Lucas' sleep habits used to be so good, but for the past two months his schedule has gotten all out of whack, and I can't seem to straighten it out. He started having a really hard time falling asleep for his two daily naps, so I assumed he was making the transition to one nap. I still think that's the case.....but we just can't figure out how to get from A to B. Or in this case, from 2 to 1.
The "experts" say that the average baby drops to just 1 nap by the age of 18 months, going from 2 1.5 hour naps to 1 nap lasting about 2-3 hours. Lucas has been so textbook in his sleep habits up until now, so I feel like he has the potential to take one long nap. But how to teach him this?
He will no longer fall asleep twice in one day, so now I just need to figure out the timing of his one nap. I've been trying to keep him awake until about 12:30 or 1 at the latest, and then putting him down for his one long nap. He seems really tired by this time, but most of the time he still takes an hour to fall asleep. And then he will only sleep for one hour. I can tell it's definitely not long enough for him because he's really crabby for most of the day. Perhaps I should be putting him down even earlier? (He wakes up around 6:30 or 7am)
His other new bad habit is to fall asleep in the car. He never ever used to do this, so I'm taking it as a sign of him being overly tired. The problem is that if he falls asleep in the car, even for 5 minutes, then that's his nap for the day. He won't fall asleep in his crib after that.
So I think now the nap issue is really a timing issue. I need to figure out that golden time of putting Lucas down so that he's tired, but not overly tired. Otherwise it's going to be meltdown city for most of the day.
Trial and error - it's exhausting! Mia took a good bit of time to get her schedule figured out when she transitioned as well, but now she's predictable, for the most part. Lucas will get there too. The transitional time is the worst!
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth putting him down right away when he first starts seeming sleepy. You might have a one-nap-in-the-morning kid instead of afternoon.
ReplyDeleteYes..the transition time is the worst! I had a similar experience with Ashley, she went from 2 naps to barely taking a nap or not taking one but was soo cranky. It took her 2-3 weeks to get used to a new routine. Now we're going through the transition from 1 nap to none and it's pretty hard to predict if it's a day she needs one or not, yikes. Hang in there, the one long nap will be great!:-)
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