Support for dropping the last nap age 2-3 yrs

[musicmumma]

Well after our crazy day yesterday with hardly any nap and only 10.5 hours night sleep DD went to sleep in 15 mins flat and then slept for 12 hours 7-7.
We have a big day today with a kids birthday party so any sleep she gets will be on the move.
Will be interesting to see how the day/night goes.
It was soooo nice to not have the whole arguement and struggle at bedtime and then put my feet up with a good book and hot chocolate for the evening!
Fingers crossed she goes down well tonight as we are having guests for dinner and would be nice to look like we are good parents with a good sleeping child!!!

[Sarahboosmom]

So far shifting the nap back up to 12:45 or 1 ish is helping.  Today is the third day that she's napped.  The first day we got a 2 hour nap out of her, but she stayed up chatting in her bed for nighttime until 8:30!!!!  Then second day she took an hour nap and went right to bed.  Her mood is improving too.  Today she went right to sleep for her nap and its been an hour and she is now stirring.  I think maybe her body is getting used to a short nap and a longer night hopefully.  But things are going well!  Thanks for the help!

[NiknLily]

pleased it helped :-)

[Cathy_D]

ARRRGGGHHH!!!  My excellent little sleeper has apparently decided, literally overnight, not to nap any more!

She's just 2, and until very recently she did 1 or 1.5 hours at lunchtime (starting around 12.30 or 1pm) and had a nighttime sleep from 7pm (well, in bed then ... chatting to herself till 7.30pm) and awake around 6.30am.  The last week or 2 she has had shorter lunchtime sleeps (1 hour or 45 mins) and then woken up crying. So, I wondered if she was waking up tired.  Saturday she slept 2.5 hours at lunchtime so I figured she had got a bit OT and was catching up.

Then on Sunday she slept normally at lunch, but would NOT sleep at bedtime. Screamed 'Mummy, mummy, mummy' every time I left her room. Eventually dozed off at 9.30pm after many attempts at putting her down, then having to pick her up and cuddle her at length.  I blamed teeth (think she MIGHT be starting to get her back molars, perhaps?). Then Monday lunchtime, same thing happens. But when I go into her she stops crying and starts bouncing on the bed and grinning. So I reckon she's not in pain or scared    Just unwilling to sleep.  At bedtime, it takes 30-45 minutes to get her to lie down happily .... I have to lie on the floor of her room till she falls asleep. I've been making bedtime earlier to compensate for the lack of nap but that doesn't seem to help.  And the same again today (both lunchtime and bedtime).

So, I'm very confused and really reluctant to admit that this is the end of naps ... I NEED that time  even if she doesn't   Either she's suddenly really traumatised about me leaving her (although no sign of SA at other times) or it's teeth (but I've been giving her Calpol before sleeping and that doesn't make any difference) or she just really doesn't need to sleep at lunchtime.  But if that's the case, how do we at least reinstate a happy bedtime?

Sorry for such a long post ... am tearing my hair out even after only 2 days so need some sane advice and perspective from others who have been through this. Thanks!!!

[donvitol]

my 2 year old son has started dropping his nap. He just barely turned 2, but has been doing this off and on for the last few months.  i feel like he is really young to not be taking naps everyday?  Does anyone else have a child this young not napping?  I still make him stay in his crib for a while, so he will at least rest and relax.  have moved up bedtime on the days he does not nap also.  Any suggestions?

[Hester]

Ok so we're back on naps every day. Forced naps. He was the devil on earth without them, starting to have NW and EW and got completely OT!
I did naps again with HUGE fights for a week, but I didn't care, I'd sit on him if that would take care of it.
Now after some nasty weeks, I have a napper every day again with late bedtimes at night. But the last is worth it, since he is sloooowly starting to become his normal self again and be a fun kid.

Moral of the story? You'll KNOW if they are not ready. Nasty kids!!!! NW, EW etc. If you have none of that maybe it's time to drop it...

[rinajack]

Hugh doesn't nap every day, and is fine without.  Hester is right, you will know!

