14mth old going from 2 to 1 - what have I done wrong!!!

[anne2007]

Hi My 14mth old is in the midst of 2 naps to 1 nap...we have had a tospy turvy couple of weeks with molars coming through but she seems to have got through that now.
I did post a thread asking about her naps as she was doing 6.30am/7am - nap at 1pm - sleep 7pm. The nap would be 1.5hrs long.  Replies said that her am wake was too long but before I got to adjust this she has had a couple of 2 nap days both naps about 1hr long and has now started not going off to sleep till 8pm and waking at 5am....not sure where to go from here??!!

I am not too sure what to do with our day as we seem to have got stuck in a rut! Whatever I do I have to make sure she has about 1hr after lunch before the nap as once she has eaten she is full of energy for a while!

Has her early waking/struggling to go off re-appeared as she is having 2 seperate naps instead of one?
Feel we need to start afresh....

[mari]

Well, when I was having troubles with Alex after her transition I was told that they cannot cope with more than 5.5hours activity.  As she is waking at 5am, she really needs an earlier nap than 1pm.  I would try an nap of at least 12noon as 10am is alittle early and you want to try to get her to a more acceptable routine, be prepared for some difficulty but hopefully if you stick to it she will adjust. 
It might not happen overnight, but try to get into a routine of wake (reaasonable time) 5.5-6hrs activity-nap 2 hours- 5.5-6hours activity-bed(sleep)
That's what I aim for and it seems to work albeit a party for an hour at bedtime, but at least she is there until 7am.

[becky1969]

Just want to encourage you. The 2-1 nap transition has been one big struggle for us for 3 months! We're just about on the other side now, but we still have some awkward days/nights.

I agree with PP - I think you'll need to bring that nap up a bit - at least until you can get rid of those early wakings. Sounds like OT to me - both the struggling to go to sleep, and the waking up early. We had problems with only getting 1.5 hours out of him when he had 1 nap days too. It took about a week, and now he's sleeping 2-2.5 hours at his nap. I think what happened is his body gradually figured out that there was only going to be one nap, so he started sleeping longer! This apparently is common; lots of moms reassured me that the 1.5 hours would eventually stretch to 2-2.5. And it did! Once that happens, your bedtime will start working out better b/c she won't go so long.

Also, some of the women going thru this transition have found that after two 1 nap days, their LO needed a 2 nap day to catch up. Some find that doing it that way for a few weeks can help them get to the point where 1 nap days work out all the time.

So, try bringing that nap up by an hour, then also put to bed a little earlier. Even if she's not tired, worst case scenario she has a party in her crib. However, best case scenario is you get her in bed before she's OT. After a few days, you'll get a feel for what she can handle on this new sleeping schedule. When Owen was only taking one 1.5 hour nap, we did have to bring bedtime forward 30-60 minutes to help him thru. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't (we had NW instead of EW), but gradually he was able to make the awake times on both sides of the nap. 

Some of this you just have to endure. Obviously, monkey with the routine a bit to see if that helps. But truthfully, this is just an awkward transition. Sometimes they just need a little time to stretch to the new awake times they need to handle. This was the hardest sleep phase we've been thru yet! But, now that we're almost done, I can see how great it can be to only have 1 nap. Lots of freedom! So, keep the end in mind: it WILL come!

[mari]

This thread might be useful for you.  Why don't you take a look.

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=59266.0

[anne2007]

Thank you for all your replies - it sounds like I am definately not alone!
Today after a 5am wake and got her out of cot at 5.45am, breakfast and then a good sized snack at 10am, once digested and we had some chill out time I popped her to bed at 10.50am.  50mins later we are wide awake and so I have left her for 15mins - she is crying but sounds to me like a tired cry (hell she must be shattered she only had 9hrs per two night for the past two!) but doesnt sound like she is going to go back off to sleep, so I will go get her up now.

I am not sure what to do if we are stuck in an overtired rut other than hope for a longer sleep tonight...also worried if I am pushing her into 1nap and should stick at 2??

Thanks again guys...

[anne2007]

Hi again

Our afternoon wasnt bad, she did really well after the reduced amount of sleep, but I took the advice from the replys and did dinner, bath and bed an hour earlier and she went out like a light at 6pm.  So will see what time we start the day tomorrow!!

[rinajack]

That exact thing happened to me yesterday....so I also did early bedtime.  I am one of the ones who is finding that if I allow two naps, she is not tired enough to go to bed at night, I am better off doing an early bedtime after 1 nap.

