2-1 transition, nursery runs & NWs 14mo

[KatyBee]

MY daughter turns 14mo this week and for a while now she’s been showing signs of possibly needing to drop a nap, but when we try a 1 nap day the night after is always awful.

For the last week or so she’s treated bedtime as a nap and then been awake for between 1.5-3 hours followed by frequent NWs (she’s always woken at night a lot as she has allergies and suffers with wind/tummy pains)

She can self settle at bedtime (no paci) but we share a bed & she always wakes frequently & after midnight will breastfeed every 1-3 hours.

Last night she was awake from 8:50-10:10pm and then woke almost every 2 hours and was wide awake & crying very hard (she had to have a blood test yesterday which may have affected things)...

My issue is that I do a nursery run with my son 4 days a week and she always sleeps in the car, which suited 2 nap routine. If it’s time to drop to 1 nap it’s going to take some serious effort - so i’m not even sure if it’s worth it? I just wondered what others do in this circumstance?

Is it time for the 2-1 transition cold turkey, if, when we have done 1 nap days the nights have been really awful afterwards (up crying every 30 mins for eg)? Or should I put up with our current situation until she stops falling asleep in the car by herself? Thx

[KatyBee]

This is our average schedule;

Awake 6:30-7am
Nap; 9:30-10:45/11
Nap: 2:30-3:15 (I have brought this forward from 3-3:30 as bedtimes got really tricky. Due to nursery run its now 45 instead of 30 as its earlier)
Asleep; 7:30 to 8

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, so just looking at your day what time is Nursery run?

At this age our schedule was 9.30-10am Nap
Then 12.30-2.15/2.30 nap.
I had School drop offs and pick ups to deal with 2 and we stayed on that schedule till around 10/19 months when dropped the morning CN down to 10 mins and lunch nap 12/12.15 to 2.15.
He dealt with School runs better like that x

[KatyBee]

Thanks for your reply... I did try switching the naps a while ago and it made things worse (she seems to prefer long nap first?) I could try it again tho if you really don’t think she’s ready to transition?

Last night we had a battle of over an hour at bedtime... that’s a classic 2-1 sign isn’t it? I’m quite tempted to try again as would be good if she was tired enough to actually sleep!

My son was low sleep needs (he was on 1 nap by now too) and although my daughter isn’t as low, if she naps more than 2hours total in the day we notice a drop in night sleep. Having said that on the 1 nap days we tried she only slept between 1hr10 and 1hr45 ..... am I correct in thinking that would extend a bit if we went cold turkey and transitioned?

[Haribo2012]

I just used the morning CN to get to lunchtime, with any change it can take a while to see it work.

My first just went to 1 nap at 13 months but DS2 just worked better on 2 naps for longer x

[KatyBee]

She woke at 7:30am today and didn’t fall asleep in the car by 10:30... so it ended up working out that we just did a lunchtime nap at about 12:15pm but she woke at around 1:25pm...

This same thing happened last time we tried a 1 nap day and even with a 6pm bedtime the night was horrible due to the overtiredness (although she seemingly copes with the long wake times brilliantly!)

Would you just do super early bedtime or maybe try for a CN?! Not sure best practise when 1 nap is so short?

[Haribo2012]

It’s really up to you, for us I’d of done 20 min CN about 3pm then gone for BT 7.30.

I’d staryed to set naps and BT too at this age. Some just don’t transition to 1 nap until a little older but don’t need a big CN just a little tide over until nap/BT.

[KatyBee]

Ah ok... she wouldn’t have slept at 3pm.... she would have needed more wake time after that nap, so it would have been 4pm or later and then we’d have been looking at an 8:30-9pm BT.

Instead I did a 6:15 BT though and it’s been AWFUL. She slept for an hour then wouldn’t settle. I’ve been in bed with her for 2.5hrs now and she’s only doing 20 min chunks and then waking screaming for half an hour.... very overtired baby and i’m not looking forward to our night.

 I’m going to have to work out a new 2 nap schedule with a CN I think.

[Haribo2012]

Oh bless you it’s so hard some days isn’t it.

It can a tricky age as they only want 1 nap but sometimes need a little more.

Hope she settles soon for you x

[KatyBee]

Hello again... 

So here we are a month down the line from my original post and I really think that my daughter needs to be on 1 nap now, but we tried that yesterday and it's not really working to plan, so I wondered if i could get some support to work out what is best to do with her?

She handles long A times and overtiredness amazingly well and gives no sleepy signs so i'm struggling to pinpoint her best A times.

She woke up late yesterday morning so I figured that was a good day to attempt dropping the catnap.... her day was like this;

awake: 8:30am
Nap: 2-3pm (I tried putting her down earlier but she took a while to drop off and then was wide awake after 1 hour - overtired I presume, but very happy so a bit confusing?)
BT BF: 7:15pm
Asleep: 8pm - she tossed and turned yawning & grizzling for ages, she just couldn't fall asleep easily although obviously tired.

She woke at 5:45am this morning, which i know from my son is a OT night. Now I don't know whether I should do a 2 nap day or push her and persevere with the one nap and hope she extends it?

She's definitely grizzlier than usual this morning, she'd obviously tired.

She needs about 1.5hrs sleep in the day ideally - but getting her to take that in 1 nap has always been a challenge so I need to plan for it to be shorter than that..... also EBT have always failed with her - whereas they were a saviour with my son... so i'm worried about her waking from a nap really early and then refusing EBT, which has happened a few times and always leads to a horrible night!

Is switching back to 2 naps pointless, should we push on with the 1 nap and the OT?

[Haribo2012]

If you think 1 nap is best I’d just stick with it, personally I’ve done set naps so 12.30 nap and set BT 7pm unless poorly.

Sleepy signs are unreliable at the age so I’d just go with times that work for the family and she may gradually lengthen that nap or she may just be lower sleep needs.
On today’s WU I’d try and get her to 12 for a nap and then ifvits shirt do BT st 6.45?

[KatyBee]

Was definitely thinking 12 for the nap - thanks will try that! 

[Haribo2012]

Fingers crossed x