anyone want to chat about the 2-1 nap switch?

[KellyC]

Corrina

You'll see from all the posts on this board that you're not alone in your current situation! 

Are you giving Faith her lunch before her nap?  Is she eating well at the moment or are those pesky teeth ruining her enjoyment of her food?  It might help to give her 2 or 3 oz of milk before her nap (even if she's only just eaten lunch) as a very full tummy will help her to sleep longer. 

The days she only sleeps for 1 hour is probably because she's overtired (don't I know it - Zander has just woken after 1 hour too.  Grrrrr!).  If she'll take a catnap later in the afternoon, even for only 10-15 minutes, that might help as she'll be less overtired at bedtime.

I wanted to say more but I most go and sort out my own early waker!

Kelly x

[corrina01]

Kelly,

We did do lunch before her nap but she was slow at eating before her nap as she was tired,  now we give her a snack, some strawberries and a biscuit and then about 5oz of milk.

She has not gone off eating, thank god.

(((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))) to you.

[KellyC]

I made an executive decision to give him a dummy as he was crying so hard he was struggling to breathe!  I hope he's not got the 'man flu' DH is currently suffering from    I hear his Winnie the Pooh dreamshow now so he must be awake.  Time to get him up and do some housework!

You could try giving him a more substantial snack before the nap.  I've started giving Zander his cereal at breakfast time and then a piece of toast or bread with peanut butter/marmite/jam/honey etc. for his morning snack in an attempt to fill him up more should his main nap come before lunch!

Let me know how the late afternoon nap goes (if it does!).

{{hugs}} back to you.
Kelly x

[corrina01]

Kelly,

I will give her a sandwich before her nap plus what milk she will take.

I pray that she will wake at 5.30am tomorrow  as she will have to take 2 naps, then I can take over on wednesday and thursday when I am back home with her.

Am I crazy 5.30am wake up !!!!!


EDIT to add

She took a nap for 25 mins at 3.30pm  WOOHOO !!!   

[PeepersMom]

Just got back from play group and it sounds like most people start with an earlier nap, takes a while to lengthen, and then as slowly able to push it back a little.  With the early nap they all go to be earlier in the eve.

PJ at a nice snack at 1115 - 1/2 peanut butter sandwich and some applesauce.  then I decided to take a quick look at this thread and saw that a lot of babies get overtired and then don't sleep well w/the beginning of this whole thing so I got worried and put PJ down at 1140.  He was asleep in about 2 minutes.  I don't know how long he'll sleep......he hasn't slept 2 hours at a nap since he was 2 months old....I am very nervous, I know it will be a hard afternoon and I will plan on early bedtime, but I didn't want to miss a window of opportunity to get a good amount of sleep in him even if it is early in the day.  Does that make sense?? OMG this is crazy.

Corrina I think you are very much on the right track, it just takes time.  I was really hoping that it was going to be easier than this, but I guess not.  Ahh wishful thinking.

Great, just heard him whimper.  He has only been down 5 minutes.  Mantra cry?  Never heard it out of him before....I hope that doesn't mean he is overtired.  AHAHAAHAHAaaa

Any thoughts about leaving the babies in the crib for the allotted nap time?  I mean-I am hoping to get 2 hours.  If he wakes at 1hour15min should I be leaving him in there for as close to 2 hours as I can get? 

Meg

[PeepersMom]

thanks Stacy...great to hear Kaleb transitioned so easily.  Isn't that the way it is supposed to be?  Was he always a good napper?  I have always had to work with PJ, so I don't think we will have it as good as you.

2.5 hours, eh?  I will try to just leave him as long as he will tolerate.  If he wakes up happy sometimes that is no problem, but if he wakes up grumpy I will have to get him right away.

Meg

[TDR'smom]

Stacy.

Kaleb does love his crib, he will happily play forever..

You probably have a copy of Babywhisperer in his crib for him to read..... LOL

[PeepersMom]

well I just heard PJ at 1hour 15 min as I suspected I would.  Now I am sad/mad that I put him down earlier than originally planned.  I will leave him in there a while.  Who knows, maybe he'll fall back to sleep.  That is about the only thing I know he has done in the past - extending his nap on his own.  Any intervention I have ever tried never worked.

Oh wow Stacy - I just remembered/saw that Kaleb is 10months.

So now, what should my plan be for the rest of the day?  It is barely 1 pm!  How will I keep him up to bedtime?  Man oh man I am so screwed.  We do have another play group as an option from 3-5pm.  I know we will be there.  Until then I guess we will go for a walk and have another snack around 2:30.

what about tomorrow?  I guess we will have to see when he wakes up.

