LSN baby making life impossible!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

So is she happy and ready to start the day at 4/5 am? What time do you actually get her up? Personally I would try one day to push her nap to noon, and do whatever it took to get a decent nap and therefore a later bedtime to try and push the morning out. 

[morvayc]

Unfortunately, she's very happy to start her day at that time...sigh...Should I push her to noon but keep the same BT for a little while? I feel like 7+ hrs A time in the morning might just do her in.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Is she having nw's or just the crazy ew? I tend to favour big moves vs small steps with routines so I am the oddball who would do a massive A time, push the nap (possibly cap it - we were capping by that age) and shift bedtime later. Now if she is one of those kids who does ok on a shorter night with a longer nap, what sort of a day would work for you guys? Or would you rather aim for a longer night by trying to cap the nap? Might be time to stop thinking in terms of A time and more towards set times that fit yours and your lo's needs.

[Martini~]

Have no time right now to comment properly, but did I get right that you are still doing 2naps some days for a 16mo toddler who has low sleep requirements...? Could you please post your day on 2 naps?
Totally agree hon that going by A times this age is not useful, go by set times. And really some will have a routin of 8h of A in the morning to prevent EWU.

[morvayc]

Thanks ladies! To answer your questions, no, we are doing 1nap 99% of the time, and "if" she has a second nap, we only allow 10 minutes.  This only happened once last week, because she was up for the day at 330am.  She did have a NW last night of about 15 minutes 4hrs into sleep, but I didn't intervene.  She then became restless after 3am and was up for the day at 4am! I left her until 530.  Again, her mood is always happy!  This massive change in her sleep requirements seems to have come out of nowhere.  Like I said, she's always been LSN, but to shave 1-1.5hrs overnight, has me completely confused.  I love this forum, but become very discouraged when I can't locate a single LO with a schedule like mine, and it often leaves me thinking that it must be something I am not doing right.  I am definitely for extending the night, as opposed to the nap if need be.  She was up at 4 am today.  Do I still shoot for a 12pm nap and a pushed out BT?

[Martini~]

For how long are you doing only 1 nap?

[morvayc]

It seems like the process has been going on for the last 6 months, but totally one nap for about 1 month now.  The nap lasts anywhere from 1hr15min-2hrs....closer to 2hrs most days.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

If she is LSN then I would think a 2 hour nap might be too much, especially if she is happily pulling 10 hour nights now. But to get out of it you will have some not so nice days of pushing the nap, capping it and pushing bedtime out. What bedtime and wake up would you aim for? Is 11 hours of night sleep a good goal?

[morvayc]

11hrs of night sleep would be a dream! I haven't had it consistently since she was about 6 months old, and certainly not recently, but it has always been the goal.  I always said that anything after 6am is fine with me.  I gave up on a 7am wake up long ago   Are you suggesting pushing nap and BT, as well as capping all at once?

[Martini~]

Frankly speaking I wouldn't cap the nap yet but push the routine. So I would put for a nap at 1pm - and definitely I wouldn't do it in small increments... I would push to 1pm and 8pm BT at once as what can happen... She is going to be OT, but... Can she do anything worse than waking 3:30/4:00 am:)?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I for sure would do as Marta suggests first - but I think that fairly soon the nap will need to be capped if you want an 11 hour night (or even a consistent 10.5). We have always done an 8 pm bedtime for DD3 so I am used to it but if you want to do something like 7:30pm then eventually the nap will need a chop to keep the wake up after 6 am.

[morvayc]

I just couldn't do a 1pm nap today after a 4am WU.  We made it to 1130, which is an improvement......then had a 35min OT nap.  I was able to resettle and she is still sleeping 45 minutes later.  I will wake her at 130 and then shoot for a 730 BT to start.  Fingers crossed ladies!

[Martini~]

11:30 od a great start. Try to push it łatwe next days or at least keep the same timing. Definitely go for 7:30 BT. I know it will be a very long day and she will be OT, and you should expect that - but remember than when you crack the OT and she will catch up finally - she should be on a better schedule than now.

Once again FX!

[morvayc]

So, last night went something like this....
S-7:30
NW-8:15 (a few cry outs, but ss)
NW-1:30 (about 15 minutes of on and off crying....ss)
NW-3:45-4:15
S-4:15-4:45 (up for the day, but didn't get her until 5:30)

night sleep=8hrs45min, total sleep in 24hrs=10hrs45min

Was planning on keeping the 1130 nap, but she was actually eating her lunch with her eyes closed at 1030.  THIS NEVER HAPPENS! I took the hint and put her to bed.  What should I do now? My gut is telling me to let her sleep as long as she wants and keep with the later bedtime, but my gut is what landed me here, so I really don't know.  Of course all of this happens on a day that I have a big interview!

[Martini~]

Push the nap Hon and push the BT. She is going to OT but it's just a few days. Think of it like about changing a time zone. If you travel to a different time zone the best advice is just go straight to a new routine and LO adjust after couple of days.