Support for dropping the last nap age 2-3 yrs

[babybarr]

Nicole - we get bedtime resistance with a nap longer than 45mins, we get out like a light with no nap (or so far anyway )

Perhaps you could do 30mins say at 2.30pm?

[*Liz*]

Nicole - I think she is OT overall but doesn't need the nap anymore either.

I think you should try some earlier bedtimes TBH as J will go 11.5-12 hrs on a no nap day now as long as the bedtime is early enough. So I usually put him down at 7.30 so he is asleep by 8, and wakes at about 6-6.30 (10-10.5 hr night). So if he doesn't nap I put him down at 6.30pm and he goes out like a light. That for us means bath at about 5.30, so that he can still have his quiet play etc afterwards. I find that doing tea early helps as well as he isn't likely to eat very well if he is already way OT.

I do get resistance - but he will usually go in for me and then just sings and chats and messes for the whole duration of the nap - or takes an hour to go to sleep at bedtime. But he doesn't tend to bother me about any of it along to way.

[~Karen~]

Just realised that there's another thread for if they're over 3 so will paste it incase anyone with an over 3 year old is going through the nap drop.

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=143708.435

[~*Nicole*~]

Well we had a crap night last night after a 1:15-3 nap. Didn't fall asleep untl 9:30/45 ish, I heard her at 1:15, 1:45, 5:45 and she was up for the day at 6:30. So OT, but stemming from UT (she's been doing this late bedtime for days now...regardless of her nap time/length or the time I try for bed). I can't do no nap today since she'll be tired from waking early for her these days, just not sure how LONG of a nap to try. I guess 30-45 mins. and then try a reasonable bedtime. (Prior, with a nap and a late bedtime she'd wake 11 hours later, so like 8:30...I haven't seen 6:30 in quite some time!)


So if I try a nap around 12:30/1 ish until only 1:30 I can try for bedtime around what, maybe 7 or so, or earlier?

[*Liz*]

She will have been UT from that nap, I agree.

What I do is 7ish hrs first A, then a one hour nap, then PD at 4.5 hrs A (asleep at 5 hrs).

I'm not great at advising on early naps as J just will not comply!! He is resisting ATM after a 12 hr night  .

I would certainly cap that nap at 1 hr unless she is sick regardless of length of night.

[sherry lynn]

Thanks Karen - perfecting time as this thread is about up

[~*Nicole*~]

Liz-Thanks. I can usually get a nap after 6 hours A, but not less. I CAN also do more as she will usually oblige as well. I'm HOPING she'll go for a shorter A to bed on the shorter nap. HOPE HOPE HOPE   DH wants to go somewhere today for a football game, which is fine, but he may be messing about with my bedtime ideas!

[saltyqueen]

I have tried earlier naps and that definitely doesn't help. For ages she was at 6 to 6.5 hours A time in the morning. Now I think that if she sleeps over 11 hours at night, that I've got to give her 7 hours A time, at least. Yesterday was a no nap day. She had woken at 6AM that morning and she was asleep last night by 5! Fortunately she slept until probably almost 5:30. So is almost 12.5 hours sleep in a day enough for a 26 month old? I don't know.

Today, I'll leave her in her crib at 12:30, so 7 hours after wake-up. I just don't know when to cap it.

Nicole Ava's mom, can you tell me what schedule your daughter keeps? I'm curious because your dd is just a couple of months older than mine. When did your nap trouble begin?

Thanks for reading!

[sherry lynn]

Karen - that other thread is not really active. Not sure I've I'm going to post on it. I did read the 5 or so pages though, hoping for some insight.

[babybarr]

Thanks Karen - perfecting time as this thread is about up

Don't worry I'll start this thread in part 2 form when we reach 30 pages

[*Liz*]

My DS is 28 mths and he has been having 12-12.5 hrs sleep in 24 hrs since at least 20 mths or so. I think it is fine as at one point it was a 10.5 hr night and a 2 hr nap - and we would all be happy with that amount of sleep at this age in that type of structure.

