A time for 11 month old driving me NUTS!

[UNCMomma]

The A time is driving me nuts, not the 11 month old LOL!

I cannot figure out the magic number here girls.  She has absolutely no problem going down for AM nap or bedtime (except once in a blue moon).  But she ALWAYS has trouble with the PM nap.  FOr this reason, I tried the 2-1 nap transition about a month ago, but she got overtired pretty fast and we abandoned it.  Plus, even during that transition when we shortened the AM nap drastically, she STILL had trouble going down for the PM nap.    Here's our "schedule"

7 AM wake her up
9:30 Nap #1 (usually goes right to sleep), 9:30-11
3 Put down for nap #2 (fights it for up to an hour) 3:30/4-4:30, I always wake her at 4:30 to preserve bedtime
7 PM bedtime

I have tried shorter A times, the longest I feel comfortable with is 4 hours which is where we are now b/c at least she usually goes to sleep within 20-30 min this way.  But I can tell she's overtired at this point, b/c when I put her in the crib she is quite sleepy but then STILL plays/whines/talks/fusses for a few minutes before knocking out.

Any suggestions?
THANKS!

[* Paula *]

Would it be worthwhile limiting the AM nap to about an hour to see if that would make your lo tired enough for the afternoon nap?  It may mean that you will have to bring the PM nap forward a bit, but this may work.

[UNCMomma]

Well, I did that.  When I tried to start the first stage of the 2-1 transition.  It seemed that, no matter how short I made that first nap, she STILL had issues going to sleep for PM nap, no matter if I moved the A time a little shorter or kept it at 3.5-4 hours.  So I reasoned that I may as well let her get the full 1 1/2 hours in the AM and then deal with whatever we can get in the PM. 

What are the usual A times for 11 month olds/ 1 year olds after naps of varying lengths???

Thanks so much!

[* Paula *]

Sorry for the delay in replying to you.

By 11 months or just over our DS transitioned to 1 nap, as he was constantly refusing to take his afternoon nap.

Have you tried pushing the first nap out by about 15 minutes to half an hour for 3 days and then again another 15 minutes etc?

[UNCMomma]

Haven't tried that... it seems the earlier we get the AM nap the better the chance of us getting a PM nap at all.  Without it she just still gets plain overtired. 

I think we're just at that sticky stage where 2 naps is too many, 1 is not enough.  We'll forge through!  Thanks for the ideas! 

[* Paula *]

When you start pushing the morning nap out by 15 /30 minutes, this way, you will eventually transition to 1 nap.

[Missy Lou]

how have today's naps been hagan?

[UNCMomma]

Hi Melissa!  Today was actually "golden"!  Nap #1 9-10:45 and Nap #2 2:45-4:30 (getting ready to wake her).  A time was 3.5 hours before I put her down for PM nap and she talked for about 30 min before going to sleep without much fuss.  If only every day could be so easy...

Tom Tom's Mum... so what do you do about the PM nap in the meantime, while you're pushing that AM nap later and later?  Do you just get whatever short PM catnap in you can and move the bedtime up?  I can just envision my LO taking a good 1 1/2 hour 2 hour nap til 12 PM and then the rest of the day being awake, and getting super overtired by 5 PM. 

Thanks again!

[* Paula *]

When we were in the process of transitioning to 1 nap, we would let our DS have a cat nap in the afternoon for about 30-45 minutes just to keep him going until bed time.

It only took us about a week to transition onto 1 nap.  There were some days where DS wanted 2 naps, but that was usually when he had been up in the night with teething etc.

When we transtioned to 1 nap, we did lunch at around 11:15 / 11:30 and aimed to have DS in bed by 12:00.  This is the the routine we are following now, and he naps for 2 hours in the day.

[UNCMomma]

Sounds like that may be the way to go.  I will definetly remember that and may be back for more questions when we get to that point.  Did you push it back 15 min every day or every couple of days? 

[* Paula *]

It is recommended to push the time out every 3 days.

Here is a link on the 2 to 1 nap transition from the Naps FAQ's Boards

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.msg276402#msg276402

Good luck.