15 mo one very short nap - some advice please!

[Lissybits]

Hello, could you please give me some advice?!
My DD has been waking at night for as long as I can remember and after reading some of the posts, we decided to do cold turkey on the dummy as it had become a prop. We had some initial success after 2 weeks where he slept through for 3 nights. However, I think this has also coincided with being ready to drop 1 nap.
I followed some great advice of taking him out for a walk at 9am ish to get the first 30min nap which he other wise would not have taken until 11.30ish ( normally wakes at 6.30 - 7.00, but with at least 2 wakings in the night with 1 hour of PD, ssh, pat. But I also recently found out that DH had moved bedtime to 8pm because of the 2nd nap getting later and later) . Then my aim was to put him down for his 2nd nap at 2ish which has been a real struggle, sometimes taking 45 mins and only having 1 hour nap and still not being tired at 7.30 - 8 for bedtime - is it possible that he is over tired and that's why he won't go to sleep until past 8 and also the reason for night wakings?. Should I persevere with this routine in the hope that the 2nd nap will get longer and correct the late bedtime and night wakings?
On Sunday, after trying for an hour at 2pm to put him down, I gave up, filled him with snacks, gave him dinner at 5ish, bath at 5.30 and he was in bed for 6pm and slept until 6am, only waking briefly at 10ish!!! I could not believe it!! Should I stick with this routine since it worked?
I have just ordered Tracey's Toddler book so cannot wait to delve into that, but until it arrives, I would be grateful of any advice!
Thanks
Should I stick with this

[Layla]

I think he might actually be ready for the 1 nap. You could try to cut the morning nap even further to 20 mins so that he takes the afternoon one but if he is fighting the pm nap & bedtime with a 30min catnap, then I would let him be awake in the morning until around 11ish and then slowly push it until he naps at midday. In the meantime, continue to offer him an earlier bedtime (6.30pm) as his body gets used to the longer A times. He might not be taking a long nap at the start but eventually it will lengthen to around 2 hrs.

I wouldn't stick to just giving the morning nap and no pm nap. It will definitely lead to even more irratic sleep and overtiredness. Its too long for him to be awake in the afternoon. Try for the 1 nap & earlier bedtime & see how it goes

hth & let us know how it goes
Layla

[Lissybits]

Hi Isabella and Jasmine's Mum,
Thanks for the speedy reply (and sorry for the late thank you). Your advice was really helpful and we have seen a GREAT improvement this week as a result!  We mananged to push the AM nap to 12.15 ish now, with a slightly earlier lunch. It's fantastic, he goes down with NO FUSS at all as he really is tired - which is absolute bliss for me after months of PD, tears( mine and his!) at EVERY nap.
Just you said, the naps have started to get longer.Actually, today we had a 2 hour, but that may be due to a very unsettled night (but I can well cope with the odd one ot two bad night now), although up until last night he's only been waking once and going back to sleep in seconds.  As you said, the longer naps have resulted in better night sleep!! It was heaven for me today to have 2 whole hours to myself. I got stuck into Tracey's Toddler book which arrived on Fri. Doesn't seem to be that much re: sleep, so you may not have heard the last from me!
Your girls are absolutely gorgeous, I can't ever imagine them giving you a hard time with sleep?!!
Thanks again. Going to read my new book over a glass of wine!!
Love Lis and Nicholas

[Layla]

That is wonderful news!!! 

Nothing like a rested baby & a happy mommy.

About my girls - well Isabella is an absolute angel (although during the 2-1 transition, we had some really bad NW & 5am starts). Thats when I discovered the BW site and fixed her overtiredness  . Jasmine though.... is a little nightmare. She has hardly ever slept well and still sometimes wakes at night. She was a very fussy baby to start of with (had colic & reflux and used to scream for the 1st 8 weeks from 5.30-midnight every single night). Was totally inconsolible  . Finally calmed down with the whole fussiness thing around 4 months. Its actually sad because she put me off having any more kids & I really want more (don't tell dh thou  ). She's not too bad now but she is extremely sensitive so if she doesn't get the rest she needs, I'm up all night. She goes to sleep b/n 5.30-6pm (always had an early bedtime) cause if she doesn't get her 12+ hrs at night, she's not a happy baby the next day... I shouldn't complain it does mean a nice long evening with the computer lol. She's lucky she is so cute & she truely does have me wrapped around her little finger. Any little noise she makes, I go to her. I just remember the way she was born (at home, real emergency & with the cord wrapped around her neck twice)and I can't help it.

Anyways, enough rambling. Are you the lady living in Greek Islands??? My sister married someone from Greece (well they live in Australia now) & I think they are going to the Greel Islands next yesr - kinda delayed honeymoon.

