transition from 2-1 nap, overtired? night wakings?

[gingerfeet]

  it has been almost 3 weeks since i moved my dd from 2 naps into 1. so far i had been quite on the dot with the nap at 11.45-12noon.  The first day of the transition.. she slept for 1.5 hours. which is alright i guessed then it went to 1hour and now she only nap for 20-30min  .  This gives me an overtired 19mths dd.  Overtiredness has results into a grumpy, clingy, cranky, not eating well, crying, tantrums.. the worse is waking up in the middle of the night  .  She has been sleeping through and now she wakes up maybe twice sometimes once.. maybe around 4am and stay awake for 1.5 hour to 2 before going back to sleep..  Our bedtime routine has always been the same.. she goes down with a bottle.  These couple of weeks, she woke up mid of the night crying very loudly unlike her normally she just tossed and turned and give a little cry and she will goes back to sleep or sometimes i will shhhh or hold her up or put her on my shoulder she will falls back to sleep.  Now nothing works, even if i give her a bottle.. she will take it quietly in her cot and still awake even when the bottle is finished and wants to come out from her cot.
I'm not sure all these are the caused of overtiredness and she is also cutting her first molar.  Does anyone knows whether teething with molar will keep them awake during the nights? 

I have many sleepless nights and had been screaming at her for not sleeping but that's because i dont know the cause of what is happenings?  why has my dd that usually sleeps through the night has suddenly woken up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours. 
She usually wakes up at 7.30am nap at 11.45-12 and bed at 7.30.  I have posted something about transitioning from 2 naps to 1.  someone suggested early bedtime.. i tried that but she wakes up really early like 6.30 and still wakes up in the middle of the night. 

does anyone has a similar problem? isit a phase that it will pass?  what should i do with an overtired toddler and eliminate the night wakings?

[andibig]

hi
DD cut her first molars at 11.5 mths . and it caused awful night wakings (one night it was 5 times).also i think they can get a build up of overtiredness which can cause night wakings.
have you tried giving her meds for the teething?

[Harrisonsmummy]

The night wakings are probably caused by overtiredness, also the short naps. The key is the early bedtimes - super early if neccessary, I would aim for no later than 4.5 hours after wake-up. It will take several days of this to get back on track in my experience and the night wakings will continue until she is well rested again. (Sometimes a missed nap can take us 3 days to catch up!)

the early bedtimes may cause an earlier wake-up, but generally I have found that while they are catching up this is the only way to get them sorted out! How much sleep is she getting in total with an earlier bedtime? I have found that once you have got them caught up and naps are sorted to a reasonable length, then you have to adjust your timings to push back the early mornings.

pain meds certainly to help settle at night if teeth could be a factor.

HTH

[gingerfeet]

thank you for replying. so far i have not given her any medication for teething.  There was once, a week ago, i gave her some panadol. she woke up 3 times in the middle of the night as compared to only 2 and 1.  So I thought maybe that could be overtiredness but yesterday i gave her some panadol too.  She slept through.  Today i was quite persistent to lengthen her nap but no luck..she took only 20min.  Hope she sleeps through tonight 

Harrisonsmummy,  If i put her to bed 4.5 hours after her wake-up nap, that would be around 4.30pm.  Wouldn't you think that they might think that is part of the nap and wake up probably like 2am and start their day?  also, do you the earlier bedtime will eliminate the night wakings? 

I have tried an hour earlier bedtime.. it's been quite disappointing because she still wakes in the middle of the night and she wakes up an hour earlier than her normal wake up time 

[Harrisonsmummy]

I know its a complete confusion! I would try and push nap back to 12.30 - she is only sleeping for 20 minutes anyway so may as well try and get her used to a "permanent" time! I would hedge my bets perhaps and aim for a 5.30pm bedtime, see how it goes.


She sounds like she is chronically overtired - so another temporary option is to switch her back to a couple of naps a day to help her catch up again, then re-start! I have done this with harrison when he has been overtired from night-wakings. Put him down for a catnap early morning for 40 minutes, then gone for a later nap, but I do have to walk him to get him off for the second nap - although this catches up his sleep much quicker. I would only do this for 1 or 2 days though.

The nightwakings should disappear once sleep has been caught up, but it can take some while of the early bedtimes to do this, and depends how many times they wake in this night while it is going on. I find a sleep log is a neccessity, it helps me to see where we are at, and predict the catch up time. When we have been in a particulalry bad spot it has taken over a week of early bedtimes (Harrison will nap until 2.30pm and I get him down by 6.45pm if I can when this is occuring, rocking to lengthen naps, and early morning (5am) wake-ups before we are sorted.  The early wake-ups again are a result of being overtired eg if H goes to sleep at 7.40pm and he is overtired he will wake at 5.15am, if I can get him to sleep by about 7.20pm, he will sleep until 5.40am - so it is a question if hitting the magic number - even 20 minutes makes a difference!

When she has woken up an hour earlier - how much sleep has she had overnight?

Keep posting, it is a difficult time to get some of them through, but there is plenty of support here.

Justine

[KellyC]

Zander is moving towards 1 nap a day but I still think he's way too young at 10.5 months old.  So I put him down for a nap mid-morning and wake him after 15-20 minutes.  This is enough to see him through until his main nap at 12.45ish when he sleeps two hours but not so much that he doesn't need the sleep later or that his afternoon nap is pushed out.  Could you take her for a walk mid-morning and give her the opportunity to sleep for, say, 10 minutes (wake her after that amount of time)?  If she sleeps then go for a 12.30/1 nap and even if she doesn't at least she's had some quiet time and a rest.

Kelly x

[gingerfeet]

thank you so much for all your support and encouraging kind words. I already feel better.  she has never been a good napper.. when she was an infant she will go 20min max naps x 3 a day.  her longest nap will be an hour half. very rare.  i used to put her for her nap at 10-30 n pick her up around 12-30.  In this 2 hours she only nap for 40min max.  and again at 2.30-4pm.. Than things changed.. she was fighting for either one of her naps so i thought is time for a transition. it started well for 2 days then it went downhill.  car rides, walks on her stroller doesn't work. .  like you said justine, rocking to get her to nap just for the extra 20min or less will be good.. my rocking works all the time.. i mean everytime  but oh no! now it doesn't work at all  i don't know what happened?  i think now that she knows her environment and her development skills has kicked in... is difficult to resettle her back to sleep after awake.

i've read some similar posts and noticed that most toddlers that does that are about the same age 16-19mths...  mmmmm i wonder why.  i also have an idea in mind to minimize her overtiredness.  Lets see what you think.  i'll put her to nap at usual time 11-45-12pm and around 2.30pm ( that's when her 2nd nap used to be) i will take her to the room... sit quietly with her with a book for about at least 1/2 hour to 1 hour if she allows.  (she can never sit still for more than 2 min.. max was 10min while watching barney and some japanese kids programme.) and i'll try and do this for at least 3 days and we will see what happens.  i'll keep you all posted.  I am also blaming it on her molar 

thank you , thank you all again for your replies and support  xxxxoooxx

[Gigismom]

when my dd switched to one nap, she started having a lot of night waking, which was very unusual for her.  it took a few weeks for her to get used to the new routine, but now she is doing well with one nap.  no more night waking.  ithink your idea of having 'quiet time' during what used to be her second nap sounds great.  i did this with my dd as well.  i would take her for a walk in the stroller or a drive in the car so she could relax or doze for a few minutes in the afternoon.  it helped with the transtion.