What do you do about days out and sleep?

[Kellyjs]

Hi all,

DD is brilliant when she doesn't get her usual nap... Until BT. She's been having issues going to sleep at night for a while now but we've just been riding it out. She takes any where from 20mins to an hour to fall asleep at night and it's far worse when we've been out for the day. Today for example, she had a 30mins car nap at 10.30am, then a 20mins car nap on the way back. Woke at 4.20pm. Did BT at 6.30pm and she's still awake an hour later. When we go and see one friend, she can have a 20mims car nap on the way there and she'll have a 1.5hr nap 2hrs later there. That works fine and I can keep her up in the car on the way back at around 5, BT as usual at 7.

What I don't get is why will she fall asleep after 2 odd hours for a nap at a friends house and won't go to sleep at BT at home with the same A?! She's always liked a shorter A to bed. It's driving me nuts. I would appreciate any input as to what others do when they're out and about for the day?

Our usual easy is:

Wu anywhere from 6.
Out of bed at 6.30
Nap 12.30-2.30
BT 7

TIA xx

[HenaV]

It's a tricky one. We've always had issues with R re: naps and what happens if she doesn't get one. So we tended to work days out out around R's sleep time. On occasion she'd nap in the pushchair but it was rare that she would and if she did that she would for any more than one sleep cycle. When she was younger (2.5 and under) she'd happily sleep in a travel cot so we just took that with us everywhere.

If she didn't nap then we'd have her in bed no later than 6pm (alseep by) and she'd sleep 13-14hours and for the next couple of days we'd have to stick ridgely to her routine else we'd end up in a mess

Hth

Hena

[Kellyjs]

It so difficult isn't it Hena? Problem is that cat nap in the car on the way back, it always messes everything up. I've tried capping it at 15mins but as that's only 45mins sleep for a whole day, she should ideally be in bed for 5.30/6, but that never works out. She has never napped in the buggy either 

She took 1.25hrs to get to sleep last night and had OT NW's in the early part of the night so I probably should've tried for bed earlier. I'm hoping she'll have a catch up today and let her sleep a little longer for her nap, but we'll see.

It's really hard as we need to do these trips out at least 4x a month as we have friends and family that live that far away. Bonus is, we don't have to do it a few days on the trot so I can catch her up, but as you said, I have to stick to her routine and limit extra tiring events like swimming which is a shame.

[weaver]

I think all you can do is space it out, as you say, so she doesn't have to deal with it too often (and you neither). 

[HenaV]

I agree. It is tough, but tbh we just did what we could to manage it and deal with the fall out iykwim. R was 3y in July and still naps for an hour and we still have the same problem. She can cope the day, 6.15 BT and the we have no nap hangover the next day. My mum lives a distance (45min drive) and so we had to just minimise the trips. I'm not suggesting for a moment you cut out/down your trips - I just couldn't cope wuth the fall out. R borders on hsn so it just was pretty miserable all round.

Iiwm I'd not stress about it, accept that it's going to be a bit of a rough ride and do what you an to manage it xx

[Kellyjs]

Thanks guys, at least I'm not missing something glaringly obvious that I should be doing. Always grateful for the reassurance. I'm very lucky in that she's always very good when she does miss the nap whilst we're out so at least I don't have a miserable bubba. Just got that today now instead xx

[weaver]

My LO2 is the same.  Some people think I'm crackers to insist on naps (she's 2.5).  She's all sunshine when actually skipping the nap, then NWs and grumpy the next day.  The girl needs her naps.  Mother definitely knows best