help with serious overtiredness of 3 year old - nap dropping issue

[saltyqueen]

Please help! My almost-3-year-old daughter has been in the nap dropping phase for months. Some days she naps, some days she doesn't. But for the last week or so there have been NO naps, and it has started to take it's toll. She is clearly very overtired, and last night was the worst with repeated night wakings.

She is waking up early in the morning (between 5 and 5:30), so i've been putting her to bed at night at 5 pm. I don't feel as if I can put her in bed too much earlier, but maybe I should? How crazy would a 4PM bedtime be? Would I have a 4AM morning wake up on my hands?

Her naptime/quiet time HAS been later than is ideal because she's in preschool 3 mornings per week. So she's been going in her crib for naptime between 12:30 and 1. But each day she has refused to (or can't) nap.

Can anybody offer me some advice on what to do next? Today she doesn't have preschool so I could try to get her to nap earlier. What time, though? Any help would be appreciated because I'm starting to get really worried. It seems as if the situation is deteriorating by day and yet she won't nap!! Thank you so much for reading!

[j.and.e]

My 2yr 8month has been nap dropping 4a few months. We found in the begining we had a few EWs and wud do a few car/sofa naps to get thru to a reasonble BT. I wud not expect my ds to sleep more than 12.5hrs at nite and wud try and get him to bt btwn 6.30 and 7.30, hoping for wt btwn 6 and 7. If our day started ridiculusly early i'd do a 45min nap early afternoon. I found 2pm a gd time as my DS wud resist an early nap, and 45min at 2pm didnt tend to throw bt off. You will have to experiment, but i never do bt earlier than 6 as a 13hr nite is rare here and 11.5 to 12 much more likely. Hth xx

[katie80]

I agree with pp.  We've done early BTs *a lot* in this house; during the 2-1 and now during the 1-0.  But, lately I don't go any earlier than 6:45 pm (maybe 6:30 if she desperately needs it) and she has been coping ok.  It's just not practical to get her down any earlier and 12 hrs is about the longest night we get.

I would try for an earlier nap on non-preschool days, maybe by 30 min to an hour.  I think if you go too far off at this age, it doesn't jibe with their internal clock.  I also agree with a later, but shorter nap as well.  I've found 45 min - 1 hr between 2 and 3 pm doesn't ruin bedtime for my DD as she's just tired from no nap days and the long morning, and it does help her to have a more restful night.  Sometimes those late ones happen in the car, though, because she's too tired to get herself to sleep in her bed.