14 month old, dropping morning catnap

[lauraims]

hey girls. Thought I'd start a new thread as my dd is 14 months now. And wanted to run passed you my new plan over the next month. We've been doing UT capped MN long pm nap for a while now as I just couldn't get her to do a 1.5 nap by keeping her up until an age appropriate time.
This has been working great nap wise. But some nights I suspect she's had too much day sleep as she can wake between 3/5 and take up to 1.5hours to resettle. She is usually quite upset.

I started off with 30min MN and 3-3.5hours later a 1.5-1.75 AN. But bedtimes were difficult. She seemed OT. Then she got sick so we went to 45min MN and 3.5hours later a 2hr nap ! This made BT quite late some days. Although nights weren't too bad for a week, that's when the long NWs began.

My plan now is to shave off 5 mins each week off of her MN.
Yesterday's easy was as follows
WU - 6.45
Nap - 10.20-10.50
Nap - 2.15-4.35 ( I woke her up!)
BT - 7.50!! Too late for us we prefer 6.30/7 bT and 6/6.30 Wu

She woke at 2.15 and took until 3.30 to go back to sleep then woke at 6.40 so a really short night !!!

Do you think this is because of the long AN?
Is my plan of cutting off 5 mins each week. Down to 10mins then cutting it completely a good plan do you think ?
I'm not too sure what sort of  A times to do after such a short nap. Anyone have any advice ?
At the moment it's
45min - 3.5-4hrs Awake time
30min - 3.20-3.5hrs
25min - 3hrs ( I tried 25 mins this morning) she's Sleep for AN nap now.

Thanks everyone 😊

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Has she always been fairly on track with changing naps? (ie from 4-3 then 3-2). Generally speaking around this age a fair few toddlers are ready to do the 2-1, which is probably why the nw's are happening. I tend more towards the cold turkey, leap before you look style of routine tweaking so although I would not do 5 min/week it may work albeit slowly. While shortening that nap you also want to bring the pm nap earlier as with a 6:30 wake one nap would probably fall around 11:30 or so. Messes up lunch but we always did an early lunch and then a good snack after.

[lauraims]

Yup she has been on track with transitions. Went from
3-2 at 6 months and solidly on two by 7 months.
I tried for a week extending her first A time to 4.5 hours but she would wake up every 30mins really hysterical. So I just figured she wasn't ready. That wAs about a month ago now.

[lauraims]

She's been asleep 2.5 hours. Should I be waking her at any point ?
Maybe she is ready for just 1!!! All of a sudden.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

She may be, or perhaps switching between 1 and 2 nap days before she fully transitions. My kids were all quite spirited and not prone to ot really so cold turkey worked but if she is better with gentler transistions try the gradual approach and if the nw persist or get worse or you get nap or bedtime refusals then think on doing a bit more.

[lauraims]

Thanks for your replies. I'm going straight to a short 15min catnap then main nap at midday. I think having a longer A to bed works well for her. 😊

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

FX that it does the trick!

[lauraims]

Ekkkk total meltdown at bedtime. Put down after 4hrs awake time. She's soooo upset. 😞

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yikes! OT do you think or just toddler style meltdowns?

[-Maya-]

We are in the middle of 2-1, so no easy answer from here. DS (16mo now) can stand even 5,5h A time, but he does not nap consistently for 2h and his night is never longer than 11h, so in 1 nap days he reaches BT stretching too much his last A time.
Re BT, for us most important thing is when the pm nap ends. If it ends around 3 or 3:30 DS is ready to go to bed at 8/8:30pm (we do a 7am WU and 8pm BT and anything before 7 is EW) and we do not have EWs. More or less same approach for am -> pm nap. He needs at least 3h from waking up from am nap to be able to do a pm nap. Even if the nap is as short as 10min. So I found myself furously APOPing an early am nap and when it does not work, day is rubbish.
Anyway some wise ladies in other threads told me that moving to 1 nap is ok when babies can stand at least a 5,5 A time, otherwise the night becomes too long and this can backfire quickly.

[lauraims]

No, when she's really tired she tends to only fuss for 10 mins max. Thinking not ready for bed? She had a 2.15hr nap. I woke her up. So maybe she needs more like 4.5 after a long nap like thAt.
Her night was ok. Woke at 4.20..settled herself within 15mins... Woke again like 40 mins later, settled herself afIk quickly. Then up for day at 6.20.

[trimbler]

Heya! I wonder whether she was a bit UT but then got OT by the time she finally fell asleep? Iiwm I'd try 4h15 next after a good long pm nap, I tend to find 15mins can make a big difference... I'd also be inclined to cap the pm nap to 2h. Also try not to worry if the nights get a bit short during the 2-1, they'll lengthen when you finally make the switch. But of course capping that am nap will help to bring BT earlier too

[lauraims]

Thanks hun ! Good idea. Do you still think I should cap to 2hours even after only a 15min catnap?
We had 3hr first A
15min nap
2.5hr second A
2.15min nap
And in the end a 4.5hour last A

TWT was 10hrs so pretty good! Maybe that's why she melted down when I tried BT earlier too. Not enough TWT.

Such a shame we had a birthday lunch at midday today so the new routine was halted for a day snd let her have 1hr15min mn. As wanted her to beable to be up for awhile while we we're out.
She's only just gone for second nap now at 3.45!!
Looking forward to doing new routine consistantly to see if nights keep improving 😊 will keep you updated!! Glad to hear your dd's night was better too Trimbler ! Shorter MN did the trick do you think ?