Regarding the being energised after lunch...I actually have a different problem, she won't eat when really tired, but I think my solution might work for you too...

We do
6:30ish wakeup
7ish Breakfast
10:30 Lunch 1
11:30 Nap - anywhere from 1-2.5 hrs.
2:30/3 Lunch 2
Then dinner and bottle time depend on the nap....
Bedtime is usually 6:30, but if bad nap, can be as early as 5:30.

I call both the middle of the daytime meals lunches because no matter what foods I choose to serve, they are bigger meals, not just snacks.

HTH

[becky1969]

When they're going thru the transition, they definitely get some short sleep days.  I made the mistake of trying to let him "catch up" on sleep on those days, and it always backfired. It was more important to keep AM nap short, PM nap long OR stick with 1 nap than to let him 'catch up' with a longer AM nap.  Just my experience, you LO may react differently.

The eating thing -- I meant to suggest before a smallish snack before nap rather than a big lunch if eating disrupts sleep. We often have lunch AFTER nap, so it ends up being 2:30-3 when he eats. Then he'll have another small snack and a dinner about 1.5 hours before bed.  Since toddlers vary their eating so radically from hour to hour - eating like ravenous vultures oe minute, then living on air the next - I don't really worry about making the bigger meals occur at regular intervals. I also offer warm milk before sleep, so he gets something in his tummy that is relaxing and filling.

[anne2007]

Hi thank you again so much, got some more very helpful tips from you both. 
She woke at 4am this time (the 9hr stint again!) I left her till about half past as I thought she may go off but didnt.  Then I gave her a drink of water and a cuddle and popped her back down and she slept till 6am.
She was at daycare this morning and so had her lunch at 11.30am - I pick her up at noon and she was very happy not looking grumpy tired...she fell asleep in car on way home and so far has had 50mins.....
I am going to stick to the one nap where possible if she is happy and bring bedtime forward until she decides to take longer naps.
As for meals, I am doing whatever she needs to get through like you rather than thinking I have to give her lunch at a definate time, that just makes things harder!! Thank you for posting the schedule, great to see whats happening for you to help guide us...
Hope things are going well for you guys....

[anne2007]

Hi only slept 55mins unfortunately and cried waking up took a while to calm down - this seems to be whats happening after naps just at the mo.   maybe I should try to get back to 2 naps for her sake? She obviously still tired...

[rinajack]

Honestly, for some babies it goes back and forth between 1 and 2, so you may just need to read her behaviour and see what is best on a given day.  For us, we are now at the point where the 2 nap days create disasterously late bedtimes, so I am not doing them any more.....but we did switch around for several weeks to get to this point.

You could always try just keeping things really low key, or try a very short catnap later in the afternoon...not too late though.....

[becky1969]

Man, I'm sorry! That's what happened to us at first too - wouldn't take AM nap some days, but only an hour nap midday.  VERY frustrating! We sometimes did a little catnap late afternoon (like around 4) for no more than 30 minutes so we wouldn't mess up bedtime. Other times I had DH take him for a car ride to either get him to doze, or just to sort of recharge his batteries a bit. Honestly, we just had to deal with NW a lot of times on those days. Now, on 1 hour nap days he does fine. But it took several weeks to get to this point.

The 2-1 transition teaches you patience, and to be thankful that every day is a new day! It's so frustrating to have to try and read their cues so closely. But, I don't think there's any other way to do it. It will get better though, promise!  You'll get to where you know what works and what doesn't on the 1 nap days.

[debo620]

Hi, just wanted to chime in,

I think that since she is waking so early, you really need two naps, but make the first short.
so lets say
asleep 7pm
wakes at 5am (leave in crib til desired time 6/6:30)
do 30min nap 4.5hrs later 9:30-10
long nap at 1pm til 2:30/3

hopefully once you get out of the OT phase
you can have something more like:
wake 6:30/7
nap 5.5hrs later 12/12:30-2/2:30
bed 7:30

HTH

[rinajack]

We had a 65 min nap today - she is really happy as soon as she came out of her room and is playing like crazy!!!  Oh the joys of the transition....

[anne2007]

Thank you again for all your replys...Debo I think I am going to try that tomorrow if she wakes early again....off to bed at 6pm like a dream so will see what time she wakes.

Thank you so much again , its nice to know things that are happening to us are normal!