I know you asked Nicole but I will pops J's usual schedule up since he is the same age as well.
Awake 6.30 am
Nap 2-3pm (I wake him)
In bed 7.30pm (asleep by 8 usually)

Until recently the nap was 1.30-3pm but he stopped falling asleep then, and after a 1.5 nap he now needs 5.5 hrs to bed which was too late.

Nap capping is hard at this stage though as they get OT so easily from it.

[sherry lynn]

Hey Laura  I know, we are considering jumping over to the preschool page since are LO are a little older, but that thread really isn't active.

Liz posted when I did. I also find nap capping hard. Sometimes it seems to work wonders and sometimes it seems to cause even more trouble.

[saltyqueen]

Thanks Liz! So your son is now getting about 11.5 hours of sleep per day total, right? do you feel like that's enough for him? Thanks for posting your schedule so I have a point of reference.

My daughter refused to nap today. She slept almost 12.5 hours last night (after no nap yesterday) so that's a lot, but she wasn't willing or able to sleep when I left her in her crib after 7 hours of morning A time. Maybe I should try 7.5 hours A time if she sleeps a lot again tonight? She'll be in bed sleeping by 5PM again tonight for sure as she's been up since before 5:30 this morning.

Do you think it's possible to maintain a 12.5 hour night and no naps during the day at this age? Will it necessarily backfire over time? She's not in a good way by the end of the day; that's for sure. And she's only just 26 months old, so the idea worries me.

Thanks for your input Liz!

[~*Nicole*~]

saltyqueen-We've actually had ongoing trouble at various stages.

Back in Sept. (so 24-25 months old) for about a month or so she was doing really well and had a routine something like:
7-wake
1-3-nap
8/8:30-bed.

Then she went through a horrible phase of just refusing naps entirely, resisting bedtime until really late, etc. etc. She climbed out of her crib and we moved her to a bed and we had a long road getting back on track. Most of Oct. and Nov. sucked.

On track still ended up being a bit irregular b/c of holidays, etc. but overall we were better as she was staying in bed and napping again! So I'd say for most of Dec. we had something like:
8/8:30-wake
2/2:30-4:00-nap
9/9:30-bed (since wake time went late, I didn't mind bedtime being late and adjusted the whole day). Sometimes we were back on the Sept. routine if we skipped a nap and did early bedtime as the next day would start earlier but in general, 6 hours A to nap, and 5 hours A to bed. BUT being around the holidays, we went visiting a lot and sometimes she skipped naps and/or went to bed SUPER late (10 or 11!!!). I actually think she was rarely actually following this routine on a daily basis so when we DID get to do it, she did b/c she was catching up. Now that things are settling down, I think her real sleep needs are starting to show up.

Now I'm not sure where we are! Wake ups are earlier, nap times are irregular and the length changes, and bedtime is late no matter what time I put her into bed. If she has a long night, she seems to just not fall asleep for nap, but if she does have a nap she seems to take ages to settle at night. I have to figure out how to re-balance our day. Just seems we've had some kind of jump in A and decrease in overall sleep needed. I just have to figure out where we are.


So, yesterday for ex. we had only a 9.5 hour night and then a 1.75 min. nap. and then last night only 9 hours. So ending up only approx. 10.75-11 hours in 24....which is near Liz's DS but my DD has always needed a bit more than him.

[saltyqueen]

Yes, you're describing our situation. The trying-to-jump-out-of-the-crib behavior (which we nipped in the bud by monkeying with the design of the crib - (my husband has carpentry skills) because there was no way I was going to add BGB issues into the mix), the long nights' sleep leading to nap refusals, and the later naps leading to difficulty getting to sleep at night. My next strategy is to try an even longer morning A time (7.5 hours) but with a really short nap (say 30 to 45 minutes). I'm not sure where else to go with this?

Thanks for sharing Nicole Ava's mom!!