Ok - breath deep - I knew this was probably going to happen but I was so hopeful that this would be one  of the times things worked out.  NOT

M

 

[TDR'smom]

First of all BREATHE!  I can definitely sympathize with that feeling you get when you hear them awake from their nap earlier than you had planned.  Hang in there!!!  Yes, definitely leave him in there to see if he will fall back to sleep.

Will he catnap in the car on the way to or from the Play Group?  That might be a way to give him a little more rest so he can stay up close to his bedtime.  I know it is not the optimal thing to do but during these transition weeks, we need to be creative. 

Good luck.  I am going through the 2-1 transition also.  It has been going on for a good month or so.  Just when I think we have it down to a science, something happens to mess it up....

So I am right here with you!!!   (((HUGS)))

[lucmom]

Hang in there PeepersMom!  Don't beat yourself up -- we just try to make our best guess during these transition times and when it works we think we are doing so well, and visa versa when it doesn't.  I think sometimes they're just messing with us to get us ready for all the second-guessing in years to come!

It's a delicate balance of looking at clock time, awake time, and signs, and not one that I've mastered at all, but if PJ isn't overtired from the last couple nights, maybe you can see how long he will go today?  When he's been well-slept, our LO sometimes surprises us with how long he can go from an early nap until bedtime.  (And, of course, when he sleeps well that night we congratulate ourselves on how smart we are, and then if we wakes early, we curse ourselves for making him overtired!    )

Our LO has been alternating the past week with early wake up/2 nap day/later bedtime and "later" wake up/1 nap/regular bedtime.  It makes me nervous to go back and forth, but I'm trying to make sure he's not overtired first, and then maybe we'll go back to stretching him a little more again.  Ugh!

[PeepersMom]

OK, I think I am going to see if he will stay up till 7 tonight.  I know it is a long time off, but I think if we do everything pretty close to the same, it will work out.  How can it be too much worse than 2 short naps at 5 months old?  At least I am not as sleep deprived as I was then.   

I am sitting back and thinking about it and I will just see how the day goes. 

Lucsmom - I totally hear you on giving ourselves a pat on the back on the good days and cursing on the bad.  LOL sounds just like us.

i really hate the idea of a 2 nap day/1 nap day  I bet you hate it, too.

Well, he never sleeps anywhere but his crib but I can probably get some good quite time out of him in the stroller which will help.

Thanks for the support today!

M

[KellyC]

We have had some (rare!) days when I've kept Zander up until after lunch for one nap and he's been exactly the right amount of tired.  I've cuddled him before his nap and he can hardly keep his eyes open and I've popped him down and he's gone right to sleep.  Now if every day was like that I'd have nothing to complain about!  Of course I've tried to emulate those days the day after and it's been completely different 

Tomorrow we have a music group from 11pm-12pm which is a bit tricky but we both love it so we're not giving that one up!  Last week I took Zander for a walk in his pushchair at 10am for around 45 minutes to see if he'd nap beforehand but he didn't so he was up until 12.30pm without a nap and it was fine, probably because he was so distracted.  I was thinking of walking to the class but if I do that and he doesn't nap then he'll nap in his pushchair on the way home but it won't be a long nap and he won't have had his lunch so I suppose I'll have to try the same as last week and see how it goes.

Stacy - when you first transitioned Kaleb to 1 nap did he get cranky during the morning?  If so did he get over it pretty quickly?  I remember you saying you were going to give 1 nap 2 weeks to work out and I keep wondering whether we should just go for it!  This morning Zander shut his eyes for around 5 minutes twice and was playing happily in his cot for 45 minutes when I put him down after lunch.  You'd think that if 10 minutes sees him through until 1.15pm that no nap would see him through until 12pm or is that just grown-up logic which doesn't apply to a baby?!  One day at nursery last week Zander fell asleep in the middle of the playroom at 10/10.30am but DH looked after him a couple of days later and gave him lunch at 11.40pm, nap at 12pm and he slept until 2.15pm!

Kelly x

[KellyC]

Hmm, Zander's not unbearable but noticeably tired.  Maybe I'll just keep going until he conks out, lol!  Seriously he was tired at 10.30am today but never achieved sleep but at 11.40am (after 5 hrs 40 A time) his head just slumped on his chest in his pushchair which he doesn't make a habit of!

Btw you truly amaze me because whenever I write a message addressed to you it's answered straight away.  How many PCs do you have running simultaneously there?!   

Kelly x

[KellyC]

I want a laptop   

[PeepersMom]

laptops are wonderful.  Well worth the money