Lost my way.

[choc]

I've lost my way a little lately and can't seem to make a decision on what Ds2 easy should look like. He is sttn 12 hours so I am massively happy with that. I think we are entering 2 to 1 as well. A bit of background :
He was on long am /short pm and we had ew. He started nursery and I collect him at 12.30 and have a school run at 3 so I changed it to shortish am and long pm, 10 to 11am and then 1.30 to 3. He never took the whole 1hr30 pm nap, usually 1hr 10 to 1hr20, I assume ut.  He was still sttn and wake up got later so I stuck with it. Recently we have had a few days of just 30 mins naps. I was all set to try a 30 min am nap and then longer nap at 1/1.30pm but chickened out of waking him at 30 mins as he was so sound asleep! Long am and late pm cn scares me though incase of ew and also I have to collect from nursery at 12.30 so what happens when the nap bridges over that time?Arhhh I know I am a massive pain in the bum and just can't seem to find something that will work. I just need a kick up the bum I think.
Ill post what has happened recently.

19th
Wu 5.30
Oob 6.45
S 10 to 11
S 1.40 to 2.40
Bt 7
Wu 2.30 to 3.30 heat?
Wu 5.45

20th
Wu 5.45
Oob 6 45
S 10 to 11
S 1.40 to 2.35
Bt 7
Wu 7.20

21st
Wu 7 20
S 10.30 to 11.15
S 2.45 to 3.30
Bt 7. 15
Wu 6

22nd
Wu 6
S 10 to 11
S 2.30 to 3. 45
Bt 7 20
Wu 7.20

23rd
Wu 7 20
S 10 to 11.10
S 2.40 to 3.30 buggy
Bt 7.15
Wu 7.20

24th
Wu 7.20
S 10. 25 to 10.55
S 1.30 to 2 couldn't resettle
S 4.15 to 4.45 ap'ed in buggy
Bt 7.20
Wu 7 15

Anyone able to knock some sense into me?

Edited to add I put him down at 10am this morning even though he didn't wake up til 7.20am. He went straight to sleep  and I intended to wake at 30 mins but chickened out. He woke after 1hr 20 which is usually ut but he was crying and still had his head down on mattress and was quite upset when I got him up. But surely he is not still tired after  less than 3hr first A and 1hr20 min nap?!

[Lindsay27]

Yes I think you are kind of in between routines right now, so I would either pick short AM/long PM or vice versa and stick with it for a few days.  With my DS I was very reluctant to do the short AM nap but it ended up working beautifully, and if you did that I would try to put him down slightly UT so that the short nap doesn't cause him to be OT.  Or, you can cap at 45mins so he gets at least a full sleep cycle.  So maybe something like...

Nap 9:45 - 10:15/10:30
Nap 1-2:30 or you can push this slightly later depending on his mood
BT 7

Or if you want the long AM/short PM then something like...

Nap 10:30 - 12
Nap 3:30 - 4
BT 7

I think you will get less resistance doing a shot AM/long PM.

[choc]

Thanks for helping me! I think short am /long pm would probably work best, I'm just terrible at waking him up!  This morning he did 1hr 20 mins  nap and I have just put down again after 3hr40 A time and he is protesting at the moment so I think it would be difficult eventually to get the pm nap and not a really late bedtime!

With short am, If I still didn't get at least a 1hr30 nap in the pm then would I have to cut the morning nap further? I can't push pm because of school run at 3pm.

[Lindsay27]

I agree I think you might get nap resistance if you did a CN in the afternoon.  I would say yes, if you do the short AM and then still get 1.20hr in the afternoon then cut the AM nap a bit more.  I know it is so hard waking them, I really struggle to do it too!

[choc]

I'll try and be brave! Thanks for the advice, I'll start there and see how it goes.

[choc]

Well this morning was pretty hard. He had a night waking last night for the first time in ages and was awake from 3 til 4.30 am. Then up at 6 45. He has been doing 12 solid hours recently. Then he napped 9.50 til 10.20 in the car and then was miserable for the rest of the morning. I out him down at 1.10 (was aiming for 3hr 2nd A as my sleep logs show that 2hr 30 A after a 30 min nap still gives a short nap). And now I am waiting to see what happens and feel really nervous!
Do you think him being miserable is perhaps because of the bad night and also him adjusting to the short nap? Will it take a while for him to get used to it?

Eta he is still asleep at nearly 2hrs! I should wake him at 2hrs right?
Also I know I am a nightmare but I'm just panicking as up til last night we were having some really good night's, and looking at the logs I posted above, the good night's were after naps at 10 to 11 and 2.30 to 3.30 ish. So now I am wondering why I am changing things?!  What's wrong with me! All I do is panic over sleep!

[Lindsay27]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner! How did you fair out? I would say I would generally cap day sleep to 2.5ish hrs a day so how that's divided up is up to what works best for you obviously.  Let me know how the night goes and that might give you more direction

[choc]

Currently having another long nw. Im absolutely gutted. We had these for about 5 months earlier this year. Yes I capped nap at 2 hours. So it looked like this
Wu 6.45
S 9.50 to 10.20
S 1.10 to 3.10
Bt 7.30

Was I mad to change things when  he seemed to be sleeping well on 10 to 11 and 2.20 to 3.30  naps? 

[choc]

Woke at 6, and with an hour night waking it means only 9hr30 night sleep. He was doing 12 hrs a few days ago.  Have I messed everything up?

[Lindsay27]

So I have a few thoughts...

One is that I wouldn't necessarily judge whether a specific routine is working after 1 day/night.  With any changes it can take a couple of days for LO to adjust so you could try holding this short AM/long PM for a few days and see what happens.

The other thing I see is that yesterday he got 2.5hrs of day sleep vs the 2hrs he was getting before when his nights were better, so I am wondering if the long NW was actually UT.  Do you find he has generally been on the lower end of sleep needs?

[choc]

Yes I suppose he has been on the lower end, he was having one long and one short nap from quite an early age. Also has had fairly high A times. So I could cap at 1hr30?

[Lindsay27]

Sorry hun, my 2 LOs have been tag teaming me for the last 2 days, yeesh! Yes I am wondering if you keep to 2hrs day sleep if that will make a difference if you've found he's always been in the lower end of sleep needs.  How was today?

[choc]

Sorry your 2 are keeping you on your toes! Its like that here too!
We were out visiting family yesterday so routine went out the window. I'll try again today with 1hr 30 2nd nap and let you know how it goes. Im a bit worried about  OT as he is waking about 5am then 6am then on and off til 7am. And I am capping both naps. Do you think it'll be OK?

[Lindsay27]

You can try that PM nap uncapped for a few days to see what happens.  I would try to keep day sleep no more than 2.5hrs though.

[choc]

So after I last posted he woke by himself after 1hr30 nap til 2.40pm and bedtime at 7.20pm. That night he called out briefly at 5.30 am,  6.30 am and woke for the day at 7.30, which is more like what he was doing before.
Then yesterday he slept 1hr 50 nap til 3.10 pm and bedtime at 7.20pm  but didn't drop off til 7.35. He woke at 2.30 am for a while and then 5.50am for a while and on and off til 7am.
Do you think that night was worse because of the longer nap and then shorter a time to bed?