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

[KellyC]

Same here Stacy, at least it's only 2 days each week!

Kelly x

[Mom to M&M]

Hey guys - we are still stuck between. Marisa has been waking quite early (5:30 this morning) due to teething pain so we can't even try one nap. But today I did limit her first nap to 50 minutes and she just took a lovely one hour 45 minute nap (I had to wake her) so will try bedtime in 4 hours or little less and see what tomorrow brings. We may have to do the short morning/long afternoon nap for a little while unless she starts sleeping until at least 6:30...

[lucmom]

Hi all,
We've had 3 days of post 6 am waking and one good nap. We're trying 5.5 awake time between sleeps and if he wakes up too early, then we'll hope he makes it up in the nap or we'll try a pm catnap or we'll do early bedtime. I guess it's all around those am wake times for now, but it's amazing how much better of a mood I'm in if he wakes after 6, even if I'm already awake (who am I kidding...I'm ALWAYS already awake, wondering what kind of day it will be!  LOL)

I'm so sorry to hear about Zander.  It's so awful when they're sick.  Everyone I work with seems to have some sort of flu or cold, and most have kids so we're practically wearing masks to keep from infecting each other.

Wishing everyone a sleep filled weekend!
grace

[KellyC]

Thanks Grace.  Zander's teeth are still really hurting him and today he ate no lunch and was very upset after I tried to feed him but none the less we survived the morning without a nap and he went down at 12pm (with a cup of milk in the hope that he won't wake hungry!).  Last night he slept until 7am but woke up sobbing as he had a very nasty nappy 

Good days to you all
Kelly x

[PeepersMom]

Marisa's mom - i agree - a wake up before 6 am is so hard to try with one nap.  I shouldn't say this outloud  8)but if PJ wakes up before 6am if i leave him he usually falls back to sleep so it works for us.  I still am not really sure at this point what I will do if he wakes up at 530 and stays up........we haven't had that happen yet but I am sure it will.  We have now been at this for 3 weeks and our wake ups are getting earlier - 630am - but our bedtime has also gotten earlier - 630-7pm....so go figure.

We did have a 630am wake up this morning and i wanted him down by 11 am but DH didn't quite get it together and poor PJ fell asleep laughing at 1130.  Talk about overtired!

meg

[Tatumsmom]

Well I have tried to read a few of the post but there are to many for me. I think my dd is trying to drop a nap. The last few weeks have been all over the map. She is waking early and going to bed later but still only wants to nap a total of 1 1/2 hours in the day. She used to wake at 7:30 then have an hour and 15 min am nap, 1 1/12 pm nap and  be asleep by 7:15pm. She has just startind sleeping through the night and ever since then everything else has been wonky(is wonky a word) anyway the last few days have looked like this.
6:30 wake
9:30 nap for 1/2 hour.
2:00 nap for an hour  (if I'm lucky)
6:45 bed I moved her bedtime up 1/2 hour but I"m scared to move it any early as I don't want her waking at 5:00.
This morning she woke at 6:30 I gave her a bottle and she went back to sleep till 8:00. She then refused her am nap and I put her down for her pm nap at 1:00 she played for about 1/2 and then fell asleep till 2:30.  She went to bed at 6:45. I don't mind the earlier wake up if she napped well but lately that isn't happening.
Any thoughts on what might be going on?
Kim

[KellyC]

Hi Kim

When we were doing half an hour at 9.30 the afternoon nap was straight after lunch at 12.30/12.45 and it was almost always 2 hours or therabouts.  I've read that the best time for a LO to take a nap is somewhere between 12 and 2 because their energy levels naturally dip at that time and also straight after lunch their tummies are really full which helps them to sleep longer.  It could be that DD is only sleeping an hour at 2pm because she's overtired and has missed the window, A times are also shorter when the am nap is much shorter.

Zander slept until 7.35 today despite eating hardly anything yesterday - odd!

Kelly x

[**Clare**]

Does anyone find that the naps at the weekend just go completely out the window!?! Harvey was napping at 5.30 yesterday!    Probably our fault entirely but we'd been out for the day and he hadn't slept since the morning, he fell asleep at 5.30 and I didn't have the heart to wake him... we eventually woke him at 7pm for his tea and he went back to bed about 9.30, he got up at 7.30 and has yet to sleep this morning so I'm gonna push for the afternoon nap or to 11 at least and TRY try try to get back in to a routine for tomorrow!

[PeepersMom]

Well, we are in the early morning wake up club lately.  It was 558 this morning.  Not interested in going back to 2 naps at all.....I am committed today to do 1 already, but I don't know if I should be thinking of extending his awake time in the morning or makeing all awake times earlier.  He is short changing himself by about an hour on sleep, sometimes more.  I don't have a grumpy baby really, but definitely working on empty.  He easily falls asleep when I put him down, not fighting sleep, but he wakes prematurely, that is for sure. 

Today I am planning on lunch at 1045 and pretty much bed right after. 

I usually try to shoot for 4.5 awake time in the am and 5.5 in the pm, but as am wake up gets earlier and earlier, then the awake time gets longer.  Like this morning it will be closer to 5+ hours

Any thoughts>?  Am I making sense at all>?

