22mth old.... Please help me understand his sleep needs?

[creations]

You are very welcome

A couple of things to keep in mind:
- shortening the nap can work. But not for all LOs, some need that long nap and a later BT with shorter night. If he is terribly grumpy for a prolonged period after a capped nap and for several days to a week then chances are capping isn't the right route for him but it is certainly worth a shot to begin with
- try shortening the nap by small increments and don't judge results on only one or two days but across several days to a week, so 15 mins later and ending 15 mins earlier is quite a cut (30 min) in nap time in one go and could take time to adapt to.
- the effect of shorter nap plus longer A time to bed can be significant without even moving BT later.  Try not to move everything at once or it's harder to see where it is working or going wrong.
- telling him it is BT. I am all for this, sometimes they do need to be told and can respond well. It's a judgement call as it is unfair to put them down UT and still expect them to go to sleep quickly but equally they sometimes keep themselves up too long not realising they need the sleep and "telling" them can be very useful.

A few examples of how different LOs are with this nap drop:
- some LOs go from a full nap to zero rapidly at 2yo
- some have the nap capped little by little over a long period of time eventually having just a 10 min nap each day before the nap is dropped, it can be many months that they hang on to a small nap
- some do well with mostly having naps but with one NND (no nap day) thrown in every so often, say every two weeks, then once per week then increase to twice per week etc until they do all NNDs
- some need the full nap and reduce night sleep instead (this was mine. He was a MESS with a NND and a MESS with capped  naps - our night went shorter and shorter until it was 9 or even 8hrs, he then dropped his nap cold turkey over night and went to 11hr nights which over time extended to 12hr nights)

There are a variety of ways they get less sleep and it really just depends on what works well for your LO
Good luck! x

[mrsroberts4]

Just an update in case anyone else is/was reading or going through the same thing.

We put DD1 in the same room as his sister (3.5yrs old). We were worried about it as he is such a bad sleeper but it went perfectly. He sleeps better beside her and sleeps through the night.

The only problem now is that he is fighting naps and bedtime. Not fighting, but after putting him to bed he jumps, plays and laughs in his cot. I dont know if I should post this as another thread as it's a different issue, but it's really annoying.

It appears as though he is undertired, but I have no idea what to do with him. As creations mentioned above, I have tried to lessen the nap (albeit not for a week), but I cant get the sweet spot right.

Here is his schedule:

7am - wake
12pm/12.30pm - up to bed for nap... will laugh, talk, look out the window, jumps, bounces, kicks happily in his cot.
1pm/1.30pm? - Falls asleep
2pm/2.30pm - I have to go in and wake him up otherwise it will get too close to bed time.
7.30pm/8pm - start bedtime routine.
8pm/8.30pm - Close the door and he will do the same as nap time above...
9pm/9.30pm (last night 10pm!) - he falls asleep.

He sleeps through the night (apart from the odd here and there since I brought home the new baby) but it's driving me crazy!
He went without a nap cold turkey and went to bed at 6.15pm but then woke in the night presumably from overtiredness? I have no idea anymore. 

I'll post this in another thread too just incase no one reads this one anymore, but I would love to know what other people do for their 2year olds. Am I doing something wrong?

Ideally I would like him to go to bed at 7.00pm or 7.30pm, but that seems impossible.
I also don't know if me waking him up from an extremely deep sleep is the right thing to do, but I feel that if he goes any further bedtime will be 10pm or later we have a new baby so having 3 during the day is hard, I need a little me time before I go to bed too.

Thank you in advance 

[creations]

Hi - sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.  I'm struggling a bit myself at the moment (I have sciatica) and have been limited to how much time I can spend on-line.
I see you started a new thread so I'm sure you will be receiving some good support there.
x