17 months and no naps?

[Mrs. A]

Samir just turned 17 months (today acutally) and he seems to have decided to stop napping all of a sudden.  He hasn't taken a nap since this past Thursday and before that it was sort of hit or miss.  He's usually cheerful all day although I can definitely tell that he's ready for bed early in the evening.  He gets a solid 12 hours at night, sometimes a little longer. 

I've tried moving naptime back.  He was going down around 12.30 - 1pm and sleeping until 2.30-3, so I tried putting him down later (around 2 or 3), but it's not working. 

I read in another post that 13.5 hours is average for this age, so since he's just under that amount do I just have to accept that he's not going to nap anymore?   I really miss my Y time!!!! 

[binxyboo]

Have you ever tried an earlier nap, putting him down for around 12pm?
For a while, Riley was starting his nap at 12:30, then it crept until 1, and everything was going haywire. When I put him down earlier, he napped better and went to bed easier in the nighttime. Might be worth a shot?

[Mrs. A]

I'll give it a try.  I've noticed some tired signs around 11.30 or so, but I always sort of brushed them off because it seemed like there was no way he'd sleep.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

[Layla]

Good luck!

Do you let him "sleep in" in the morning cause it could also be that he is getting all his sleep requirements at night... in which case you might want to consider waking him around around the same time in the morning???

Toddlers do tend to go through no-nap phases. Try tiring him out in the morning & then doing a longer than usual windown routine so that he is more ready for a nap.

[Mrs. A]

I don't really let him sleep in - he's so consistent about waking at the same time every day.  It's only occasionally that he'll sleep past 7.30 and that's just when he went to bed late the night before. 

Today I'm trying putting him down earlier... so far he's still awake, but it's only been about 20 minutes.  Sometimes he takes awhile.  I'll see what I can do to try to tire him out in the mornings.  It was much easier when the weather was still nice and we could play outside.  There's only so much we can do in the house  ...

[Layla]

I know what you mean about the weather. Some things we did in winter (and still do when its crazy hot) is let them jump up and down on mummy's bed. I also put the music on and let them dance around. We play chase with each other... just running in and out of rooms and around the living room. We also take the coushins off the couch & put them on the floor & the girls will jump from one coushin to the next.... all these things exert energy. 20-30mins is just about all they need sometimes of exercise... about an hour before they nap (in my opinion)

Good luck with the nap today!
Layla

[newmaze]

just lurking...
but I love those ideas about inside winter tips layla!  We do those, but I should implement them more regularly before naptime.  Maybe that will help with my 1 nap disaster

[Mrs. A]

well, we were not successful today.  I let him stay in the crib for a little over an hour.  He didn't cry at all but it was obvious from the noises that were coming from the monitor that he was not going to sleep.  I think had I tried again later in the afternoon he might have fallen asleep, but unfortunately we were out and about and by the time we got home it was almost dinner time, so I just waited until bedtime. 

Thanks for the indoor exercise tips!  I'll be putting them to use for sure! 

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow

[Mrs. A]

So here's the update for today: no luck. 

I did notice yesterday morning that his wakeup time was later than normal, so he'd gotten a total of 13 hours!  No wonder he's not napping.  I'm going to be keeping track and seeing if this is what he gets every night.  I honestly didn't think I'd been letting him sleep in, but maybe I have.  I don't get up before him, I just sort of use him as my alarm clock  , especially since being pregnant I want all the sleep I can get!  So I'm going to observe and perhaps drag myself out of bed at 7 so that I can get him up a little earlier. 

I also thought of putting him to bed later (at 8pm instead of 7), but I almost don't want to because I really enjoy my evenings with my Y time.  I tend to use nap times to get things done around the house, but my evenings are more for relaxing, so if I have to choose one or the other, I'd rather settle for no naps.   

[Layla]

Lisa, I know what you mean about Y time, lol. My 2.75yo has not napped for 3 weeks so having her in bed by 6.30pm is a bliss & I get to then have a bit of quiet time with dd2 before she's off to bed & everyone is done by 7pm  . So I would probably try waking him up earlier to bring the nap back (if you want to, that is). I do think he is a little young to be awake all day so I would try at least 1hr nap... the av is about 1.5-2hrs but it would mean that you have to wake him up around 6.30pm . Once the nap is back you could try shifting his nap & bedtime about 15-20mins every couple of days so that he starts waking around 7am ish

Good luck
Layla

[Mrs. A]

YAY!  Success today!    Finally! 

He's been waking up early on his own over the past couple days and today he finally went down for a 2 hour nap.  I put him down early and also tried to do some high energy activities beforehand like you suggested. 

Tonight he went to bed later - I was aiming for 7.30, but it ended up being closer to 8 because he wanted to play with DH when he came home from work.  I really think after observing his night time sleep and reading the advice you gave me that the problem has been too much sleep at night.  I'm hoping to move bedtime back and keep his normal wakeup time (7am).  I'm just not ready for a baby who doesn't nap.  Especially with #2 on the way! 

Keep fingers crossed for me that this continues to go well!!

[Layla]

Thats great to hear!!!!! Fingers & everything else crossed for you!