20 Month Old Naps and

[FrankiesMom12]

Hi All - I'm going a little bit nutty with my 20-month-old's slewping in general, but mostly napping.  I feel like we've been going through the 2:1 nap transition for about 5 months now.  It's gotten to where I completely dread naptime.  To make matters worse she recently started climbing out of her crib, so we had to transition to a toddler bed.

Her general routine is:
5:30 - WU (I HATE that it is so early, but I've given up trying to get her to sleep later.  It's as if she has an internal alarm clock.)
10:30 - intentional naptime - Anytime after 10ish she is in serious danger of falling asleep.  This could be in the car, walking around with me, on her chair, eating lunch, etc.
12:00 - 1:30ish Naptime if she doesn't fall asleep before this.
1:00/1:30ish - Naptime if she took a short cat nap in the am.
7:00 - 7:30 - Bedtime

The biggest problem is how hard it is for her to stay awake until naptime and the resulting lack of continuity in our days.
It's hard to plan ahead if she's always in danger of falling asleep in the morning. ! Should she still be taking 2 naps?  It's also pretty traumatic for both of us at naptime.  Lots of screaming bloody murder at being pd.  I put her down and then go in every few minutes to put her back into bed with minimal eye contact, etc. to encourage her to fall asleep on her own.  Night pd isn't as bad (knock on wood), but this can go on for 30 minutes at naptime.

To make mattets worse, her brother starts preschool in 2 weeks, and dropoff is at 12:30.  I have no idea how we are gping to get decent naps in for her.  Any advice is appreciated!

[Lindsay27]

My DD is 20-months, so just for something to compare to her routine is:

WU 6:30
Nap 1-3
BT 7

I think you really need to make the push for 1 nap, since her WU is quite early I would start it at maybe 11:30/12 and see what happens, then move it later from there, which should also move her WU later.  I would try to do whatever you can to keep her going until at least 11:30, it might be tough for the first few days but she will get there, and then she will hopefully take 1 solid nap and her body will adjust to the longer A time.

If you do this for the next 2 weeks, then you might be able to push her nap back to 1pm to be after school drop off.

[choc]

I agree with Lindsay, definitely push for 1 nap at this age. I had to avoid car trips and buggy trips in the late morning for a while. I also had a similar problem with the fact I had to collect him from nursery at 12.30 and drive him home for nap some days. I just had to pull out all the tricks to keep him awake, windows down and up and down and up, snack, toys or items he hadn't seen before or wasn't usually allowed, singing etc and his nap would be at 1pm which is quite late to start at 1 nap on. He had to cope though. No choice. And he did. So try not to worry too much. Just go for it!

[Lindsay27]

Yes we also had to avoid the late morning car rides also for a while or we were doomed.  It really shouldn't take her long to adjust though and then you'll be safe with the car 😊