Staying awake for 45 mins + at bedtime

[Chloevalentine]

So a few weeks ago my 27 mo lo was having trouble with naps we tried moving nap capping nap skipping naps and what ended up working was a 1 hour nap at 1 pm after a 730 wake time and Bedtime at 830 a 13 hour day. That worked for a few weeks and now we are starting to get bedtime struggles. There has been s few times where nap was later 130/2 ish and that's what started the bedtime struggles just not enough A time I suppose before bed. He would be up in bed until 10 pm reading! Even on a nnd he would still lie awake for 30 mins with his books. So I'm not sure if it's just ut or that right now developmentally he just needs a longer windown or time to settle before bed. He doesn't cry or call us he's just busy. But it makes for a late night and only 10 hours sleep as I always wake him by 730 am. It seems that he will go down for nap after 5.5 hrs A time but needs 7 hours before bed!! Is there anything else I can do besides dropping nap as much he sleeps well through night no ews and he just has a better afternoon with a nap. Without one he just walks around "drunk" all afternoon he doesn't play with his puzzles or read he's just delirious which is why I keep the nap. It seems like after waking him from his nap it takes him a while to get up and go getting his second wind too late if that makes sense

[Shiv52]

You know what I'll say:

1 accept the A time he needs and bed later/shorter night
2 drop the nap
3 cut the nap. Do a half hour and see does that help him need less A time to bed

[Lolly]

What Shiv said!

My DD dropped her nap at that age. She would happily still nap but was then going to sleep ridiculously late. Her total sleep was the same with a nap and shorter night or no nap and a decent length night but her overall temperament was way better for the full night after she adjusted.

Laura

[creations]

Looks like Shiv has all the options covered

With mine I accepted a very short night for a while because it was ridiculous how unsafe he was without a nap.  So it was quite unusual but we continued a 2hr nap (tried to cap at 1.5 which was not successful for us really) and accepted nights were down to about 9hr per night.  Your description of your LO being drunk without a nap, yep, mine would keel over at 4.30pm, couldn't cope.  We muddled along for several months then he dropped the 2hr nap cold turkey over night.
Don't know if that's any help, but if you really cannot lose that nap right now I would just accept the short night.
The good news is after nap drop you might get a lovely long night!  Mine did 12hrs from 2.5 to 4.5yo (has just gone down to about 11hr 30)   Y time aplenty

[Chloevalentine]

Thanks everyone! I never noticed his behavior after a full nights sleep 12 hours opposed to 10-10.5 but I do know a day with no nap is bad! Being that I only let him take a 1 hour nap he still will do a decent night and would probably do longer but I wake him by 730 so that I can get him down for nap by 1! Ugh sometimes I feel like I should just let him lead me more like not waking him in morning not waking him from nap etc but I'm worried it will get messy. Think I'll stick with the nap and later shorter night for a bit I always just feel bad when he's awake in his room for an hour but I've tried putting him to bed later and it always backfires and he's still up just as long but now it's later. I try to stick with set times like waking by 730 am nap by 1 for 1 hour and bedtime around 815.

[lily_layne]

At that age, I opted to keep the nap and go for the shorter night. No nap days were just monstrous. DD would nap around 1h20/1h30 (uncapped). She usually played on her own in bed for about an hour at BT and then do a 10/10.5 hour night. I've found that it doesn't really matter what happens with the nap, she takes a long time to settle to sleep. She started resisting naps and skipping the odd nap at 27/28 months and I thought our naps days were numbered, but then as she got closer to 3 her naps got longer and her nights stayed the same so she was getting more sleep overall. I know it's not the same for everyone, but just thought I'd share what worked for us.

[Chloevalentine]

Thanks for sharing that's very similar to our day! This morning I woke him at 730 put him in for nap at 1 let him sleep without waking woke at 215 and into bed by 825 he was asleep by 910. I also feel like he just needs his time to settle too no matter if he's napped or not.

[Chloevalentine]

On nnds is a 12 hour day good?

[lily_layne]

I also feel like he just needs his time to settle too no matter if he's napped or not.

That's how my DD is. Even on nights when she's late to bed she takes 45m-1h to settle.

I aim for in bed at 11/11.5 hrs on a NND knowing how long DD takes to settle.

[Chloevalentine]

Today we had a nap refusal day first time in over a month he refused he ended up with a 12 hr day and passed out within minutes at 730! When you say you had some nap refusals and than the naps got longer does that mean that you continued to put your lo down for s nap everyday?

[lily_layne]

I did keep putting her down for naps. She was at daycare during the week too so they also put her for naps.

[Chloevalentine]

Yesterday I couldn't put him down for nap because we were setting up his twin size bed! Around 2pm he actually asked for a nap! Which is when he seems to get tired for one but at that point it's too late in the day. After 2 nnds in a row I'm hopeful for one today moving forward im thinking of waking him by 7 instead of 730 trying a nap around 1230/1 for an 1-1.5 hrs and bed at 830 since he seems to need about a 13.5 hr day and that will keep bedtime from not getting too late. I'm hoping that might do the trick. Although I don't think I'll wake today after 2 days without nap.

[cath~]

Around 2pm he actually asked for a nap! Which is when he seems to get tired for one but at that point it's too late in the day

have you tried a short nap at that time?  what about just 20 mins, say?

[Chloevalentine]

Yes I've tried but short naps just don't work for us. We usually keep them to about 1 hour and that seems to be fine. But with any length nap he still seems to need a 13.5 hour day even with a quick 15 mins in the car! Tomorrow I'm going to try to wake him by 7 am.

[Chloevalentine]

The only thing with a nnd is that he's sleeping a good 12 hours at night which brings us to an 8 am wake which then makes it hard for a nap day. Should I wake him in morning if I'm trying for a nap day? Today I'm letting him sleep in because it will be a nnd and we will just do a 12 hr day bed at 8.