Nap for 31 month old?

[Nickie18]

My DS is now 31 months. was refusing nap there for a while, but started back again. However, usually will not nap until 3 or 3:30pm and then we do a later BT around 8:30pm, though he still wakes at 6 or 6:30 am! He always woke early, but not sure if we are doing this right... We wake him from nap around 5 pm most times- not sure how much he would sleep if we left him- too scared to find out.

Question is- should we try to put him down for nap earlier and see what happens? What bed time? 8pm?

Or should we let him go down at 3 or so and then wake him up earlier from nap, maybe after 1h15 min and get an earlier bedtime?

he is soooo grumpy without a nap and groggy after wakign him at 5pm- What to do?

Thanks!

[nevinsmama]

Hi there! Ah yes, isn't 1-0 a hoot? DD is pretty much over napping and it younger than your DS! Yikes! Yay for quiet time though. But yes, I would cut that nap right back ( No more than an hour) and see if that helps the night sleep. We had a similar situation with the nap getting later and later and while her nights were about the same, it just took her forever to go to sleep and would get bored and aggravated. Maybe try 1 hour nap for a while and see what you get? When waking, I found if nap was shorter she was not such a nightmare, otherwise I would be ready with food and anything he REALLY likes to help him wake up. We did a bit of the only TV show she likes and it helped. I found that lots of outdoor physical exercise could help with getting to nap at a more normal time. What do you think?

[Nickie18]

He's very active so that does help and goes to day care "school" three half days a week... We put him down at 2:30pm now and he seems ot be ok. My hubbie was letting him sleep for 2 hours! So, we will try capping the nap now.

We will try to keep nap as long as possible. It is our only sanity