[PeepersMom]

Stacy sorry to hear Kaleb is mixing things up.  Yes, PJ wasn't really a 12 hour night kid until we started this 1 nap thing.  Then he was sleeping 12-13+ hours at night for about 3 weeks.  Now he is back at his 11hour nights.  BUT he used to nap really well when he only slept 11 hours at night. He only has about 13.5-14 hours total sleep in him a day (although during the transition he slept a lot more for a few days there) now we are down to around 12-13 max.  Not quite enough. 

I did end up with 5 hours awake time today - mostly b/c I didn't want him to go down before 11am!  but he was so tired he was refusing most of his lunch, wanted only to drink his milk to fill his stomach and get on with the nap!!  so he was asleep at 1110 and now we are waiting to see what he does.

He is actually walking so much more these days than he ever did that I wonder if that has something to do with it.  It seems odd, though, I mean he has been walking since 12 months, but not a lot.  Now he is walking all over the place and it is NOW effecting his sleep?? Could be.

Thanks for the support


Veryproudmom - weekend naps used be be a lot screwier when we were on 2 a day, now it seems to be pretty easy to keep on schedule.  Also seems to make a difference is dear ole da is around!!

Tatums mom - I decided we needed to change to 1 nap when PJ started doing 2 short naps a day and able to stay up till bedtime no problem.  It seemed to work great for a while.....well it is still ok just not great anymore.  LOL

Meg

* update * well PJ slept for 2.5 hours.  Which is really really nice, and I am sure you are all saying GREAT!  I am, too, but - I wish I had a little more predictability.  Could it be the timeing?  5 hours awake time or literally time of day?  If he is down by 11-1115am will he sleep longer?  Ack I hate the guessing game.  But that is the way it has always been with PJ and his naps.  Why should anything change now???

[KellyC]

Hi guys

For a few months now I've been doing naps at set times rather than after a certain amount of A time.  If Zander wakes early then I get him as close to his usual nap time as I can without him getting too over-tired and this approach seems to work much better for us.  I also leave him in his cot until 7am (even if I'm having to do wi/wo because he's upset) and usually he calms down, sometimes goes back to sleep, but at least he is resting in the dark.

I personally would rather stretch Zander during the morning to achieve a later start time for the nap so it doesn't leave a long afternoon because going down overtired at night will almost certainly cause an early morning waking.  So far I've found the best thing for getting through the morning is a walk of at least an hour at around 9.30 which helps Zander to conserve his energy for late morning.  I also do lunch at 11.30 so he's not too tired to eat and if he eats poorly for any reason he has a small cup of warm milk (4oz) before his nap.  I now always try to get Zander into bed before he's tired enough to sleep.  He usually protests initially but then plays in his cot for 10-15 minutes before drifting off to sleep and then he sleeps later in the morning.  Even if he goes to bed really well, if he falls straight asleep because he's exhausted he sleeps lightly later in the night and wakes early.  Lights out here are at 6.45 and Zander is asleep by 7.  The past 2 days he's woken at 7 and 7.30 and his nap has been exactly 2 hours (he woke himself!) at 12 and 12.15.  I'm aiming for 12.30 and eventually 1pm to keep the afternoon shorter to avoid overtiredness at bedtime.  I think this becomes even more important when our LOs start running all over the place!

Kelly x

[KellyC]

Lol Stacy, he's a right little pickle isn't he?!  Is he walking yet?  I bet it all changes again once he is and he is using up more energy.  What time does his awake, nap and bedtime usually fall?

Kelly x

[KellyC]

If he's coping easily in the morning I think I'd try to get him down closer to 12.30.  Does he eat right before his nap and does he have plenty of protein and some carbohydrate?  If so have you tried doing a top-up drink of milk right before his nap for a couple of weeks?  In my experience there's a window right after lunch when the nap works best but if you miss that window they get a second wind, don't go down as easily and don't sleep as long!  In our house it's literally lunch and bed with nothing in between!

Kelly x

[PeepersMom]

Kaleb loves his mommy I can feel it.   

well I am an outlier and have a kiddo who likes MORE awake time before bed.  I mean, the kid is tired and will even lay with his head on my shoulder in his room in the dark being ROCKED but he will not fall asleep until he has been up a good 45min-1hour longer than the awake time I had in the am.  It is really annoying.  so this afternoon we might be looking at 6 hours of awake time!  HELLO!  that is rotten.  I will of course try for a 7 pm bedtime but I bet a million dollars it will be more like 730pm.  i really hate that.  It always results in a pre 7 wake up.

Kelly - when we were on two naps we often had to revert to 9am and 1pm no matter what to get him back on track when we were all getting out of wack.  I know what you mean.

Meg

[lucmom]

Kelly, Meg, and Stacy --
I don't have much to say except that I am so thankful that you're all going through this too and posting...I just caught up on the last couple days.  I'm glad to hear that Zander did so well today and hope that his teething is on its way out.  I know that Kaleb LOVES his mommy.  Regarding his total hours, mine dropped to 13-14 at 10 or 11 months, and now is down to 12-13 hours per day.  As long as he gets his 12, he's really happy and lovely, but this nap transition has resulted in too many <12 hour days!  And PJ is a rock star for doing 2.5...my current theory (which could change at any moment lol) is that it's awake time when they first start to transition, but then it moves to actual time after the single nap is established.  We'll see....