Hi all,
My little one will be 18th months on Nov 2nd. He's never been a great day time sleeper and was the king of 30 - 45 min naps with all sorts of variations of awake times and what not, occasional long naps but not the norm.
In September he started to refuse a second nap consistently so I knew it was the time to transition him to one nap but with short naps its SO hard! At first I tried to increase awake time in the morning to see if he just wanted to be up longer and still wanted two naps, this worked for a couple of days and his sweet spot was a morning nap at 10.15/10.30 after a wake up of 6 or 6.30 but then after a little while he started to also fight this nap and wouldn't nap at all!!
So I tried a nap at 11 which worked well, he was much more ready for it and went to sleep very quickly without a fight. Now I haven't been keeping logs for those nap times but I know they were not long, 45 mins tops or less so I offered him a second nap in his stroller in the pm. This soon became a problem at bedtime when it took him longer to get to sleep and he was not tired enough so this nap was capped short and ended by 3.30 at the latest.
I soon fell into a pattern of this nap at 11 ish and then a stroller nap which resulted in him getting up bright as a button at 5.30am everyday regardless of his bedtime. We then went on holiday to Centreparcs, and as we were busy in the morning and distracting with swimming and coffee shops and what not and we were out all day he was taking his 11/11.30 nap in his stroller and sleeping for an hour and was good to stay up until bedtime and was sleeping through with no problems at all and waking between 6 and 7 am.
Back home and he got a stinking cold (and unbeknown to me was teething, i just noticed a few days ago two molars that have started to cut through) and was clearly desperate for his morning nap again at 9.30 and was taking an 1.5hour nap and then having a second sleep in his stroller. Still getting up at 5.30.
Ten days or so of this and he was better from his cold and wanted to stay up longer so I am back to a morning wake time of 5.5hours BUT with the clocks going back we are now getting up at 4.30am and I cannot get him back to sleep at all.
The last couple of days look like this . .
WU 4.30
Nap in cot 9.55 - 10.40
I walked him in stroller from 2.15 - 3.30 No Second Nap
BT Asleep by 6.15
WU 4.30
Nap 10.10 - 11.15 in the stroller (he really asked for his nap at 9 but to try and salvage his day I tried to get him closer to ten but that resulted in him refusing nap in his cot as he was OT I guess i pushed him too far)
No second nap offered, early BT asleep by 5.45 (would have been 5.30 but I gave him Calpol before his bottle for his teething and he projectile vomited the whole thing up so we had to change PJ's etc.)
He's been having some night wakes lately, he seems uncomfortable, I presumed it was wind before I saw those molars so it was probably teething pain, a few rubs of his back or strokes of his hair and he's back off to sleep. Yesterday with one nap and early bedtime I didn't hear a peep out of him all night, he slept much better. And the same on holiday, with the one nap he slept right through with no early wakes - he did wake early one day but went back to sleep again.
So he does sleep much better when he takes just one nap but this 4.30 is a toughie.
Should i go with early bedtime again tonight and avoid a second nap, EBT so that he's getting 11 hours and then from tomorrow regardless of wake up time and how nap goes to start trying to push bedtime forward again, maybe 20 mins later every day?
Our old routine prior to the early wake ups was Wake Up between 6 and 6.30, 8ounces of milk, toast about an hour later, small snack at 10.30, lunch at 12, small snack at 2.30, tea at 4, bath 6.30, 8 ounce bottle and asleep between 7.15 - 7.30
Ideally I know it's getting the nap back on track but until he's getting up a bit later it's so hard to make it to ten am let alone any later.
Thanks for any help!
Editing to add so just a 45 min nap this morning
WU4.30
Nap 10.08 - 10.53
Would u risk a 6.5 he window to bedtime or try again in the stroller this pm and if he sleeps a bigger total wake time today with a suitable bedtime depending on his mood ?
Back to edit again lol! I had to make a call as my MIL popped by to help out today and I needed to let her know nap or no nap in the stroller and I decided to do the same as yesterday and do an early bedtime so he has a good 11hour stint, the prior days when we were doing the cat naps in the pram he was waking and not as restful.
I feel like i'm in a viscous circle, when he was going to bed at 7.15 he was still waking at 5.30 or 5.45 no matter what his bedtime, could the science of having that afternoon sleep do that even though he had had a long A time in the morning?
Sorry for such a long post, I hate this icky period when i'm just so unsure about everything and am a bumbling mess when i'm posting!
