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

[KellyC]

I agree, if you're going to do the short-nap thing it needs to be much earlier in the day, I'd say no later than 10.  Leave him in his cot for the 20-30 minute nap period and if he doesn't sleep or only sleeps a short while do an early lunch and early main nap.  Good luck!

[Mom to M&M]

I agree - I'd either do a short mini-nap around 9:45/10 latest and then big nap around 12:45/1 or just one long nap - if you can get him even to 11:45 for the one long nap great (4.5 hours awake).

Meg - sorry PJ has been so sick - hope he feels better real soon!

[lisi's mum]

why why why? this is all so frustrating 

We had another day with a 10 min am nap and a good long pm one (2 and a half hrs  ). Lisi managed to make it through her usual wake up and scream time of 2 am, but woke at 4.45 to start the day  so we're on a 2 nap day again today.

This is what I can't work out - 2 naps gives us a 2 hr long wake up in the night, 1 nap (or 1 and a 10 minuter) gives us an early morning, which should mean overtiredness.

Meg, how's PJ doing? Feeling better I hope.

[KellyC]

It's difficult for a while but I promise it will work itself out!  How was she when she woke for the day, happy or upset?  What time did she go to bed and when did she wake up the previous day?  Does Lisi sleep with you and DH or am I getting you confused with somebody else?  Maybe that makes it more difficult for her to go back to sleep because she's so excited to see you!  Is your room really dark?  So many questions and I'm not sure I have many answers....!

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Thanks ladies. He only took his catnap 2 out of 8 times so I decided to lengthen the A time. He wil sit in there for about 10 min and then start screaming. I just dont think this will work especially when he wakes at 7:30. I will keep trying anyway because I am desparate, but I think this will put us back to square one. Gosh I hate this.

[Mom to M&M]

The short catnap never worked for us either - we were better getting Marisa as far into the morning as we could without her getting too overtired and then letting her sleep as long as she could. Sometimes that meant she napped from 10:30-12:00 or 12:30 but it started to push out and longer and now we're usually at about 11:30/12-1:30/2. What happens if you put him down for a nap no earlier than 11:30 and just let him sleep however long he can/will? And then go for a stroller ride or car ride later if he needs to doze or just zone out?

[lisi's mum]

Kelly, you've got your detective hat on again  see if you have ideas, I'm stuck!

Weelll, 5 this morning she was perfectly happy and bouncy  until I tried to insist that she went back to sleep, then she got all grumpy, cheering up the second the light got turned on (a good 2 hrs later). The previous day she woke up at 8.15 having been awake from 2ish til 4 ish.

She is in with us (only another few weeks to go  ) and I really think that's part of the problem - during the day she has a terrible time getting to sleep if someone's in the room, why should it be any different at night? The room is very dark, but not a total blackout. Ho hum.

Once we're in our new flat I can start wi/wo in earnest. It works during the day when needed, but it's kind of tricky doing it in your own bedroom 

Fingers crossed tonight's different
Katie

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Glad to hear I am not the only one with which this didnt work for. I think I will keep offering the catnap because it cant hurt. If anything it is rest time and time for mommy to shower. I will try the stroller ride also, but he has never been one to sleep other than his bed and he really doesnt like to be still that long but I will try it anyway. You never know. God has blessed us with a very spirited boy!
Thanks
Alice

[PeepersMom]

We're back. PJ isn't 100% yet, but his sleeping pattern has indicated time for me to for it again.  The past 2 mornings he has slept in till 715.  Last night he slept pretty well through the night.  He had one wake up for about 15 min but that is nothing compared to what we have had.  So with a later wake up there isnt' enough time in the day for 2 good naps, so we went for 1 nap at noon.  He slept almost 2 hours.  at about 30 min into it he started to screech and I got him back to sleep very easily, but then he didn't wake up until 155 which was perfect.

So I am going to try with my plan of 1 or 2 naps depending simply on what time wake up is.  But the first nap has to be in the 9am hour.  LOL so many rules.  With 1 nap it can't be any earlier than 1130. That is my drop dead time.  And preferably before 12........which hasn't really been a problem for us yet.

I love the idea of a cat nap (10min) around 10am for this transition, but that means I would have to wake him and I just can't seem to do it!  If I snuggle him for that short time I just can't bare to wake him.   He looks so sweet sleeping......I am a sucker!

PJ has always been a horrible napper, and it has always been about amount of awake time for him.  But at the same time I need a little bit of normalcy so that is why I have those little rules for him. 

Good luck everyone!

Meg

[TDR'smom]

Meg, 

Glad PJ is on the mend.  I know what you mean about "rules".  They keep us sane and give us some normalcy.  Just want you to know it is completely normal.

Good luck!

