anyone want to chat about the 2-1 nap switch , thread#2

[MomofRocco]

Sounds wonderful... wish I could say the same!  Rocco has been waking around the same time every night now, around 1030.. sits up cries for a few minutes before going right back to sleep.  Is this due to nap issues?  He is also waking earlier than usual, around 630. Ugh.

[OliverRowland]

we had something similar awhile back where ds would wake crying earlier on in the night.  it eventually went away.  i think it may have been a bit of SA or nightmares.  but i went in to console whcih was very easy and he'd go back to sleep.  it seems like you have to go thru rough patches before lo's find their rhythm and settle into a good routine.  it feels like forever, but they get there eventually...hang in there.  Give them as much love, cuddles and support they need cause I think it is just as confusing to them.

[M and N's Mom]

Well, we have FINALLY made it to mostly 1 nap days (this week anyway  ).  At the beginning of the week we had nice long 2h+ naps, but the past few days have been 1.5h.  He makes up for it with 13h nights  but can I expect him to go to 2h eventually or is 1.5h where he is likely to stay?

[samijoe]

Do 'they' ever really stay anywhere for long??


lol
sami

[debo620]

nope,
Noah is OT AGAIN!!!        he is spending so much time in his crib not sleeping!  so early to bed has to be REALLY early becasue he plays 30-40min regardless. DH miscalculated yesterday and he didn't fall asleep til 7:30 or so which was late after a 1hr30min nap ending at 1:30 yesterday. Had an early wake this am and a oh so lovely 1hr15min nap. I put him down at 11:30, so early but not early enough. he was up at 5:45 today. seemed really great this am and playing nicely, otherwise I would have done earlier. but here we are and he woke at 1pm. so he will be probably be in bed tonight by 6pm.
this really sucks!

[NiknLily]

Hugs Deb, it really does suck and you just cant seem to see a way out of it, can you.  Having just come out the other side of Lily's seriously OT stint, I would say this.  I found it helped Lily more to stabilise her routine and start getting out of being OT by going by the clock and actually not letting her go to bed too early as the early nights where just compounding the early wake up's.  Don't get me wrong I can totally see how an early night can help get over a rough day, but I think that sometimes it will work against you by shifting the day backwards. 

I think by doing things at a set time, rather than by number of hours since wake ups can help reset their body clock and when their routine is that predictable everything else seems to drop into place.  For us messing with nap times just led to total confusion on Lilys part, her body never knew when it should be asleep or awake as it was at a different time everyday.

What I did was to put Lily down at 11am everyday regardless of wake up time (it was always before 6am, generally closer to 5am) and in bed at 6.00pm regardless of how long she slept for her nap.  This did mean some long afternoons which led to her waking 45Min's after bedtime most nights but on the whole it was a vast improvement to her sleep overall and by doing this her wake ups jumped back to 6am.  Once this was settled I started to shift her day on by 10Min's a day every day.  We are now getting wake ups after 7am and she is going to bed at 7pm, so now I'm working on stretching her naps from 45Min's-1hr or 1.15hrs by pushing nap time up, tomorrow it will be 12.30pm and we are now getting 1.30hr naps. Not perfect I know but I really didn't think it would get this far a few weeks ago, I thought we would be battling this till she went to school   

HTH, don't know if it will work for you but it may be worth a go.

[debo620]

thanks new mum, I hear what you are saying and I generally feel the same way. he usuallly wakes 6:30 and naps at 12, but honeslty 15min either way is the norm. Unfortunately we are haveing major OT issues, so I feel it is better to put him to bed early knowing that he will play for a while anyway. all we really need is a good nights sleep---lets say even 11hrs to get back on track. so he is in bed tonight for 6:10 (although not sleeping yet) and if he is up before 6am tommorow--at least he has a had a good night sleep and it is then easier for me to stretch back to the normal times. we always leave him in his crib til 7am anyway, now he is crying and OT. should be a lovely night!

[sorayas mom]

Hello ladies.  I think my dd is in the early stages of the 2-1 switch.  She has resisted her evening nap twice this week now.  I know she is not ready yet for one nap a day, as she is extra sleepy the day after only having one nap.  But I was looking for some general advice to ease the transition.  The thing about my dd is she has always been a good morning napper.  If she takes a short morning nap then she will most definitely take an overtired 40 minute afternoon nap.  So what should my game plan be?  I'm not sure how to make this a smooth transition.  Her routine is as follows:

Two nap day:

Between 6/7 - wakeup and play in crib
7- up
9:45- sleep
11:00- wake
1:45- sleep
3- wake
6:45- sleep

One nap day:

Between 6/7 - wakeup and play in crib
7- up
9:45- sleep
11:00- wake
1:45- try to get her to go to sleep, she doesn't really cry, just plays and plays in crib
3:15- give up and get her out of her crib
5:45- in crib
6- sleep

The first night this happened she woke up at the 40 minute mark and I had to shh/pat her back to sleep and she woke one more time during the night.  Tonight was the second night this happened and I haven't heard a peep from her since she went to sleep.

Where do I go from here??

