Moved to 1 nap - but still very short!

[sebas]

My LO is 16 mths and over the last 4-5 weeks we have made the transition to 1 nap. Although the transition has now eliminated the dreaded 30 min nap (he used to be the KING of 30 min naps) but now will only sleep for 1h 15m.  I know this is not enough for him as he wakes up crying, and about 50% of the time I can resettle him and he will sleep for an extra 30-45 mins.

Our day looks like something like this:

6:00 - 6:30am - wake and bottle (200ml)

7:30 - 8am - breakfast

10am - snack

11 - 11:30 - go down for nap for about 1h 15m

1pm - lunch

3pm - snack

5pm -dinner

6:30pm - bath, bottle and asleep by 7pm

I have worked out that his A time in the morning is 5.5 hrs max, any longer and he will revert back to a 30 min nap.

What can I do to help him lengthen his nap?  Is there something in our day that needs tweaking?

I read of all these kids doing 2-3 hr naps and can only wish that Sebastian would do the same!!

Please help me.

TIA

[imsmum]

This nap transition is so tricky but it looks like your lo is doing great--he's getting a good long sleep at night and his naps are getting better.  My lo was stuck on a 1.5 hour nap/ 10 hour night for a long time after first transitioning to one nap ( well, after we sorted out the night waking, which also took a long time).   what helped was pushing the nap back .5 hours.  I know you said that he wakes after 30 minutes if he has more A time than 5.5 hours in the morning but I think that is normal at first--until they adjust to the one nap, they just can't make it that long, but once they adjust to it, I think many lo's need the nap pushed back so they can have that good long sleep.  You might want to try pushing the nap back just 10 minutes over a few days and see how that goes.  I read in one of the sleep books that the ideal biological nap time is at the midpoint of night sleep but moved forward 12 hours, ie. if your little one sleeps 11 hours from 7-6, the ideal time is after 5.5 hours ie.12:30.  I wouldn't recommend jumping to that time right now--he's sure to go back to the 30 minute naps--but if you slowly push the nap back to 11:50 or 12 he may start taking longer naps.  HTH

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Thanks for the info imsmum as I am in a similar boat.

[Florencia]

You also mention that Sebastian will go to sleep again (sometimes) if you help him. Then I'd suggest you to try wake to sleep at the hour mark (the method is described in the FAQ section of this board under a thread called Teaching Independent Sleep) and try that for at least 3 days in a row. On day 4 don't do it and see if he can sleep through the 115 mark. Other than that, i think your schedule looks pretty fine and I'm sure Sebastian will start sleeping for longer period once he gets used to the change.

HTH and keep us posted!

[sebas]

Just a bit of an update!  Today I tried the W2S at the 1 hr mark as recommended and he slept for 1h 45m, that is great!  I will keep trying the W2S for the next 2 days and see how we go.

I have another question though, although his night wakings are A LOT  better, he is still waking up approx every 4 hrs, although it's mostly a quick 2 minute resettle, but nevertheless he still wakes. Why?  He is capable of falling asleep independently, so I cannot understand why he still wakes.  I taught him to fall asleep on his own using WI/WO and now he is at the point where I can put him down, say goodnight and walk out, no crying and is usually asleep within 5 minutes.  So once again I ask, why does he wake?

If I could just fix his nightwakings, it would be PERFECT!!!

Thanks

[imsmum]

This happened with my dd during the 2 - 1 transition although she would be awake for 2 hours at a stretch during the night.  I figured out that it was almost always caused by overtiredness at bedtime which is really hard to deal with during this transition as there just seems to be too many hours in the day!  I figured out that my dd could do no more than 5 to 5.5 hours from nap wakeup to asleep time at night or else she would wake in the night. The longer nap should help but again you may want to push the nap back slowly so it's a little closer to 12 or alternatively make bedtime a bit earlier, although you might want to be cautious about the latter since his bedtime is already pretty early and you don't want him waking earlier in the morning.  HTH

[Florencia]

I'm thinking it's about sleep cycles. Once you get him ready to sleep through his nap, he might be able to go through sleep phases at night as well. Since the night wakings are not awful or too dramatic, I'd just keep at what you're doing for a week more before trying something different. It might be just that he's body's catching up on lost sleep and he still has some overtiredness to recover from. The long nap and the proper bedtime should help him catch up and in one week he should be able to sleep through.

Congratulations on a great job!!!!!! doesn't it feel great when something finally works??? wishing you much luck for today, let us know how you get on!

[sebas]

Another update!  We are now taking naps of minimum 1.5hrs (has been 2 hrs the last 2 days) and almost sleeping through, BUT he is now waking up at 5am instead of the 6 or 6:30am which I much prefer. 

I must confess though that up until about 1 week ago, when he used to wake at 4am, I would put him in bed with me and then he would sleep till 6 or 6:30, but now that I am resettling him he only goes to 5 or 5:30am.

The early wake up means that by 10 am he is absolutely ready for a nap but then will be awake from about midday to 6:30 or 7pm.  What do I do?  Do I offer him a 30 min cat nap at 4pm, put him to bed earlier? keep the same bedtime?

Isn't it always the way, just when you think you've got them .....

TIA

[imsmum]

With my dd the sllep problems went that way--solved the night wakings with being really scrupulous about the interval between nap and bedtime but we also had a super early wakeup.  We were on a 7:30 to 5:30 night 12:30 to 2 nap for a few months.  I know the early waking is tough but it is better than night wakings imho.  I would be worried that  such an early nap  would cause night wakings because there was too much awake time after nap before sleep.  What I would suggest is a nap around 11 or 11:30, bedtime at 6:30 and then trying to shift the whole day forward by 15 minutes per week ie. 11:45 naptime, 6:45 bedtime then 12, nap time 7 bedtime until you reach a schedule that works for you.  Good Luck