Time to Drop to One Nap?

[c2coldsteel06]

Hi there!

Our LO is 14-months-old and has been sleep trained since he was 4-months-old, after we transitioned him from his Snoo. He did amazing. We did Ferber, and he cried a bit, but mostly whined and we had a pretty great sleeper after that, which is great, because he was not getting any sleep prior.

Last week my mom came to visit and she left yesterday. Since she came our LO was waking up every hour at night and. Feeding to be rocked to sleep for all naps and at night. This was not like him at all. We chalked it up to teething, because he struggles with sleep while teething and he had two teeth coming in. But he doesn't seem to be in pain anymore, and motrin isn't working. Usually, he goes right back to putting himself to sleep after his teeth come through, no additional sleep training required. He soothes by sucking his thumb and he has a stuffed animal he snuggles. But now, he still won't fo down without being rocked and today he fought me on his second nap and woke up after 30 minutes. Is it too early to drop to one nap? He struggles to make it to his first nap most days.

His current schedule is (supposed to be)"

7:00 a.m. - wake up
10:30 a.m. - first nap
11:30 a.m. - wake from first nap
3:00 p.m. - second nap
4:00 p.m. - wake from second nap
8:00 p.m. bedtime

He spends 45 minutes to an hour playing with us in his room before bedtime and we've had a solid routine since 4 months, so I'm at a total loss.

I appreciate your advice!

 

[stageandgrace]

@c2coldsteel06 I’d try moving to 1 nap! Try it out on the weekend when you’re going to be home for the day. You’ve definitely maxed out 2 naps and he’s probably got a lot of sleep debt by now. They sleep more on 1 nap so it should allow him to catch up after a week or so.

We literally tried 1 nap for the first time today and I was shocked at how well my LO went.. His 13.5months old and we did 4hours this morning then he napped for 2.5hrs and he did 5 hours this afternoon before bed. 4/5. Eventually we’ll stretch it to 4.5/5. But So far so good!! His DWT is 7:30-8am and goes to bed at 8pm. Tonight he went to bed at 7:15pm. I was so scared to give it a go but I’m so glad I just tried it to see how he went.

We had a slightly different situation to yours though. My son is high sleep needs so maxing out 2 naps wasn’t an option for us without him being super grumpy. He sleeps ~14hrs per day and doesn’t do well on much less. So he was doing 3/3.5/3.5 on 2 naps but started fighting the second nap and waking up earlier and earlier in the mornings, so I thought stuff it I’m going to give it a go! And today went really well so no regrets!

Hopefully this is your push to just give it a go and see what happens if it doesn’t work after a day or a few days just go back to 2 naps

 

[trivalee]

@c2coldsteel06 Try to push the first nap to 11am and see how it goes. If necessary give baby a tiny bridge nap as soon as they will accept it. Then move to 11:30am.

Another option is to just accept sleep will reduce in volume as they get ready for one nap and make bedtime 30 minutes later.

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@trivalee Thank you! Sorry, by bridge nap, do you mean for the second nap? Just give him a short nap to hold him over until bedtime until he can drop it completely?

 

[trivalee]

@c2coldsteel06 Yes exactly, just a tiny nap to make it to bedtime.

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@trivalee Thank you so much! I appreciate your advice. I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes. I hope longer Wake windows help him. Poor angel is so sad and so sleepy. Have you ever heard of fear of the dark kicking in at this age? I'm wondering if I should add a nightlight.

 

[superselcer]

@c2coldsteel06 It might be time. We transitioned to 1 nap around 13-14 months. It took a few weeks to settle. Her 1st nap used to start at 1030am. Every 3 days or so we'd push the nap back 15mins. For a bit, she'd only nap 30mins-1hr and couldnt handle a longer 2nd ww, so ger bedtime got moved to 630pm.

When she settled to 1 nap, her ww is 5/6.

7am wake up
12-2pm nap
8pm bedtime

Right now at 15months, she got 4 teeth coming in so sleep is messed up again, but we still stick with ww 5/6. We just move bedtime up to 7-730pm depending on her nap

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@superselcer Did she do okay with the 6:30 bedtime. I worry about our LO doing an early bedtime because right now he goes down at 8:00.

Ugh, four teeth. I feel for you!

 

[superselcer]

@c2coldsteel06 Yea, I think she was pretty tired so she still slept until 7am. She did co sleep with us a bit during that time since she got used to it during our trip. Once she settled onto 1 nap, we did a mini retraining to get her to sleep by herself again. Took maybe a day.

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@superselcer Did she stand and cry nonstop, shaking, and bouncing on her bed? Because I tried to do some retraining last night and my heart broke. He seems scared in there

 

[superselcer]

@c2coldsteel06 Not the shaking or bouncing. She just stood up and cried. Yea, its pretty hard to bear. I only did it when I knew she was teething or having any other issues.

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@superselcer Ugh, I'm not sure why he's so upset in there. I'm wondering if I should put a nightlight in there. I've never seen him so upset. He settles as soon as I pick him up, he falls right asleep in my arms. But the shaking is what hurts my heart. So I caved and picked him up, hoping the schedule change today may help. I appreciate you so much! It's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.

Today, I'm trying this schedule:
7:00 a.m. - Wake
11:15 a.m. - Nap
1:30 p.m. - Wake
6:45 p.m. Bedtime

We will see if it helps. Figuring out baby schedules is a full-time job, lol.

 

[superselcer]

@c2coldsteel06 Awww, i hope it gets better! Mine would settle as long as we put her in our bed, even if we aren't in it. Sometimes they're just going through a phase. Everything changes so quickly with them.

 

[ilearn]

@c2coldsteel06 Yea, I think it might be time to drop to one nap. Another thing you could try is to extend the second and third wake windows if he’s only struggling to make the first one until he can handle a longer first WW. Maybe 3.5/3.75/4.25.

 

[c2coldsteel06]

@ilearn I was thinking that, but I would have to cap his naps to under an hour or more his bedtime super late, right? I feel like I'm having trouble fitting all of his sleep in if I move his ww. Unless, like someone else said, do a short nap for the second nap to hold him over?