3 year old nap getting shorter and shorter

[Alison_3]

Ben has started taking 50 minute naps.  For a while now he had been napping for at least 1.5 hours minimum.  I'm not sure what happened.  He wakes up so miserable and takes at least an hour to get going and happy again.  Does this mean he is starting to get ready to give up his nap?   I hope not! 

Just recently he has started telling me he doesn't need to take a nap.    

[Layla]

What does his schedule look like? It could be that he is getting ready to drop the nap... do you offer an earlier bedtime when he takes a short nap? Is there anything else going on that might have thrown his schedule off?

Toddlers can start giving up their naps anywhere from 2.5-4yrs. Some might not nap every other day, some still nap but it delays bedtime so parents cut the nap out altogether & some naturally reduce the nap length & those hours add onto night sleep (this is whats hapening to my 2.5yo.. who has cut her nap to 1hr av). She is good on 45mins-1hr nap but I do earlier bedtime and she usually does 11-11.5hr on those nights (whereas before it was 10.5hrs with a longer nap)

Layla

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Yes he may be getting ready to drop it. DD dropped hers 2 months short of being 3. I did try every other day but that very quickly became none for us. So I started introducing quiet time, first in her bed, didnt work, then my bed, she read books but then started asking to come into my bed at night time, something she never did so I scrapped that. Now she does quiet time on the couch with a dvd.
It took dd a good 2 months to get used to having no nap, during which we had night wakenings and early mornings despite being put to bed earlier. She has just now gone back to 12 hour nights and I had to wake her the last few mornings.

[Alison_3]

Here's what a "normal" day looks like:

6:30-  wakes up
12:30-1:00-  nap (depends if he has preschool what time he takes his nap)
He was napping for at least 1.5 hours
7:30- start bedtime routine
7:45- asleep

What do you think?  The past two days his naps were better although he continues to tell me he doesn't need a nap and cries when it's nap time.  He does fall asleep quite quickly so I know he's tired. 

Maybe it's just a phase...I didn't think he would stop napping before his 3rd b-day!

Thanks for your advice. 

[Layla]

Perhaps try not to use the word nap or sleep. My 2.5yo actually went through not napping for almost 3 weeks & alot of it came down to power struggle and having control. The minute I would mention the word nap she would also start crying and she would scream in her cot "I am not napping... I want to go to the park" through the entire nap (almost). She also would wake up at 6am & tell me as soon as she got out of the cot "I'm not napping today mummy".

I would try & introduce quiet time. Give him some books and without mentioning the word nap or sleep call it quite time instead. He might sleep & he might not. How much you want to work on quiet time is up to you.... what I mean is that some parents insist on quiet time in the baby's room, some are ok with quiet time on the couch with a video (he might dose off better this way) or you could even do quiet time with him... reading books & he might fall asleep this way.

With us I ended up doing quiet time in my bed & the 1st day that we did this she actually fell asleep (after 3 weeks of no naps). She's been taking her naps with me by her side ever since (with an exception of a few days where she actually didn't mind being in her own cot). Some don't like taking this route as the toddler can then ask for the same at night but thankfully on the odd occasion that she does ask to sleep in our bed at night I tell her that at night the bed is for mummy & daddy & we haven't had any problems or tantrums over that and she is pretty good at accepting that answer.

His routine looks good. Isabella usually wakes b/n 6-6.30... she falls asleep around 1pm (used to be 12.30pm but now taking a little longer), wakes at 2 or just before & bedtime is 7pm (but she can take up to 30mins to fall asleep)

hth
Layla