[Ydnic]

sorayas mom - IMO, months 10 & 11 are hard!  At our house it was a major transition, and development time, and it was a lot of trial and error to get naps in.  The best way I can describe it, was that ds was learning so much and so fast, he couldn't shut off and rest for naps.  Also, he began to need less sleep around that time, but wasn't quite ready for 1 nap.  Here is a good post by one of the mods on the faq page about months 10 & 11.

<https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0>

Have you experimented with different A times after a short AM nap?  If you shorten the AM nap, the A time before the PM nap also should get shortened.  Every lo is different, but the rule of thumb is:

20 minutes = 2 hour A time
30 minutes = 3 hour A time 
(you get the picture)

How about it everyone, am I giving her good advice?  Feel free to set me straight if I'm not...   

Cindy

[NiknLily]

Hi sorayas mom.  I would just like to add to what ydnic said.  Personally what I would do on days when she is not settling for her pm nap I would give her maybe 30Min's tops playing in crib, less if you are confident that she is not going to settle at all. Get her up for maybe 30Min's perhaps give a drink and a snack, read story's, something very low key.  Then try to get her take her nap.  Hopefully she will then be tired enough to take a nap.  If you find time is ticking on and you don't want this late pm nap to effect bedtime you can just give a catnap, using the same rule of thumb Ydnic mentioned, if she naps for 30Min's she should be able to do another 2.5-3hrs A time, although at this time of day I would tend to go for a shorter A time.

So I would try this.
1.45 nap time (doesn't sleep just plays)
2.15 out of bed (low key activity)
2.45 nap time (hope she will sleep  )
3.15 wake her
5.45 in crib hopefully asleep by 6pm (nice early night to compensate for reduced nap sleep during the day)

You may have to juggle how long you let her play first nap attempt and how long you keep her up before going back for nap but hopefully you should be able to squeeze in a catnap later on.  If she will sleep in pushchair or car, you can even take her out to get to catnap.

IMO if she takes a really good morning nap over her pm nap then I would do all you can to preserve this good am nap.  That way when she needs to transition completely you can just push this morning nap later and later until it falls around midday, losing the afternoon catnap on the way.  If you start to notice her am nap get shorter I would start to extend her morning A time to get her tired enough to preserve the nap length.

[NiknLily]

Deb
Thats the worst part when they are seriously OT, there really is only so much you can do to help them.  Its really just down to them to finally take that one good nap and follow it up with a good night sleep.  I found if Lily did take a really good nap (this is very rare  ) she would follow it up with the worst night sleep ever, or would sleep sound as a pound all night and wake at 5am which buggered up the next day before it started.  My heart goes out to you, I really dread the possibility of her getting that OT again.

[Ydnic]

I'm debating on which one I dislike most.  OT or the 2 for 1 transition.   

Lo has had 1.25 hour naps for the past 3 days.  He wakes up crying can't get back to sleep and is a crankypants the rest of the day.  He also has had a cold for the past 3 days, so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.

Grrrr!

Cindy

[NiknLily]

Ydnic - Hugs for Matthew, horrible having a poorly LO.  I think tho' that OT nap's are 1hr 15mins so I would say its most likely his cold causing the short naps not OT, so hopefully as long as the short naps don't lead to OT you should be OK once the cold goes 

[MommaHolmes]

Hey New Mum - sounds like you're back in the land of the living, WELL DONE!!! So pleased to hear that your strategy with Lily has worked - 7am wake ups WOOO HOOO

We're having a wee struggle with OT at the moment too, but nothing too serious (or surprising, given the small changes over here!). My husband is on paternity leave at the mo, so he gets to deal with any NW / EW. I just have to worry about the tiny wee munchkin 
I find if we put Ollie down earlier than normal for his nap then he sleeps a bit longer, but early bedtime is getting us nowhere at the moment - he takes at least an hour to fall asleep every night these days 

[MomofRocco]

Hi ladies... I am back for more support.  It is nice to see that other moms are kindof starting to make progress.  Anyway, no matter what I do for the AM nap, he won't take it.  I have pushed it later, for 15-20 minutes.... but he won't fall asleep in th PM until 2.  Which means he is awake from 630-2 on a 15 minute nap??? No matter what time he wakes up, 630/7....  he will not go to sleep.  I aim to get him in his crib by 1015.  For weeks now, I have had to go in and get him at 11.  I bring him out... prepare lunch, feed him and back in by 12.  But he is waking after 1hr15min or shorter.  A few times he has fallen back asleep, but not usually.  Yesterday he napped from 1215-145.  What do I do?  He was asleep by 720, but awake early by 630.  Today, I thought for sure he'd be ready to take an am nap... but he played in there for 45minutes again before getting him out at 11.  He was poopy pants today though.  So we ate, and back in there at 12.  He fell asleep at 1230, and has been sleeping 1.5 now.  He will be 16 months next week.  What am I to do?  Do I feed him snack and put him down for one nap at 1130?  What if he wakes at 1230?  I am so scared to try that for fear of having to deal with a crankass all night.  Please help!