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

[M and N's Mom]

New Mum - Will your DD sleep in the stroller or car?  Could you take her out at 5:15 and let her sleep for about 10 mins and then keep her up for maybe 1h until bed?  My guess is that you would have to do this at least 3 days in a row before she started adjusting and sleeping in a bit longer in the morning.  Just an idea, can't guarantee it would work but we have tried similar things with DS in the past.

jmoran544 - For most of us on here, our LOs would start to refuse a pm nap, or not be ready until too late in the day.  So, we end up gradually shortening the am nap in order to get a good pm nap, so 45 mins, then 30 mins, then 20 mins, and eventually they can make it to just 1 nap.  As you shorten the am nap, you also need to shorten the A time between the naps as they are not as rested.  The result is that the pm nap moves closer to mid-day where you ultimately want the 1 nap to fall anyway.  HTH.

[NiknLily]

M & N's mom - No, she wont sleep in pushchair (too nosy!) or the car, unless the situation is just right and she is just the right amount tired and has not been in car too long or too little... Shes always been the same, would only really ever sleep in bed.  I guess I could do this at home but I think for her to settle she would have to think it was bedtime and it would then seem wrong to wake her up 10Min's later, plus I would be scared stiff she wouldn't go back to sleep easily later.  In a car or pushchair would be ideal, but its just so not going to happen.

[MommaHolmes]

New mum - we were exactly where you are a couple of weeks ago. How's she doing in terms of NW and time to fall asleep for naps and bedtime now? Are you saying she's OT just cos of length of naps? What does the normal schedule look like now?

Probably the easiest thing to do is to shift her nap back by 15 mins every few days and so shift bedtime back too.

Although, I can't help but think Lily might do well if you give her longer A time in the morning as she's poss having short naps cos she's not quite tired enough when you put her down. That's what was going on with us - since stretching Ollie's A time in the morning two weeks ago, we're now on 11.5 hr+ nights, 7am wakeups and even occasional 2 hr+ naps! He now falls asleep within 5 mins for his nap and within 30 mins at night.

[NiknLily]

We are still getting a wakeup at 45min after bedtime, which always meant OT before and generally get 1 NW/night.  Normal schedule, if you can call it that is
5.40 wake
10.40 nap taking 5-10Min's to fall asleep
12.00 wake
5.15/30 bedtime, I aim for 5 but it just never seems to happen quite on time. Taking 15-20Min's to fall asleep
So we are getting between 11 & 12hrs most nights except for 2 NW's, generally it only takes 10Min's to go back to sleep but we have had a few extended ones.

Today was a bit off, she woke at 5.30 and I put her down for nap just before 11am, she woke at 11.25 then back to sleep till 12.25pm.  Was at friends this afternoon so bedtime was late.  She was asleep by 6.45pm, she hasn't woke yet but I am expecting her too at some point.

So if I start again tomorrow with 5.15 A time before nap or 11am whichever is latest then move rest of day accordingly and keep doing this every 3 days until it starts to move in right direction, is that what you did?

[MommaHolmes]

OK, so sounds like she's not *too* OT any more and she's getting a decent amount of sleep at night.

As she's done OK with an 11am nap/5.5 hrs A time in the morning today, why not stick with that tomorrow and for the next couple of days? Ollie has done better since I've gone on clock times rather than A times and fixed his nap at a particular time - I think it feels more consistent to him (which I didn't expect, given that his wakeups were all over the place!)

Initially I fixed his nap at 11am and planned to shift it 15 mins every 3-4 days. It didn't really happen like this tho, cos we were still getting loads of NW, erratic wakeup times and short naps so he didn't really settle into that routine. When I jumped his nap back to 12pm, then we started making some progress as I kept his bedtime at 5:30 and he finally started catching up his sleep as it was the pm A times that were the problem (think he was more OT than Lily is now tho).

Sooo, we got into routine that was 5:30am wake, 12-1:30pm nap, 5:30pm bed, asleep by 6.
I then shifted his nap to 12:15 and his bedtime to 5:45, expecting that it would all just shuffle on a bit. But no! What actually happened was that he took a long time to get to sleep that night, finally going off at 7:20pm, and then he slept through until 6:45! Since then, we've been on a 6:45-7am wake, 1-2:30 nap (or even 3:20 as it was yesterday!), 6:45 bed and asleep by 7:15.

