Surely this is way too early to drop her last nap?!

[Bryony]

Katie is nearly 23 months old....  and until the last week her routine has been this:

7-7:30am wake up
12:45 put down for nap - usually chat for 15-30 mins then fall asleep
14:30 I wake her to keep a sensible bedtime
20:00 bed - ususally chat for 15-30 mins then fall asleep

It was working well - no objections to napping etc...

Now in the last week, 4 times out of the last 6 she has refused to sleep when put down at 12:45 - 1ish - she's chatted for a while then got bored, calling for me and saying "No sleep, no want sleep, up!!!" etc etc.  She hasn't seemed particularly tired and genuinely did seem as though she had been just not tired. So I have got her up, and taken her for a walk mid afternoon (by which time my feeling is that she really IS tired - but she still refuses to sleep in her cot) and she's had 45min - 1hr in the buggy while we were out ....

Now with it being near freezing and/or raining every day at the moment, the taking her for a walk every day thing isn't really an option on a regular basis - and I can't ask our childminder to do this on days when I am in work.

Today I tried putting her down a lot later (13:30 instead of 12:45) to see if that helped but we had the same issue.

So it has now been three consecutive days when she's refused to nap in her cot.

Any thoughts?  Is she giving up her nap?  Do I need to resign myself to walking around in the rain every day for an hour so she can sleep in the buggy?  Or do I need to adjust the timing?

She's sleeping reaally well at night (touch wood) - better than she's ever done - which is at least something!

But from a selfish point of view, I have recently taken on some consultancy work on the basis that I would do the work on my non-work days during Katie's nap - arrghhhh!!!

If anyone has any thoughts I would be grateful for them...

Bryony

[becky1969]

I work at home too, so know how precious nap time is! Going thru my own nap frenzies right now, so totally can relate!

It doesn't sound like she's ready to drop, since she still will sleep during a buggy ride.  I'm guessing timing is off.  You may have moved it too late all at once -- so instead of moving 45 minutes later, try 15-30 minutes and see if that works first.

Also, this might sound crazy, but you may even need to try about 15 minutes *earlier*.  If 2 year molars are starting to bug her, they may be making her more tired, and so she needs and earlier nap.  In other words, she's OT by the time you're taking her in for nap so she plays and overshoots her sleep window.  My son will be 3 in 2 weeks and after over a year of 5 hour A times, he now can't do more than 4.5 before nap AND after nap.  Crazy.

[Bryony]

Thanks Becky!

I think her molars might be troubling her - she's a bit off her food (and wants loads of milk) and is chewing on her fingers a bit...

So I will need to play around with what time she goes down.

Do you have any thoughts on whether I should try earlier or later?  My feeling was that we need later - but now you have made me wonder if we need to go earlier....  hmmm...

thanks for your input, I have been totally stressing that she was dropping her nap already!

Bryony x

[abaker89]

Becky, just curious, if your son only stays awake for 4.5 hrs before and after nap, how long is his night?  13 hrs??

Aileen

[Aly Mac]

I was going to suggest what Becky said. a tad earlier.  i pushed L's nap out and we were getting 2+hr naps - unheard of. but then it got harder and harder to put her down and she had EW and NW>  i made it back to 12 (we have a 6.30 wake up) and all is good again. though bedtime is earlier

xx

[jellybabe]

Well, ds is now 28mths and since he was about 24mth he started skipping naps. He now stays up most days but does sometimes still nap if it gets to him altho I try not to as he tends to nap late (like 5 or 6pm) so I try to keep him busy. But he will then pass out easily round 8pm. I just go with whatever he needs, so if he is ok and stays up, great, if not, then I'll let him nap for just 30 min. He too will drop off in the buggy if I go out earlier in the day but he wont nap for long, also just for 30min and then he'd be awake again. He does really well on power naps; give him 10min nap and he'll go till 9pm easy!! Hence the reason I think he doesnt need to nap anymore.

[becky1969]

bryony -- it depends on what you've observed at other teething sessions.  Have you noticed her start having EWs/NWs while teething? A lot of times that's not just pain but it's OT.  So, if that typically happens once teething is in full force, I might try 15 minutes earlier for a start.  Truthfully, starting there won't hurt much: she'll just do what she's doing, and be annoying for another day!    Then, if that doesn't work, start your later experimentation.  The 45 minutes later and not napping makes me think earlier might be the key, but I can't swear to it.

aileen -- yup, 12-13 at night.  He's be an insane sleeper the last year or so.  I think he's sleeping more at 2 than he did at 1, in terms of total sleep.  I think it's because it took the whole year to work on molars. I'm not complaining! It's allowed me to work 40 hours/week just working while he sleeps!

jellybabe: your kid is showing the more typical nap dropping pattern: when they nap, it's late in the day, or if they get a little sleep in they are able to stay up way late.  My condolences on the loss of the nap! 

[Bryony]

Thanks Becky...

Today put her down at 1pm (ie after 5.5hrs A time - she usually does 6 hrs in the AM) - she chatted for 45 mins then slept for 45 mins - which is still pretty inconclusive as 45ers can mean either OT or UT in our house - but my feeling is that it's UT ....  will try 1pm for the next few days (I need to give the childminder a clear rule to go with on my work days) and then try later if we are still getting all sorts of shennanigins!

agghhh

Bryony