Cue the creepy music. There’s this horror movie that I used to love, The Ring, and the whole, “she never sleeps” line comes from that. This particular situation is pretty much equally as terrifying, from the standpoint of my entire life falling to shreds around me as I watch in stark terror. Am I being over-dramatic? Come see my house (messy) and ask Mr. T (grumpy). I think not.
She used to do this…
Now we’re seeing lots more of this
What happened at our house? Lorelei has dropped to one nap. Before she actually did it, I thought the angels would sing and the heavens would open, and my life would feel gloriously free as Ellie and Lorelei and I went on marvelous adventures based entirely around the new single-nap schedule. Instead, I’m pretty sure that there was this strange ominous music playing when she would fight the first nap of the day. I chalked it up to an overactive imagination. In reality it was nature warning me that this was going to be bad. Epically bad. Completely singing-angel-free.
We thought we’d be seeing more time for this!
So now, she naps in the afternoon from 1-3pm. Good, right? Wrong. Her 7:30 bedtime has changed into a 9pm bedtime. She wakes up at the same time in the morning as she always used to (6am). Um… that’s not really enough sleep. It is a grand total of 11 hours. She should be sleeping that much just at night. And of course I am already terrified that her brain chemistry will be forever altered in some awful sort of way from being chronically sleep deprived as a baby. Trust me when I say that that is one topic you do not want to Google if you are in this sort of a predicament. I still try to put her to sleep at 7:30, but she will have none of it. She simply isn’t tired yet. And now whoever has to stay awake with her (usually me, by choice) is generally super grumpy because several formerly productive (and sometimes even relaxing) daylight hours have just vanished like a magic trick that is in really poor taste. Like, if it really were a magic trick I would wish a painful death on that particular magician.
Assuming that this really is our new normal, I know we will eventually adjust. We might be a little more short on “free time,” and Mr. T and I might not get much time together to just enjoy one another’s company, but we will work it out. I am hoping our budget is stretchy enough to hire someone to come in and clean while I play Steve Irwin; but if it’s not, a messy house never actually killed anyone (I know this, because it was another thing I Googled!). There is also the possibility of showing Ellie pictures of all the poor children working in mines and doing other hard labor in ye olden days and telling her that we are going to play 1800s and she can do all the chores while I make sure Lorelei doesn’t launch herself off of a high surface (kidding! very kidding!). But if anyone can tell me that we will survive this, that would be great. Anyone else with me on night duty? You can come over later, but I don’t promise to be completely awake.
kiwi / 525 posts
My pair are nearly 13 months now and they dropped a nap about 11 months. Loose schedule now is wake at 8 am, nap 12-2, bed about 8.30 pm. It sounds like your lady is awake ages either side of that nap! It’s hard when the sleep goes astray… Sive slept in the car for ages this morning, and then conked out again at 5pm, so god only knows what time she’ll go down tonight for me!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
We are having the same problem at our house! Liam used to go to bed around 7-7:30 and now he protests until way too late (9 or even 10 sometimes). He naps about 2 hours during the day and usually wakes up by 7. Hope it gets better for both of us!
pomelo / 5178 posts
Haha, our kids share haircuts as well as birthdays!
DS took about a week to adjust to his one-nap schedule. Have you been on the new schedule very long? For a couple months now, mine has been sleeping 11 or more hours at night and taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon. Then, he caught roseola last week and started shortening his naps and waking up at night again. Sigh. Why do they do this to us?!
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
“So now, she naps in the afternoon from 1-3pm. Good, right? Wrong. Her 7:30 bedtime has changed into a 9pm bedtime. ”
That’s Charlie’s sleep schedule! Except he usually sleeps from 1:30-3:30, then doesn’t go to sleep until 10 pm or so. I think maybe he picked up his night owl ways from his mom and dad…
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
I love your pictures -so pretty!
blogger / apricot / 424 posts
HA I laugh out loud every single time I read your posts because it is seriously like hearing myself talk!
I hope the sleep situation improves, you certainly need some more time at night for you and your hubby and a chocolate bar…now I need a chocolate bar!
pomegranate / 3053 posts
My oldest just turn 4 and he still takes naps about 3-5 times a week. It just depends on what time he wakes up or if he voluntarily goes upstairs to brush his teeth to take a nap like today (yay!). He’s always been a good sleeper….but he does sleep REALLY late at night around 10 pm. I’d say on average he sleeps between 10-13 hours a day which is pretty good for his age, I think… I can’t remember when he dropped a nap. I think it was when babycenter suggested it whenever that is.
On the days that I “need” him to nap (b/c I need to get some things done) and he doesn’t want to. I just let him hang out in his room reading books or whatever he wants to do. As long as he does some quiet time instead of bouncing around the house like a wild animal. I forget where I read it but they say up to two hours is okay. I rarely do it but there are times when I just need a break!
