Toddler nap battle - fight the fight or accept a change?

I'm not sure what to do anymore.

For a few weeks now Noah and I have had this nap battle going on. His night time routine is the same, with the exception of going to sleep now between 7:00-7:30pm (it was previously 6:30.) He wakes every morning between 6:00am and 7:00am and starts showing signs of tiredness around 11:30am. He has his lunch and into bed he goes by noon. Some days he falls straight asleep and stays that way for about two hours. The other few days a week he talks to himself for however long I leave him in there.

Usually by 2pm I call it a day (since that's when he'd usually wake up) and take him out, but then he turns into a huge grumpy mess by 4:00pm and can't keep his eyes open past dinner time. So I know he needs the sleep. Today for example, Matt and I have plans to go out for the evening and he will be at Nana & Papas, so he needed to sleep. I was in sleep training mode for two hours; going in, laying him back down and telling him he was tired and needed to go to sleep. Just before 2pm he finally gave in.

It's been suggested to me that perhaps he just doesn't need to nap anymore, but if that was the case wouldn't he be quite happy until bedtime? I wonder if it more has to do with his active brain and being over stimulated? The no napping does seem to happen more often on days where he has had a busy morning by being out at church, playing with friends, etc. If that is the case, how do I calm him down? We do the same routine for naps as we do for bed. Diaper change, stories, cuddles, etc. In a recent chat with my husband we did bring up the fact that his Fisher Price Aquarium that attached to his crib recently died. Could not having that music be enough to keep him from sleep? Or could it be that it's too bright in his room during the day with all this sunshine lately?

*Sigh* I really don't know. But I'm hoping we find a solution quick and get this settled before the new baby shows up. If any of you have been through this and have some suggestions I am all ears!

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PS - I've been considered not posting my blog entry links on facebook once I write them as I often wonder if people feel overly bombarded with my life. I really don't want to come across as annoying! I won't be offended if people don't want to read it, since the main reason I do it is for me. But then I've had people in the past tell me that they do want to read it but wouldn't know if I didn't post the link publicly. So please, if you like that I post it on facebook let me know. Otherwise I may just avoid doing that from now on and those interested can bookmark it or subscribe :)

The later nap transition

Noah really likes his sleep. It wasn't until he was 8 months old that he really started sleeping through the night though (...and I'm sorry - I just can't consider it through the night until I am getting 7 or 8 straight hours in a row.)

Even after getting a full 12 hours of sleep and waking up around 6:30am, he was zonked and ready for bed by 9:30am. Problem was, he would sleep until maybe 11:30ish and then that was it for the day. This lead to full on melt downs by 4:00 in the afternoon and made me watch the clock tick down til my husband arrived to help me with him.

So over the past month or two we have been in the process of pushing his nap back, half an hour at a time. I am very happy to say that on average he now goes to bed around 11:30, sometimes even 12:00! He then sleeps for anywhere between two and three hours - bliss! It's especially nice for me because by that time I feel like I need some quiet down time for myself, where as at 9:30 in the morning I was usually just getting going on things.

This has also allowed us to push his bedtime back a little later. Before he was exhausted by 6:30pm and would basically go to bed right after dinner. Now we usually have a bit of time to play, have a bath or go for a walk before he goes down at 7:30.

We are heading to Hawaii very soon and I am a little curious how the three hour time change will affect him, but I'm hoping he will just be able to take naps in his stroller whenever need be and that we can stick to somewhat of a normal morning/evening schedule. We shall see.

Breaking Bad Habits

Noah has always needed us to help him fall asleep. He fell asleep fastest if we walked and rocked him to sleep. He also prefers to sleep in someones arms. If we ever tried to put him down in his bouncer he would either wake up straight away, or within 20 minutes.
Well now that hes almost 14 pounds he is just getting too big to be rocked to sleep all the time. Not only that, but I think he is now smart enough to realize that we plan to put him down as soon as he falls asleep. When we rock him he stiffens up and throws his head back and has began to wake himself up just as he would drift off and start crying.

This past week, he has also started waking up every 1.5-2 hours throughout the night and want to be held. At first we thought maybe it was just a growth spurt and he was hungry. But as soon as I went to feed him he would pass out within a minute or two in my arms.
And so, after many days of sleepless nights for me, I decided we would start sleep training and break this bad habit.

The way were doing it is putting him in his crib and checking in and calming him down at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc. I know not everyone agrees with this method as the baby ends up crying alot... but we want Noah to learn how to self soothe. And we are reassuring him every few minutes that we are still here, we love him very much and its time for him to sleep. Only once have we had to go in after the 10 minute check in. On average hes asleep in 15/20 minutes.

It is definitely not easy to do - its the hardest thing Ive ever had to do actually. I have cried multiple times over the past 24 hours because I just hate that hes crying and I want to fix it by picking him up. But that's the big no no because then they learn that you'll eventually give in. Ive had many friends and family reassure me that its okay for him to cry and that it worked well for them (thanks everyone - its been a HUGE comfort to me!!!)

Last night went really well. He went to bed at 7:00pm and woke up at 7:30am this morning. I only had to feed him every 3-5 hours and he cried for about 45 minutes in total during the night. I actually got 9 hours of sleep! Ive heard on average it takes about 4-5 days for a child to learn to go to sleep on their own, so hopefully that will be the case with Noah. We know its working already, because hes already begun to calm himself down while hes crying. As I write this, he is sleeping peacefully in his bed upstairs.

Ahhh....Lets hope the progress continues.