Support for dropping the last nap age 2-3 yrs

[donvitol]

DS 2 1/2 years old current schedule is wake around 6:30, put down at 12:45 (used to be asleep by 1) bedtime 7:30.

Has been refusing naps lately, will be in his bed for 45 minutes talking to himself and singing, not acting tired at all.  If I cave and give him a paci, he will usually go to sleep.  We don't normally use this, but if the alternative is no nap...
Takes a while to go to sleep at night too.  Bedtime used to be 8:00, but moved to 7:30 since it is taking him about 45 min. to fall asleep. 

So my question- does changing the time of nap help them take one?  If I put him down 1/2 hour later would he be tired enough to take a nap? 

[katemom]

I'm in a similar situation - dd is almost 3, and has increased the frequently lately of her no-nap days.  She handles the day fine, and I put her to bed earlier to compensate, so I figured she was just moving on up.  (waaa!)  But it's been 3 days in a row now of no naps, and I'm wondering why all of the sudden it's so abrupt?  We'll see what happens, but I'd love to hear from anyone who's going through this or has it behind them?  As for the previous post, I don't think putting down for a nap later would work for us, because that would put the wake-up time too close to bedtime, so there isn't really room for an extension of when naptime is.  We are already at 6-6.5 hours of A time to when I put her in the crib, and then if she's going to fall asleep, it takes anywhere up to 30 minutes, but if she goes longer than that, I know she won't be sleeping.

Question about sleep totals - when they are no longer having naps, how long should they sleep at night?  I can only get 11 hours out of her, and I'm wondering if that is okay?  I thought it was supposed to me more.  (I do put her to bed one hour earlier when she doesn't nap, because her naps were usually 1 hour, but do I need to put her down even earlier?) 

Thanks for any input!

katemom

[Mama2boys]

Hi Kate's mom, we are sort of where you are and its all a bit irratic. But yesterday was one of those days when DS would not nap but fell asleep in the car on the way to the library at 3:15...for a short 30 mins and did not go down for the night till 9! depsite trying form 7:15....so yes a later nap will need a clear A time post nap, but maybe the nap could be much shorter as this resulte din him sleep for 10.25hrs which is an all time rare for us! normally he is 9.5 hr night

[donvitol]

My DS only sleeps 11 at night when he doesn't nap.  I put him down at 7 , he is asleep by 7:30 and up at 6:30.  One night he slept 11 1/2 hours!  Maybe it is something they build up to?

[Hester]

So, Ian is not napping anymore, most of the time . But we have NW galore. And he's screaming like crazy in the night, not to be comforted. Very frustrating! I am guessing it's from bad dreams, but I'm wondering if that is part of the OT. Any ideas? If he naps longer than 45 minutes, bedtime goes to at least 10 pm, if 45 minutes or shorter, bedtimes moves to 9 pm...

Do you think he needs an earlier bedtime to catch up? Right now bedtime is 7.30 asleep by 8pm. Maybe I should make thet 6.30 asleep by 7pm? I'll try that tonight, I am just thinking out loud here...

The sleeptotals are in the book Raising Your Spirited Child, I'll see if I can dig that one up and will let you know!

Anyway good luck to all!!!

[katemom]

Hester - I have an Ian too (15 months)...so, I love the name!  Let us know how the early bedtime works out.  I would agree that when you've got NW, it's probably OT, so an earlier bedtime would be good to try for a few days and see if it helps.

I spoke too soon on my dd (almost 3) handling the days without naps okay.  On the third consecutive day of no naps, she lost it.  So, I don't really know where to go from here...I just felt bad for her today, like she didn't have the control she needed to cope with very ordinary things...hopefully she'll nap tomorrow.

katemom

[donvitol]

Don't know if I should just let DS not nap?  he takes so long to fall alseep, yesterday was an hour and a half.  He finally fell asleep at 9, but woke up at 6

[heidiruthie]

wow, what a difficult transition this is for everyone! this makes me feel better since i thought for awhile that my lo was the only one struggling with it.