[Hester]

Cathie, she might also go through a bout of growing and therefore be mixing up her naps and bedtimes. That would also explain the form of SA at bedtime. Ian went through is around his second birthday. Nothing made sense until someone pointed out to me that it could be a growth spurt. Basically it means, sing it out with loads of hugs and a more structured routine. If she naps great, if not, ok too. Then at night normal time to bed, but if she calls for you you go in and reassure. It sucks, but it is usually temporarily...

[donvitol]

posting again.  i am confused about the amount of sleep my 24 month DS needs. 
His current schdule is 10 1/2 or 11 hours of sleep at night.  IF he naps it is for 1 1/2 or 2 hours.  On the nights he doesn't nap he sleeps 11 hours. 
But still, 11 hours isn't enough.  He NEVER slept 12 hours at night. 
If I normally put him down at 8 at night, what time should I be putting him down on the no nap days??  I don't want him up too early.  He usually wakes between 6:30-7.

[Hester]

The general rule is that if they sleep less in the day then more at night, if you don't THEN they will wake up early.
So no nap probably means bedtime at 7 pm. If you stick to 8 he might do EW due to OT

HTH

[donvitol]

alright, he feel asleep at 7:15 tonight, so we will see how it goes ( it is kinda nice having so much time to myself at night

[keeps me guessing]

not sure what is happening with my little angle. as all of us my little girl would sleep 2 hours for nap until about 2 weeks ago when she started refusing and/or taking over an hour to fall asleep. She is also waking at 6:30am as oppose to 7:30am and we have had some NW of up to 1.5 hours. She is i daycare and i went to talk to her caregiver to reduceher nap to maybe 1.5 hours and discovered that she has only been napping for 30minutes for some time now there. I wish she would have told me as i was doing the same bedtime 8pm.

Last night she was awake form 4;30am until 5:45am and then slept until 8am. I went to put her down at 1pm and of course she refused to nap despite me leaving her in her room until around2pm.

Do you think she is starting to drop her nap or just overtired? If she wakes at 6:30am what time should her bedtime be if she is only napping 30minutes, I out her down at 7pm tonight and she felt asleep by 7:30pm, we will see what happens

[Hester]

It sounds more like OT. If they're ready to drop a nap there should be no NW, the night should pretty much stay the same. (Maybe some earlier bedtimes and/or earlier or later waketimes, but not by much.) With her having NW, EW and trouble falling sleep for nap and bedtime, it sounds more like OT. I think I would try and reintroduce naps (with some struggle maybe) the 30 minutes for quite some time could've easily done that.

Oh and it sucks that they didn't tell you! I would mention that. You don't have to be nasty about it, but you can say, could you please tell me how long she napped so I can adjust her bedtime accordingly and avoid struggles with going to bed and OT?

HTH!

[donvitol]

so he slept 11 1/2 hours last night, which is great for him.  Looks like the earlier bedtime worked.  I think I am going to try the earlier nap time today as well.  If that doesn't work, should I try later nap times? (usually I put him down at 1, but what if I did 1 :30?)

[Cathy_D]

Hester - thanks for the suggestion.  I'm starting to think that the bedtime SA is perhaps a separate thing to the not napping ... she will happily 'rest' (with books and toys) in her cot for an hour after lunch. But at bedtime she will not let me leave her till she is asleep.

This week we've been looking at playschools where she might go for a couple of mornings a week from September, and this morning we were talking about bedtime and she said 'crying' so I asked why she is crying at bedtime and she said 'Mummy leave'. So we chatted a bit and it SEEMS (as far as you can tell, with a 2 year olds vocabulary!) that she is worried/sad about mummy leaving her. So I've explained that Mummy isn't going to leave her anywhere (except the places she already goes to on her own and is really happy about). And she was nodding away and gave me a big hug.  So, I think maybe I need to just keep on with the lying in her room whilst she goes to sleep, and lots of time with Mummy throughout the day and see if that gets her through the anxiety and hope that it is a short-lived phase!!

If I try for an earlier bedtime on the no-nap days it just takes longer to get her to sleep, so I think maybe sticking with the same bedtime for a week might be a better bet - either it'll work, or we will get some NW or EW and be able to tell that something needs tweaking!