My youngest just turned 14 months and is still on two naps; however, he does skip his morning nap occasionally if he wakes up late or if we have things going on and decide he just isn’t going to get one. We only do that b/c he’s not particularly cranky (still knocking on wood!!!) so we’re okay with it. He’s just a generally happy baby and we love it. Some days “he” decides he doesn’t want to nap by playing in his crib or crying. I used to stress out over it b/c I’m worried he won’t get enough sleep. Now that we have two kids I just wing it and deal with it. LOL!
I can’t say that it will get better but I am pretty good about sticking with our routine and I think that helps a lot with both of my boys. They really hate it when I change things up and let me know.
I hope it gets better for you. I think age has a lot to do with it too. When my oldest turned 4 he matured a lot in many different ways and understood that he needed rest when he’s tired.
grapefruit / 4669 posts
You will survive it! Sorry for the lack of sleep, but wow she is such a cutie!
GOLD / apricot / 341 posts
When our first went from 2 to 1 nap a day we started out with the same problem. Then we brought his nap way earlier and actually put him down for the night earlier than before and order was restored. His nap would be around 11:30 for a couple of hours. And bedtime at 7. He is also up at 6 so it just worked for us to make sure there were as many awake hours after his nap as before.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
Drake is like this in that I never feel he gets enough sleep. We put him down around 730-8ish most nights depending on how late he napped or if he napped at all and some nights I can hear him playing and talking to himself for hours. When I worked it was so stressful because I had to wake him up at 6:45 to get to work and some nights Id go to bed at 10:30 and 11 and he would still be awake or had just fallen asleep meaning he would only get 8 hours or so of sleep and be a bear to deal with in the morning. On most given days Im lucky if he gets around 10 hours of sleep. Even when I dont wake him up and he goes to bed late he rarely sleeps past 9ish at best. I have kind of accepted that for Drake a good night is around 10-11 hours and most nights its closer to 9-10 if Im lucky. At least now I stopped work and dont have to wake him but he still doesnt get enough Im sure but what can I do, I put him down but I cant make him sleep
pear / 1571 posts
OMG, I feel your pain. Except, mine is 2 and giving up her one and only nap. No, no, no, WAAAAAAAAAAAAH! And that’s going to bed 8:30-9 and waking up 5:30-6 a.m.
blogger / pear / 1964 posts
It didn’t occur to me to google chronically sleep deprived. . . I’m scared to look, but pretty sure it applies to my baby. Sigh.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo this sounds like a special kind of hell! I hope 7:30 bedtime returns soon!
And don’t forget…nothing lasts forever.
pea / 13 posts
My son did the same thing when he went down to one nap. We also moved the nap earlier in the day which helped. Now that he doesn’t nap at all, he goes to sleep easily about 7:30pm or 8:00 and wakes around 7:30am. No naps turned out to be better than one nap by far.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Haha love the pics!
My DD sleeps around 8:30-9 when she naps too. She’s 26 months old!
On non nap days she passes out by 6:30!
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
You already know that I’m right there with you with my 3 year old. You never want to hear the professionals say, “maybe she just has a lowered set point for sleep”!
grapefruit / 4923 posts
i am definitely not going to google chronic sleep deprivation for babies–it pains me to just think of what my LO’s scant daycare naps might be doing to his little neurons…
on a happier note, love the pictures.
hostess / wonderful grape / 20803 posts
@aunt pol: Been ages since I’ve seen you here – hope you and the little ones are well!!!!!!!!!!!
guest
Hi, My 16 month old just switched to 1 nap and I put her down at 11am after a 6am wakeup. She usually sleeps for about 1:30-2 hours at that time. I would try an earlier nap time so that she is tired enough by 7pm to go to sleep. At least try noon. I hear you that a super late bedtime is ROUGH on the family. Just try to shift her 15 minutes earlier each day. It should work – at her age, a 7 hour first wake time is a loooong time. She should be tired enough at about a 5 hour wake time. Try it and see if it helps. Of course I don’t have all the answers. My toddler is currently screeching in her high-chair because I am typing and not paying attention to her.
coconut / 8079 posts
your posts always make me laugh.
hope things get better soon!
kiwi / 525 posts
@winniebee: Not a bother on us:) Just busy, and lazy about reading/commenting here! Hope you’re well too!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
I’m super late to this… but I promise… you WILL survive. It won’t be pretty at times… but one day you will look around and realize you are on the other side. PROMISE.
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
Going through old posts. This is Gemma to a tee. She has always slept like this and it has always concerned me and freaked me out. Nonetheless, I have read too many books on sleep to count and finally just gave up. Around 2.5 she finally started sleeping better 8pm-5:30am (i know crazy) and 1.5-3hour nap… shes still all over the place but at least I can get her down before 9. yikes. This still is just barely enough sleep. Summer on the other hand… sleeps like a dream. temperament?