In the end, we've not gradually shifted, but just made a jump back into the land of the living! I'm amazed that it happened like that but it seems it is possible 
Maybe it's too early to be doing a victory march, but we've not had a wakeup before 6:15 for almost a week (before that, we'd only had one AFTER 6:15 in almost two weeks!) and his naps are consistently 1.5hrs or more.

[NiknLily]

Just had a minor NW, settled very quickly.

Will do as you suggest and keep at 5.5hrs A time or 11am see what happens for a few days.

Thanks, your support has been priceless through this 

[MommaHolmes]

Got my fingers crossed for you!
We had our third 7am wakeup in a row this morning, so there is light at the end of the tunnel - hang in there!
x

[NiknLily]

Well, we only had the 1 NW last night at 9.30pm.  She woke at 5.30 as usual but I was able to get her to go back to sleep until about 6.30  So she has gone down at 12pm today for her nap.  Even if we only get 1.15hrs thats still a huge improvement, that will make bedtime 6.15, wicked, lets hope it keeps going this way and doesn't just revert straight back tomorrow 

[MommaHolmes]

Yay Lily!! Hope nap was good and bedtime has gone OK.
We had a 1h45min nap today so am really getting convinced that we have successfully transitioned finally - thank the lord!

[NiknLily]

Way to go Ollie, can you let Lily in on the secret please

She had a chronic 45min nap, has been super mega grumpy all afternoon, has got such a sore bottom, her poops are taking the skin off and she must of done 4 just this afternoon she must be teething again.  Tried for a catnap this afternoon as she was yawning and rubbing her eyes by 4pm, no chance  then I really don't know what happened, time just slipped away, her quick 10min dinner took 30Min's and before I knew it it was 6pm, so didn't end up getting to bed till 6.30pm 

Lord only knows what tonight and tomorrow will bring 

[OliverRowland]

mommaholmes, 7am...that is fabulous!  what time is Ollie going to bed at night now?

[tanyanz]

Hi

I switched my son on to one nap about a month ago after trying to shorten the am nap with hopes of a regular pm nap, plus some day's of one naps (refused morning or afternoon nap) & taking 4-4.5hrs of A time -he will be 14mths in a week.   The one nap can still be somewhat random in length (one to 2.5 hrs) average is 1.5hrs.

He is an early riser (has been for some time) anytime between 5-5.40am, since he went to one nap I have been putting him down for the night at 5pm (trying to avoid OT) & he is usually asleep within 40mins.

I would really like to adjust his day so he wakes around 6-6.30am and ends the day at 6-6.30pm, I have tried over the past 2 days putting him down a bit later @ 5.20pm & asleep by 6pm - but this has resulted in very very early wake up @ 4.45am?! 

Routine:
Wake 5.30am
Put Down @ 10.30am
Asleep @ 11.15am
Sleep for 1.5hrs
Awake @ 12.45pm
Bed @ 5pm
Asleep @ 5.45pm

Generally sleeps very well at night unless teething or ill.
I am wondering if I should persist with the slightly later to bed strategy & limit day sleep to 2hrs to see if this will cause him to sleep in a bit longer?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Tanya

[MommaHolmes]

Booo Lily  That sucks. Maybe go back to the 11am nap tomorrow and see if she sleeps any better. Does sound like she's got something else going on with sore bum etc.

OliverRowland - Ollie's going to bed at around 6:45 at the moment. Took him over an hour to get to sleep tonight tho, but I'm hoping that's just cos he had a longer nap and I didn't adjust his bedtime.

[MommaHolmes]

Tanyanz - does he really take 45 mins to get to sleep for his nap? My LO has always taken a long time to fall asleep at night but usually if I time the naps right it's at most 10 mins.

When you shifted his bedtime back, had you also shifted his nap back so that he was waking up a little bit later in the day?

[tanyanz]

45mins to fall asleep for a nap is max - generally it's 30-40mins & sometimes he goes down in 20mins.  He use to go down very quickly when he was younger (pre standing & walking).  But 30-40mins in pretty standard naps & nighttime.

I have shifted nap time back a wee bit, trying to put him down at around 5hrs so he is asleep by 5.5-5.75hrs from waking, I tried pushing him to 6hrs or just over 6hrs & we ended up with a short nap.

Last night he went down at 5.45pm, asleep at 6.20pm, woke and played at 10-11pm - not crying so I left him to it (could be overtired?) & woke at 5.50am, so today will go for 11am put down & stick with the 5.45pm bedtime, unless he has a long nap in which case I was going to push it until 6-6.15pm bedtime.
Any thoughts?