Dropping nap - cold turkey?

[murphy76]

Hi,

DS3 had been all over the place for months,  periods of EW (450-545am at best) fighting going to bed, and all the while sleeping anything from 1-2 hours for a nap as we try to battle overtiredness.

We are going to bite the bullet and drop his nap, decision is do we just start it tmrw, no nap, or go 1hr, 45mins, 30 mins over the coming days before it's gone?

His BT is usually 730pm, do we stick with this during the process of the coming weeks or make it earlier to compensate?

This is a big and daunting step so thanks in advance for any help!

[Haribo2012]

Hi there how old is he?

It really depends on the child, my DS1 needed max 20 min CN about 3pm just to get to normal BT, if you drop cold turkey you will most likely need muchcesrlier BT for a while.
When we dropped nap we did 6.30-6.30 day x

[murphy76]

Hi,

He is 2-5 yrs old. Will that matter?

He's a 5/530 am waker for weeks now, idea of anything for BT before 6pm is too scary!

If not cold turkey, how to reduce it?

Is there a rough idea for how much he should need total per day at this age?

Thanks!

[Haribo2012]

Some kids just drop naps earlier than others but often the older they are the better they cope. Honestly the way to drop is up to you, my DS1 was a nightmare to wake from a cot nap and woke up grumpy...would take a good hour to get him to stop crying etc, but if I did a 20 min CN out and about he'd be fine.
I did start with 45 mins then dropped to 30 mins then 20 butvif he handles Oat well you could just go for 20 mins mid afternoon.
I know the thought of an EBT is scary but sometimes when sleep transitions are happening the do tack day sleep onto night, some kids with no nap can only handle an 11 hour day to start with.

I used to always look to try and get a 12 hour day with no nap and 12.5 with cat nap

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=244514.msg2609844#msg2609844 this link is useful x

[Shiv52]

We nap dropped cold turkey as we were in vicious cycle of needing a really late bedtime as needed lots of A time after the nap then a shorter night then a nap to compensate for the shorter night and so on.   I attempted a shorter nap but any night be it 1 hour or 29 mins still led to needing at least 5.5 A time after.   

We did though about once a week need a nap just to even things out for a few weeks. My DD1 night sleep increased slightly from 11.5 hours to 12 when nap dropping. My DD2 moved to 12.5/13 from 11.5. So they are all so different. None of my kids tacked on to their night sleep ever ever so EBT didn't work. 

Looking at your routine though if he's waking consistently at 5.30 you prob couldn't push bedtime beyond 6.30 initially.

Just checking he's an independent sleeper? 

It's also very important to start thinking about picking a time you are prepared to start your morning and if he wakes before that say it's bedtime and attempt to resettle. 

[murphy76]

Thanks for that.

He has been waking at night for months, 2-3 times a week, but creep in, cup of water in his hand and he goes over. Usually.

We'll start to cap his nap next few days then that's it. Yesterday he woke at 6am amazingly, then napped for an hour 12.15-1.15, cried for an hour fighting sleep at 715 until finally going over at 825 but woke twice at 11am and 330am crying, then was up for the the day hysterically shouting at 430am. 

He must be in the most severe over tiredness cycle but every time we try to balance it out with a bigger daytime nap it has little effect overall, so the sooner he stops napping and we just deal with whatever that brings, at least it will feel like we are on the right track and will get there eventually.