Support for dropping the last nap age 2-3 yrs

[Bryony]

LOL since Enfys has NEVER slept in her buggy, I don't know!  I take it you can't just make her walk? 

LOL!   Isn't it funny how different they all are?

Not if it's long way or if we are in a hurry - to walk to our local shops (which we do most days) it's just over a mile. She CAN walk it - but it takes forever.... If it's not raining we go on the bike but if it's wet I end up bunging her in the buggy ....

BTW Sarah I keep meaning to ask you which part of Wales you are in?

[marcimommy]

Hi ladies! I think I need to join this group too as Marcello decided to not nap at the daycare anymore. He will nap no problem at home and Saturday is his catch up day. He used to go to sleep like 9:30-ish when he napped and now he's asleep in about 5 seconds latest at 8:10 p.m. He is cranky in the evenings and it is hard on us, but otherwise he's doing great. He sleeps like 12 hours at night which he has never done before. It is so assuring to see though that other LO's do that too and we are not the only ones LOL

[RACHPEM]

Thought I would drop in here for some ideas.  Maya has never been on the high end of sleep although have still not worked out if this is OT, or low on sleep needs at she is 2.5!!!! Anyway we have had brief periods where she has slept ok then we start with the EW again she mainly wakes between 4.50-5.30.  She was taking a 2 hrs nap and we have just cut this back incase this was the prob, however we are stil getting ew although 2 mornings i have managed to get her back of so maybe this is the key?  she starts getting tired aroun 11.30 and very often falls asleep in the car if we are on our way back from somewhere and I have difficulty waking her from her nap even when she was doing 2hrs  so i am sure she still needs a nap just not sure when, how long etc any tips would be great! she is really only doing around 9.5 hrs at nt which seems low to me as i need more!
Rachael

[Mama2boys]

Rachael,

i could have written your post. DS is doing exactly the same, we nap for 1.5 hrs in the afternoon and he is out in 5 minutes but nights take 30-40 mins he slepes between 8-8:30 and is up between 5-5:30,,,i just cant take more of this so all ideas appreciated. Not sure he is ready to give up his nap as yet as he gets very very tired and sleepy and will sleep with food in his mouth at the table if past noon.

Mukta

[katemom]

Hi all, I am no expert here by any means, but I wanted to reply to Rachael and Mukta that we have ridden out occasional weird patterns similar to what you describe...have you tried putting them down for their nap earlier and still limiting the length?  If you can get them to fall asleep earlier in the day, then you have a bit more awake time before bed.  My 2.5 year old gets into little OT early waking routines now and again, and she's usually making a learning leap, or just whatever, and it corrects after consecutive days of getting her down a bit earlier for nap, limiting the length of the nap (in our case 1 hour to 1:30 max)...and then keep them active in the afternoon to tire them out a bit.  I don't know if that will help in your situation, but thought I'd suggest it...(I also think that short nights accumulate into OT, so then you do have to back off on the A times before naptime for that reason).

katemom

[RACHPEM]

Hi Katemom, thanks for your input it is greatly appreciated.  I try to get Maya down for her nap around 12pm, and tbh she is more than ready at this time, sometimes she is ready at 11.30 so not sure if we could go any earlier as then that would leave a lot of time after nap and tbh i still cant work out if she works better with a longer a time before bed or shorter, still a guessing game here prob always will be lol! so noe we are doing a 1.5 hr nap with bt at 7.30, this gives a 5.30 wake up , im starting to just accept 5.30, at least its better than 4.30 which we did for a long time. Thanks again xx

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

LOL Bryony, I guess you can't make her walk a mile!  For some reason, I guessed that since you lived in the city, that you were going short distances, not an actual mile.  Sorry.  We live on the Pembrokeshire/Carmarthenshire border, so west Wales.  The foggy part

I really don't know what to say about Enfys anymore.  If she's home with me (three days a week) she'll nap fine.  If she's at MIL's or nursery (the other four days) she won't.  She seems fine either way but by the end of the week she's EWing again. Part of the problem is MIL and DH don't believe she needs a nap.  Well, that's actually the whole problem as most days I think they don't even put her for a nap and then lie about it. 

[RACHPEM]

What is it with dh and mil's? mine are both the same "she does not need a nap" or the classic "put her to bed later!" drives me insane. 

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

If I hear one more time that DH and his sister used to just fall asleep on the sofa when they were tired I think I might scream. 

[marcimommy]

Marcello is totally messed up :-( Some days he would nap some days he won't. but lately he fights sleep like crazy. We went through this last year at about the same time. I have no idea what this is but probably something developmental. I remember last year it took us about 3 months to get back on a good routine. I think this is the way he reuces sleep but I hate that it has to take several months of mess before he settles into a new routine :-(

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Yeah why doesn't he just change his routine already!?!  I certainly hope it doesn't take you as long as last year; hopefully once he settles back to daycare he'll be okay. 

[heidiruthie]

hello, may i join this bandwagon as well?

first of all sarah: LOL re. the mil comment about falling asleep on the sofa! my mil made a very similar comment just last week re. my 3 month old: "WHAT??!! you're putting him down for a nap AGAIN??!! when MY kids were babies....."yada yada yada....

anyhow.... ds1 is 2 years 8 mos and hasn't napped in the past few days. for the past month he's taken FOREVER to fall asleep both for naps and bedtime, then he suddenly just wouldn't nap at all. the problem is, he only gets about 10 hours at night, his nights haven't lengthened at all yet without the nap. 7:30-5:30 is pretty normal for us. does anyone know if he will begin to sleep in (fervently hoping so) or are we stuck with an OT toddler who cries for no reason whatsoever at the drop of a hat these days?

today i even tried laying in bed with him a full 2 hours after his initial nap time. he got sort of frantic about it and refused to lay down. we've tried "quiet time" which is sort of a joke...baby's room right across the hall from his and he is anything but quiet!

any insights would be appreciated. oh, and *waving hi* to bryony & mutka & CONGRATS, mutka on expecting number 2, how exciting!!

[heidiruthie]

so sorry MUKTA! spelled your name wrong

[Mama2boys]

Thanks heidi.

And thanks Kate's mom, trie dthe eralier nap time, no go, he says his eyes are hurting and still won't sleep, wants to do everything but sleep....exhausting for all involved.

the nanny ha staken him out for a walks so hoping he will fall asleep in the pushchair for a bit.

lats night we started bedtime at 7:30 and he did not sleep till 9, today will start and 7 and see...
I am so disliking this phase!!!!!
what are my choices here? do I just live with this changed routine or what?

problem is IL's are visting and they will probably be very angry at me if he is in bed at 7 as they wont get time to hang out about him, but the only ones who will suffer will be me and him...if he does not sleep on time!

[marcimommy]

Update: M has napped 4 days out of 5 this week so far. The downside is that he was up 6:30 on Wednesday and Thursday and 7:00 today. I can live with that though. Bedtime has gotten better too. (I hope I didn't just jinx it LOL) He was asleep by 8:30 all days this week, which is pretty good for him.