Support for dropping the nap part 12

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Hi mandy Have you done any NNDs yet?  We switched between the two for a while, even with an EW. It was the only thing that balanced J's week.  He would always take a nap if offered, so basically if his night was ok I'd let him nap until his night started to shorten, then the next day I wouldn't offer a nap.  So we kind of did the opposite of most and almost always did a long NND cos it was the only way out of the EW.

The other thing you could try is a seriously capped nap. Are you capping already? 

[Mandy.kamal]

Hey there!!! Good to hear from you!

I ended up laying him down a bit early for nap (12:30pm) and he was asleep before 1:00pm and woke at 2:00pm. This is about an hour earlier than usual but he seemed tired. I will try for 7:30pm bed to keep at a 13 hour day and then try your method!

I do think a NND every few days will help make him tired enough for the nap and/or night sleep. I hate short nights as it always makes him grouchy the following day which leads to a long nap and the cycle continues! We've never had a 14 hour day so I'm at a loss this time around.

We are staying at my dads this weekend so I'll probably wait until Monday to get things back on track.

[Mandy.kamal]

Just to give an example...
Took an hour to fall asleep yesterday and BT was 9:00pm.

Woke at 6:30
Nap 1:00-2:00
BT 7:30- still wide awake and it's 8:15. Looking like 9:00pm again.

What do I do?! Ugh.

[lolsyb1982]

Have you tried cutting the nap down from 1hr? Maybe try 30mins? We noticed a big change at BT once we cut the nap right back.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Have you tried cutting the nap down from 1hr? Maybe try 30mins? We noticed a big change at BT once we cut the nap right back.

Yes, definitely worth trying to cap first I'd say.  It might do the job without having to get into NNDs quite yet

[Mandy.kamal]

That's true too! I guess I'll get through this weekend away and start experimenting Monday. Thank you!! Xx

[roseola]

Hello Everyone, I am (without joy) joining in. My DD is almost 26 months old. She climbed out of her crib and started the 1-0 transition 2 weeks ago today. She is the head strong type that will not nap. Says "I don't want to sleep, no nap!" I've read the stickys about nap dropping, and I can relate to lots of it, but what is not happening here is longer nights without the nap. DDs total sleep has dropped since this began, and literally overnight.

Before that morning, when I looked at the monitor one minute and she was asleep, and the next minute she was standing outside my bedroom, DD's routine for months had been:

8am woken up
11:30: 1hour nap (woken up)
7:30-8pm bedtime

Now she is in a toddler bed, waking up religiously at around 4am for a few minutes (but freaking out so we have to sleep in her room from that point on), and then up for the day between 6-6:30am.

She was getting no naps at all, (because she won't sleep in the car or stroller) until we figured out the only way to get her to take a 20-30 min CN around 2:30pm is to hold her the entire time! But it is so worth it because she is a disaster without the CN.

So on days we can get her to catnap she's sleeping 7:30pm - 6:00am, and days without the CN she sleeps as early as 6 - to as early as 5:45am!

It just feels like she is getting so much less sleep! And she is draining everyone! Even her 2 Grandmas who adore her!

[jessmum46]

Roseola - it strikes me that her nap was very early in the day, it's not out of the question she is nap-dropping at this age (my DD certainly was) but what happens if you just try her down later for her nap?  I mean I don't think even my 15 month old would go down regularly 3.5h after waking up for the day, possibly if you try a bit later she may be more willing?

[TB9]

I would definitely try for a later nap first before giving up!

DD2 was on a 30-40min nap at 1:15/1:30pm for ages before we finally dropped the nap.  With dd1 I was even able to push her nap back as late as 2:30/3pm before dropping.  I would also push bedtime back to 8:30pm before trying to drop completely.

I could have let both my girl drop their naps around the same age as your LO, but they handled it much better when they got closer to 2.5yo.  I think if you can adjust nap time, and bedtime to hang onto the nap a bit longer then its probably going to be easier on her.

[roseola]

I will definitely give it a try! And we have gotten her to take short naps at around 2:30-3pm but so far we have had to hold her and walk around until she falls asleep. We actually hold her the whole time until she wakes up (45 min max.) bc we don't want to risk waking her when we put her down after walking with her to get her to sleep. She is just sooooo anti sleep! Even in the car or stroller she gets so upset when she feels herself falling asleep and keeps herself awake. This is ALL brand new! Like a switch went on in her brain.

[roseola]

And the GroClock arrived today, so any vibes that it will keep her in her toddler bed would be awesome!

She was up today at 6:30, no  nap, asleep at 6:15.....we will see!

[TB9]

Oh, I APOPed dd2s nap for 10months hahaha    I'm happy I did, as she is now more capable of actually going without a nap!

[roseola]

I have no problem APOP! But holding her and walking her every day is hard with my other 2 around, and she is heavy!!

Over this long weekend she spent 1 hour in the car on Saturday screaming, and I mean screaming! It is so hard on her and everyone else in the car. We left at 1pm so the perfect time for her to take a catnap, but it seems like being tired in the car seat is what is making her go crazy, because she so badly does not want to let her self fall asleep. Of course she finally fell asleep 5 min before we arrived. I sat in the car with her while she napped for about 30 min, When she woke up on her own she was miserable, and still screaming.

Then Sunday she was in the car for a 40 min ride and screamed the whole time. She was tired and probably needed to sleep, but fought it the whole time, and the ride wasn't long enough to over come her string will.

This is really a tough one!

[jessmum46]

Roseola just a thought but I found letting DD sleep 30 mins was horrible, waking her after 20 was much better before she got into deep sleep x

[roseola]

Interesting!

Today she told me she was tired, said she wanted to lie down in her brothers bed with me and was asleep in one minute. Go figure!!!!!