16 month old 2 to 1 nap help

[Kjv201]

Hi

I hope someone can help, I'm in despair!

My 16 month old little boy has never been a great napper, king of the 40 min cat naps! Though I recent months we had managed to get a few 1hr 20 min naps after stretching awake time to 4 hrs before the morning nap.

Recently he has initiated going from 2 to 1 nap by refusing his afternoon nap no matter how tired he seems. When he gets out and about and goes down after 4 hours he falls asleep almost instantly but only sleeps for an hour max. This then leaves him hugely overtired for bed so I've been putting him down at 6 after a 6 hr awake time. The over tiredness is leading to restless nights and sometimes EW. I stretched his awake time to 5 hrs the other day and he only had a 40 min nap and still refused an afternoon nap.

We seem to be in an overtired cycle now where he's waking early due to overtiredness which leads to an early nap which leads to early bedtime and the cycle continues!

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, I want to slowly increase A time in increments of 15 mins but after a 40 min nap am not sure whether to try and force a late afternoon nap and later bedtime but worried that having two naps some days is going to mess his body clock up and not help us for the 2 to 1 transition.

Sorry to waffle I hope this makes sense!

Kara

[anna*]

Hun I"m going to move your post over to Toddler Sleep.

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, what's LO day look like in terms of WU time, nap time, BT etc!?x

[Kjv201]

Our days look somewhat different as very dependant on when he wakes up which has been getting earlier and earlier (5am today) due to him getting more and more overtired with this transition.

Here are three consecutive days from this week though:

Wake up 6.50.
Nap 11-12.00
Bed 6.00

Wake up 5.50
Nap 9.45-11.30
Bed 6.00

Wake up 5.40
Nap 10.00-11.15
Bed 5.45

As you can see bed times are early now due to such a long A time in the afternoon

Thanks so much in advance for any help!

[Haribo2012]

Looking at your day I think you need to keep trying to stretch that morning out a bit, the early nap could be reinforcing the EW.

You could try a CN of say 20 mins around 3pm to get to a decent BT!?

Have you thought about setting nap time? Can you apop him back to sleep at a 5am WU?

[Kjv201]

Thanks haribo2012.

He doesn't generally go back to sleep at 5, maybe for 20 mins but that's about it.

I'm keen for a set nap time, do you think aiming for 11.30 would be about right or later? Not sure what average awake time is at his age.

Yesterday he had a 50 min nap at 11 and miraculously my mum managed to get him to have his first catnap for ages at 4 till 4.20. He went to bed at 6.15 as he seemed pretty tired but maybe pushing him would have been better as he was up at 5.50 this morn. I seem to convince myself if I get him to bed early he might be less overtired and sleep longer!

Thanks again
Kara

[Haribo2012]

I'd try the 11.30am set nap and see what happens after a few days, A times I'd say around 4/4.5 hours was average for us at the age!!

That was a good night though nearly 12 hours so might've helped him to be more rested to push morning A longer. Generally if OT EBT helps as they settle into a better sleep xx

[Kjv201]

Thanks again, just to clarify he woke up at 6.00 today so on a day like today would you keep to a set 11.30 Nap time which would be 5.5 hrs A time or would you bring it forward on occasions? Not sure if there's a max A time to avoid going over at this point?

Will keep on stretching A time and update after a week or so, we've got to 4.5 hrs A time now but will need to continue to stretch to reach 11.30. Would you do lunch before nap?

Thank you!!
Kara

[Haribo2012]

You could judge it by his mood maybe, if hes coping ok then go for it if not bring it forward by 15 mins or so. I used to try and extend A time by having extra cuddles and stories so it was low key.

At this age I did split lunch or a big ish snack around 10.30 like youghurt and banana or toast then lunch after wards.

Thinking back I'd say my DS A time was prob nearer 5 hours at this age as naps used to be 11.30 for us too x