a question about afternoon nap and bedtime

[lisanicole]

hi, can anyone can tell me what they have found with their toddler's nap time moving later in the day and how this affects the time your toddler goes to bed at night. my boy is 17 months and gradually his nap has moved from 11.00am to 12. as it gets later and later does the nap get shorter so bed time is still a reasonable time? he sleeps 2 hours at the moment and is in bed at night by 7.30pm.  when he goes down for an afternoon nap at 1 or 2pm should his nap be a short one or does it not make any difference to bed time as he would have had the same amount of 'up' time over the whole day. I know I wont have to worry about this for a while, but I was just wondering what others have found. thank you

[Emami]

I think a lot depends on the LO as some like the long nap and don't respond well to capping, and others need the shorter nap so that they get a longer night.  My personal experience was that at first when the nap got later I didn't have to change BT, but once DD started messing around or not settling I shifted it later. Between 18 months to 24 months BT went from 6:30 to 8 but I didn't cap the nap (she went to one nap at 12 months and I didn't have to change anything for a while).  Since she turned 2 I've had to start capping otherwise BT would be too late, and she's dropping the nap now anyway.  You might find it's a case of trial and error to see what works for you as he gets older.  Hope that helps!

[creations]

some like the long nap and don't respond well to capping

This.
Here nap went as late as 2 - 4pm with 8pm BT and 6.30am WU (2hr nap 10.5hr night), on the surface it looks like mega long first A with too short second A to be able to make BT but it worked for ages. Even when nights went off track and it looked like the nap needed to be capped or have some no nap days we tried a few things but never got into a proper capping routine he just needed that long nap. Then suddenly one day he stopped napping altogether and that was that.
They are all hugely different as toddlers. The good news is there's always someone here to give ideas when the difficulties arise!

[lisanicole]

thank you for your replies. it's really interesting to see how you dealt with naps time getting later. like you say, we will figure it out as we go. I think my LO is needing more A time in the a.m (not sure yet), but the last couple days he hasn't wanted to go down at 12 - with up time of 6.50am (v  late, v unusual for him!) and 6.30 a.m (nearer 6 - more like it!). it's not like him to make a fuss at all about going to bed, and he's been having a cry and not wanting me to put him down... anyway, that's what led me to wondering what I would do about night time if I started to put him down later than 12.  thanks again for your advice

[goldmom]

Wanted to let you know that we jumped from 2 naps to 1 nap at 16 months, was doing 10-11:30 and 3:30-4:15, but jumped (over just a few days) to 12-2:30/3, BT was 7:30 and basically stayed there throughout the change, but I did find that WU started moving out a little (also used to wake at 6:15 and did his first 7 WU  once we were on 1 nap). Since then we've kept the 12 pm nap and it's gradually gotten shorter without capping (now at 2 it's between 1.5-2 hours). Occasionally we'll push out his nap till a little later, but no real major changes in his BT or sleeping habits for the most part. We do have the occasional bad nap/night or two, but it's been pretty consistent for the most part.