?

if you went with the set nap idea, we could set nap for 5.5hrs after wu which on average is 6am atm isn't it? So the set nap time of day will be 11.30am for hopefully 2hrs, then BT at 6.30pm for a while until we can push things back? Then if we hold that for a week at least then we can move the day like we do with daylight savings? X

[Laineybobs]

Well we put him down at 710 and he woke this morning at 610 on the nose! It's like his body is set to 11 hours exactly! Is that normal? I don't mind it if I can keep pushing back his bedtime, even to get to a 630am start would be something! And I know the daylight savings in a couple of weeks will change things again - what should I expect then?

Don't know what to do with naps today - was going to try 5.5hrs see if that would stop the wake after an hour but that means putting him down at 1130 until 130? And then bed at 7, so don't know how to start pushing back morning wake?

[Kellyjs]

11hrs is good! DD has always been an 11hr ONS too.

Yep, I'd power on until 11.30 if you can and see how the nap goes. If he wants to sleep a little longer than 2hrs, that's fine.. It'll help push BT later. I'd cap at 2.5hrs max though. Might be worth trying a bit of w2s at around 30mins in? Wdyt?

Initially what I've found with daylight savings. and it'll work well for you this way around, is that they wake at their usual body clock time, which would be say 6.10 for you but it will actually be 7.10, then you can push through to your 5.5hrs so nap at 12.30 new time and BT then is at a reasonable time. Does that make sense? It's the best way around for transitions!! X

[Laineybobs]

We had to go out in car today so he slept 10 mins at about 940 so what should I do nap wise?! X

[Kellyjs]

Probably a bit too late but I'd have done 12 or even 12.30?

[Laineybobs]

Thanks for replying! He went at 1220 and did w2s at 23 mins in which is what I'd normally do so here's hoping!! Just hope a mange to keep him to this routine now! Should I expect him to regress at some point?

[Laineybobs]

Woke after an hour again, still tired and fed up, took me 20 mins to get him back but he's gone. Just can't decide if this is OT? Im presuming it is! Can't figure out what A time is best? any ideas?

[Laineybobs]

He did a further 45 so just under 2 in total across day. Putting him down at 715ish tonight which should be 5 hours since he woke and he's been happy all afternoon! It's so hard to find a balance!