katemom: i find that the 3rd day is the meltdown day here too. he can be doing just fine all day and i'll think "ok so we're done napping, but he's handling it fine" and then by the third day it seems like it all just catches up with him and he is a MESS! cries at the drop of a hat, refuses to obey....he's basically in timeout all day which is no fun for either of us!

the only way he'll take a nap these days is in the car. so every 3rd day or so i'll let him sleep in the car and he actually transfers to the couch! (never used to) the problem is, no matter how early in the day or how short the nap is, he always has such a hard time falling asleep at night. and then he only sleeps EIGHT HOURS AT NIGHT!!! like clockwork

this can't be enough sleep for a 2.5 year old? its barely enough sleep for me!

on the days that he doesn't nap, he sleeps 10 hours at night. with a 7pm bedtime, that means he's up at 5am. if we try putting him to bed any later, we have pre-bedtime meltdowns and NW's. we've tried putting him to bed at 6 and yep, he's up at 4!

i'm beside myself, but praying that his night sleep will slowly extend to 11 or 12 hours...he NEEDS it! (and i do too)

[lastcall]

Hi girls,
My DD is a 26mts textbook toddler. She has been always a good sleeper but now we are facing refusing napping, EW, NW, etc.
At nursery she refuses to sleep all together while home she manages to sleep sometimes even for 2hrs. I figured that she is happy to go down at 13pm while at nursery they all go at 12 and it´s too early.
How do I fix this as I can´t change the nursery´s routine? Shall I send her gradually to bed a bit earlier so waking up earlier she will be ready to go at 12:00??
At nursery they are not very cooperatiove but this is another chapter :-((
Routine¨
07:00/ 07:30 awake
08:00 breakfast
09:30 snack
11:30 lunch
12:00 ( use to be nap)
15:00 snack
18:00 dinner
19:30 used to be bed time ( 06:30 when she skippes nap with consequences of frequent NW)

Your opinion counts.....thanks :-)))

[lastcall]

I forgot the most important thing: On Sat 24th our clock will go one hour back. It´s a disaster for our problem. Pls give us some suggestions

[deckchariot]

My hunch is that because she doesn't take naps at nursery, the long 2 hr nap is making up for that.  If you want to try to even out things, I would gradually shift her day so she goes to bed earlier and wakes earlier so that she'll take a nap at nursery.  Also, the "average" nap at that age is 1.5 hrs, so too many 2 hrs naps will also mess things up.  "average" night sleep is 10.75 hrs.

hth
michelle

[lastcall]

I usually wake her up after 1,5 not to mess the night sleep but when she does not sleep at nursery I let her sleep 2 hrs to make up to loss. My idea is also to shift her day but I am scared about what is gona happen in 2 weeks with the tome change. Will it be correct to move 10 min earlier everyday?

[deckchariot]

10 min a day is a great plan.  In terms of the time change, I've found that we mums stress way too much over that and most kids adjust themselves in a day or two.  So I'd just go with your plan to shift the day and things with the time change will sort themselves out.  Fall is going back an hour, right?  So it actually will help you as she'll wake earlier, which is what you're aiming for anyway.

[Mia & Scarlett's Mummy]

Oh it's so reassuring reading this thread and to know other mums are ging through something similar to me!  dd2 is 27 months and is having ew (it's currently 5.53 am and we've been up since 5am!) She woke up crying and saying she was tired but after 20 minutes of crying I got her up so as not to wake dd1 (who sleeps for England!).

My theory is with dd2 is that she is at the awkward transitional stage of dropping her nap but not being able to add her lost nap time sleep onto her nightime sleep just yet.  She's slept for 10 hours solid (was 11 the night before) but is having issues extending her nightime sleep.

Does anyone else kwim?

[RACHPEM]

we are having issues over here too.  Maya is 32 months and we cut her nap back to an hr around 6-8 wks ago and it was working great , now we are back to mulitple nw and ew again! waking at 5.30 so she is shattered by 11.  I am not sure what is going on she seems like she still needs it even though it could be the reason we are hving problems!! Confusing. Undecided whether to go for a later bt and keep the nap or go cold turkey and drop the nap and hope that after a few days she will extend her nt sleep! oh the joys.