Let me know if you need anything
Layla

[Lissybits]

Hi Layla,
Nap times are still going well - but night time is a nightmare. I'm going to start again with PD over Easter when I'm off for two weeks as I just can't cope with no sleep when I'm working. Unfortunately, we have bringing DS in our bed if he won't settle after 15 mins and of course it has become a habit as DS knows that eventually he'll get to come in our bed. He is still in our room unfortunately as we're still building his room (should be ready in the summer) - is it unreasonable to expect him to sleep in his cot when he is still in our room and he can see us ect?
Also, he has recently been diagnosed with eczema and this is definitely causing him to wake in the night as he is scratching back of knees and his hair when he gets hot. I have booked 1st hair appt next Weds, so hopefully this will help the head scratching. Any advice? You helped so much with the naps!
We live on Aegina, a small island close to the port of Pireaus on mainland. If your sister is near when she visits we could meet! Where is her DH from?
Thanks xxx

[Layla]

Oh eczema must be sooo unfortable for him  . I honestly have no clue what to advise you there - you probably need to get medical advise on that. I think they have creams, etc... to help out with the itching

About sleeping in the same room - see from about 9 weeks, dd1 became really aware of her surroundings and between dh's snoring and us moving around at night, caughing, etc... she couldn't sleep well so I had to move her out. Jasmine slept with us for 6months but again she was having a terrible time sleeping cause every little noise used to disturb her (and we couldn't sleep either).

You know its totally up to you. If you want to leave the sleep training until he is in him room and in the meantime have him sleeping with you, you can.... but expect crying and some protest cause he is getting used to you guys and its a VERY hard habit to break. Believe me, my mother once took me in when I was sick and apparently I woulnd't leave her alone from that moment. She ended up sleeping with me until I was 13yo  . Every single night I would stand at her door, having tantrums, etc... until she'd let me in and she didn't have the heart to send me back to my bed. My poor dad was sent to the couch every night. I must say I was a little older (about 3 or so) than your lo but its something that has been engraved in my head by my mother, so I tried to make sure I didn't have my girls sleeping with me past 6 months.

It is possible for him to sleep in his own cot even if he is in your room but you do need to be consistent when he wakes at night.

Definitely see someone about eczema - he needs something to ease the itching. Also if he is not sleeping that well at night, I would suggest an earlier bedtime - no later than 7pm.

I'll have to ask Chris where he is from.... will let you know in the next post.

Good luck
Layla

[Lissybits]

Hi Layla,
I decided to start PD last night as I only work 4 hours on Sat and 3 hours on Sun and am home early. I just thought, the longer I leave tackling the problem, the longer it will take to fix.
Also, last night, DH and I decided to sleep in the lounge on sofa bed, so DS wouldn't see us when he woke,
Usually, he wakes at 11pm (when I go to bed), but because I wasn't there to disturb him, he woke at 12.30. Then it was 1.30 and it took til 3 for him to sleep, but surprisingly, with not alot of crying. He kept lying down and crying - a sure sign of tiredness and he didn't fight it as much as I expected.
He woke at 6 and after his milk, went back to sleep til 7.30 and woke up babbling and happy  - which made me happy and determined to stick with it!
I'm hoping it won't take as long as the dummy cold turkey took, as the bringing in our bed has only been for 2 weeks - fingers crossed!
Do you think the sleeping in lounge will help, or just make things worse when we do move back (sofa bed not really comfortable!!) to our room?
Any advice would be great!
Lis x

[Layla]

Thats really up to you... I can imagine the sofa not being very comfortable. Stick with the pd method if its working for you. I'm not really sure what to say about how he will sleep when you go back into the room. Have you tried to maybe have a fan going near his cot (not facing him of course) so that everytime you enter the room he won't really hear you???

[Lissybits]

Hi Layla,
Another bad night last night, although it's to be expected for a while.
Last night it took 2 hours to settle him (10pm - 12pm). Then he was back up at 4am but it only took minutes to settle him. Then back up at 5.30, when I gave him his bottle and he slept to 7.
I just want to check exactly what I should be doing a) during those 2 hours of on/off crying.
b) when he wakes at 5.30am or 6am as I don't want this to become a habit!
Quite often when he wakes at night he just sits crying - should I stay with him? He screams if I leave the room.  If he stands up, this is when I lay him down and say, "You're just going to sleep etc" - right?  How long do I stay with him? I've been doing ssh pat to settle him (which sometimes works), and then I stay to see if he's really asleep.
Incidently, we're going back in our bedroom tonight! My back is killing - not sure if it's from the sofa bed or bending over the cot! And, I don't think us not being there has made it any better for DS.
Any advice would be great - thanks alot again!
Lis