Hi everyone,
Our DD is 2 years 3 months old and a conversation I had with one of the nurseries we visited today (we are in the midst of looking for some sort of daycare/nursery) really got me thinking. The lady mentioned that none of the 2-3 year olds in the class sleep at midday, not at school and neither at home (for those that are picked up early). She went on to explain that she believes this to be the best schedule for this age group as it allows them to have an early bed time, e.g. 8:30 (considered VERY early here in Greece).
This got me thinking, because we seem to not have enough hours in the day for nap and bedtime... Since the summer, our DD's bedtime has moved to 10pm or even later, which even for Greek standards is late. She wakes no later than 8:30 on most days and then has an afternoon nap of around 1 1/2 hours, but it gets so late until she is ready for it that I'm sure it interferes with bedtime.
This is what her day USED to look like until a few months ago:
WU: 9:00
Nap: 2:30-4:30
BT: 9:00
Since the summer we have been doing something like this:
WU: 8:00-8:30
Nap: Falls asleep between 3 and 4, sleeps until 5 maximum when I wake her
BT: 10:00-10:30
She was never a super quick sleeper, but now it takes her a ridiculous amount of time to fall asleep. I'm not even talking about the ritual, wind-down, book reading steps. I'm talking about from the time she gets into her bed until eyes shut. She wiggles, turns and turns and turns, talks to herself, whispers, lifts her legs in the air, starts singing... anything you can think of, she does!
Could it be that she doesn't need the nap anymore? Could we attempt to drop the nap and achieve a 8:30 bedtime at last? She dropped all naps quite ahead of what is average I think... so she's been on 1 nap since 12 months and that transition was no problem at all for her.
What do you think?