Judy

[ablack]

Well, the last time I posted on BW I believe we were going thru the 3 to 2 nap switch.  We've been trying to switch to 1 nap for several weeks now.  My daughter is almost 13 months old.  Just before turning 12 months, she started having a really hard time going down for her second nap ( taking 1 - 1 1/2 hrs. to go to sleep - then it's too late for a nap).  I finally realized maybe she we trying to drop it.  So we tried that for about a week and a half.  Well, she got pneumonia in the middle of that and started walking.  She takes the 1 nap fine, but it is just quiet early (before 11am- sometimes 10am) and then by 5pm she is exhausted and ready for bed. It was not possible to get her down for the 2nd nap while she was sick either, as I considered going back for that.
She started waking in the night before she got sick and then it continued, naturally, as she was sick.  Some nights it was ok, she would wimper and drift back off.  Other nights, it was quiet a struggle.  So, now I thought, well, maybe if I let her take a cat nap in the am and then let her sleep long in the afternoon, it would help her get thru the day.  The 1st 2 days were great, then on Monday, it took forever for her to fall asleep in the am (I think i put her down too early).  So, I decided to go back and try the one nap and it worked beautifully yesterday.  She woke around 6am, was asleep by 12pm and slept for 2 hr. 45 minutes.  She was in bed by 7:15, which she is usually to bed by 7pm.  But she woke at 3am.  I

Also, she has never used a paci regularly, it was just something we used if really necessary.  She has always just played with it and tossed it out of the bed before falling asleep.  While she was sick, I used it a little more to help her get to sleep.  So, now she keeps it in her mouth the whole time she sleeps and sometimes I can tell her cry is the one that says I'd really like my paci.  She has not used it to go to bed at night, just mainly when having trouble napping or waking in the night.  I'm afraid this has become a crutch and I really don't want to get addicted to it now that she is 1.
I've read most of the other posts here, so it was nice to see that others were going thru and doing most of the same things that I was.

I'm just really curious is there anything to help with the night wakings or is it just part of the transition?  Does anyone know about how long the transition should take? 

[KellyC]

Hi

A while ago Zander was sick and got used to us going in with a dummy during the night too.  Even though he wasn't going to sleep with it he would wake up in the night SCREAMING and I thought something must be wrong but I finally realised it was because he wanted the dummy.  We've used walk in / walk out in the past (there's a thread on the toddler sleeping board) and I just had to do that for one night and he stopped!  Maybe your LO just needs re-educating about what happens if she wakes during the night 

That's great that the 12pm nap time is working for you and I think it's a really good place to start as it's not so early she won't be able to make it through the afternoon and not too late that she's too tired to take a good nap.  2 hrs 45 is great but I personally wouldn't let that happen regularly because it could start to affect her night sleep, that's one long nap    If I was doing a 12 nap I'd probably limit it to 2.5 hours and do bed at 6.45.  We actually stuck to a 6.45 bedtime for a good month or two after we switched to one nap which helped to avoid overtiredness and early morning wakings.  You may find that some days she still wants the morning catnap so just go with the flow on those days, better than getting overtired.  Gradually over the coming months you can move the nap out to 12.30/1 and move the bedtime back up to 7/7.30 but I'd take this very slowly.

Kelly x

[ablack]

Thank you!  I will check into the walk in/walk out thing as I am not sure what that exactly means.  The paci isn't a complete crutch right now, but I can see it headed in that direction and want to avoid it if possible.

It's mainly just been very frustrating and I suppose I'm expecting it to happen too soon with switching to 1 nap.  Today we are shooting for 2 naps.  I want to be consistent, however; it seems like it would help her adjust better to do it the same way all the time unless she just really needed 2.  Yesterday, her going down at 12pm was very unusual.  she is usually tired around 9:30-10am, but we try to make it later.  If she goes down at 10am and only sleeps an hour and a half, it's a long ways to go before bed and definitely results in overtiredness.  I'm quiet sure that's our night waking problem, I just haven't found the right solution for daytime yet.

If she just cannot handle being up past 10am, do u think that is too early to nap?  she is often up between 5-6am, but sleeps later on some days because of being up at night. oh my!  it seems that if she could at least go until 11am, it would be better.  See, I was thinking she could just take one nap and go for as long as she wanted, but I didn't think about it disrupting her nighttime sleep --as apparently it did last night since she woke up.  Thanks for the ideas!

[KellyC]

If she's wanting to nap mid-morning and you don't mind waking her I'd do a catnap - maybe try 30 minutes from 9.30-10 and see how well she takes her second nap with that.  For the second nap I'd aim for some time between 12.30 and 1.  If 30 minutes is too much for her in the morning (ie. you struggle to get her down again early enough or she doesn't take a long enough second nap) you could try reducing it to 20 minutes at the same time.  I would offer the catnap each day even if she doesn't take it, give her the 20 to 30 minute time-slot to take her nap and if she's still awake or has only slept for some of the time do an early lunch and mid-day long nap.  Good luck!

[ablack]

thanks again!  i tried 2 naps yesterday and did wake her after about 40 or 45 minutes--her nap was at 10:30am.  she was great, happy, and ready to play and play and play and play.    then, she took a 2nd nap at 3:15 and i woke her at 4pm.  to me, it's just a little late in the day for a nap.  it's pretty obvious, 1 nap is the way to go- unless i move her bedtime back I suppose, but i think 1 will work better.  That is what we are doing today and I'm going to stick with that.  She's always been an early riser, but has recently been trying to sleep a little later.  This morn. she woke at 4:50am but was just babbling and playing a little and i could tell she might go back to sleep.  she played for about 30-40 minutes but then slept until 6:30.  i can tell she is probably just adjusting to everything and trying to hopefully sleep later to account for missed day sleep.
If we have to do 2, I'll use your advice.  The only probelm is that she usually is not tired around 12:30 and her wake up time varies so much right now.  I'll just have to keep tweeking it.  Man, it really takes a while to get this all worked out!
Zander is a cute name and unique!