Support for dropping the last nap age 2-3 yrs

[*Liz*]

Not sure it will work like that for all LOs. I did the 2-1 by just stopping and going to 1 nap as well.

Just some days they are really tired aren't they?? Like when they are sick or had a very physical day?

[~Karen~]

I know some people cut down to 30 min naps before they drop it but I've found what's worked well with Ethan is still a long nap (have cut to 1.5 hours now but was still 2-2.5 hours) but only say three or four days a week.  This way as he's not napping every day he's still tired enough to go to bed at a decent time on the nap days. 

[sianie]

True Liz & it's pretty difficult to stop them falling asleep on car journeys etc!

Karen, I've read the same about cutting back to 30 mins but what makes me a bit wary is that M is already a total grump when I wake her after an hour nap so I worry what she'd be like if I had to wake her after an even shorter nap. I think if I don't just cut the nap completely, then what you do with Ethan sounds like it could work for M, she loves her naps!! Does Ethan do a similar BT whether nap or no-nap days?

[babybarr]

We did the 2-1 like you Liz, just got rid of one nap as DS was just refusing a pm nap after even a 30min am nap.  We never went back to 2 naps after that...

I

[~Karen~]

Bedtime is later on nap days but since I've cut it to 1.5 hours and he has to be up now by about 245pm to pick Amy up from school, it's not too much later.  About 730pm compared to 7pm on no nap days.

[sianie]

Thanks Karen, some more food for thought, lol!!

[sherry lynn]

Sian - I agree with the idea of the body clock. Maybe I haven't set my kid's quite enough. I've been thinking about that over the last few days.
However..... going to no nap has been even harder as some days they are just sooooo tired. This is very true for us after about the 4th day of no napping at this point. Then we start getting EW and NWings because of the OT.

The same that is working for Karen is working better for us now. We don't do a small micro nap. He naps about anywhere from 1 hour -2 hours. Sometimes a tad more (because the nap starts very early some days) and he is still going to bed at a reasonable hour. I think because his body is still tired from the no nap days.

Given his behavior today I think this kid has been up since 3 something this morning. Sigh.....

[jordiwes]

Hey all, We just dropped the nap. DD1 hasn't had a nap in about 10 days. She is a mess by 6pm, but she's getting 11 hours at night (low sleep needs) vs. 9.25 hours at night with a 1 hour nap. So more sleep in 24 hours. We haven't been able to do quiet time though, she just is too social. She does not like to play by herself. It took her about 3 weeks to adjust, we had to do a nap about every few days.

[sherry lynn]

Jordiwes - So when are you doing bedtime? We struggle with quite time here as well.

[jordiwes]

Darya wakes up any time between 6:45 and 7:45 am. Usually around 7:15. We have a fixed bedtime of 8pm, because we know she usually needs about 11 hours of sleep in 24. From 6pm until the crash at 8, it is a struggle trying to keep her from throwing tantrums. I'm hoping she'll outgrow this in the next month or two. Reminds me of when we went to 1 nap. They take a while to truly adjust but 2 nap days suck even more.

[sianie]

Good point about the OT building, I definitely want to avoid NW's & EW's (have enough of those with DS!). At the moment, M is ready to drop by lunchtime ('tho I guess this could be to do with her being used to sleeping at that time).

jordiwes - before you dropped the nap was your LO still napping every day?

[jordiwes]

Yes. Her nights had dropped to 9.25 hours of sleep and she was waking up tired. It was easy to get a nap. I got tired of her waking up tired

[sianie]

Did you just go cold turkey & drop the nap or did you alternate nap days & no nap days?

[jordiwes]

For a couple of weeks we had to do a nap every few days. But soon the nap was messing her up too much so we stopped doing that after a couple of weeks.

[Edesanja]

Jumping in here.

DD is 34months old. She takes a nap almost every day. About once every 10 days she doesn't sleep. I think she usually wakes between 630-645 but not too sure. She has a light on a timer and just lies there until 7am when she calls for us.

She naps generally between 1hr15-2hrs. I've moved her nap back to 1pm (was later but then I was having to wake her from the nap because it was getting too late and she was grouchy). Occasionally she'll only sleep 45mins, but it's like if she gets a nap of any length then she won't go to sleep at night till late.

Bed time now is 1930 (used to be 1900) and she doesn't sleep until 2030 and sometimes as late as 2100. It's not really a problem in a sense since she's just lying there with her eyes open. On days she doesn't nap we try to have her in bed before 7 (aim for earlier but bed time is just taking so long these days that sometimes it's as late as 7) and she's out like a light.

On no nap days she is a complete mess after about 5pm. Until then she does really really well.

So I think I'm really just here to see what you others are doing. I've tried some tweaking but I think what we've got is the best option for now, but I want to be prepared for when things change further.