Very confused by 15 month's new sleep habits

[lucmom]

Thanks!  We'll keep at it and check in again soon.

[lucmom]

Update for anyone following this thread:

First, our DS's early wakings got much better once his nose was totally clear -- I didn't realize how much just a little runny nose would affect his sleep, but it seems to have.

We're not totally settled into a solid single nap, but we currently set nap schedule by looking at wake time.  If he's slept at least 11 hours, he seems to be able to tolerate 5.5/6 hours of wake time prior to nap.  If it's less than that, he can't do much more than 5.5, and sometimes less.  We put him down for first nap when he's tired, and leave him to sleep as long as he likes.  If he sleeps long enough that we can make it to a reasonable bedtime (6:15-7:15), we shoot for a one nap day.  If he wakes early or sleeps short, we'll offer a second nap.  For the past couple weeks, he's done one nap for 5 days of the week, and the naps went from 1 hour 20 minutes, to 1.5.

What I've discovered is that for our LO, missing the window and keeping him up too long between sleeps is usually a recipe for early waking or short nap.  I have to keep reminding myself this right now since we were able to vary his schedule more in the past (by that I mean that .5 hour didn't seem to make a difference, when right now, even 15 minutes seems like it can throw things off).  Also, before the nap transition, he always seemed to catch himself up on sleep (by sleeping in or taking longer naps) whereas right now, we have to be careful to monitor how much sleep he's getting in a 24 hour period and be proactive about giving him enough time to sleep.

I hope this helps anyone who is going through similar changes.  On the naps board and this one, there is a lot of information about the 2-1 transition that is really helpful.  It's a tough transition for a lot of babies to begin with, and then if you throw in teething, sickness, and developmental changes, it can get really bumpy!  Even though we still have our rough days, for us what's helped is just sticking to the plan above so that we don't second guess ourselves as much and hopefully, he'll get more comfortable in his new schedule soon.

HTH!

[imsmum]

Brilliantly put and well done! 

I agree that during this transition hypervigilance and consistency really pays off. 

I  just wanted to expand a bit on something that lucmom said about her lo being sensitive to having too long an A time before nap and have that could really throw her lo off.  I think some lo's are sensitive to that interval, while some are more sensitive to too much A time before bed.  Margot could do 7 hours in the morning but anymore than 5 to 5.5 after nap and there would be multiple night wakings.  I think it's key to figure out which it is for your lo during the transition.  For Margot her nap was always consistent at 1.5 hours, and she had not trouble taking it but her night sleep was a mess and I think that is probably typical of a lo who is sensitive to how much A time after the nap.  Lucmom could probably comment better on the signs for sensitivity to too much A time before nap but it probably would include a lot of variability in nap length and time.  Once you figure out what your lo is sensitive to and set that time you can tweak all the other sleep times a bit around it and this helps tremendously.  You may have to stick with this for quite some time but it does get better and it really does pay off.

Good luck to everyone going through this transition, it's a tough one!

[lucmom]

imsmum is so right (and by the way, thank you imsmums and everyone for all your help during this transition -- you've all helped so much)!

For us, we can see that he's getting fussy and acting tired, and the mistake we often make is thinking that we can squeeze in his pre-nap routine (which is mostly having some lunch) in time.  That usually results in exactly what imsmum said -- short nap or him falling asleep in his high chair earlier than we expected.  I think because his nighttime routine is more established, it's a little easier for him to tolerate getting through it before bedtime, but really for both periods, we have to exercise the hypervigilance imsmum mentions and be ready to react the instant we see that he's getting overtired.

One more thing that's helped me is just adjusting my attitude and forgetting what was (even the day before) and looking at what he needs that day.  I'm keeping the big picture in mind, but trying not to freak out if he needs two naps that day or second guessing myself if he clearly needs to go to bed early.  And I'm keeping imsmum's words in my head like a mantra ("it really does pay off, it really does pay off, it really does pay off)...