2.5-Year-Old Dropping Nap/Early Wake Time

[FrankiesMom12]

Hello ladies  - I'm trying to figure out if my 2.5-year-old is dropping her nap, and if so is there some sort of ideal/magical way to handle it?  In conjuction with a difficult time getting her to nap she's also started getting up very early (around 5:00 in the morning).  Prior to the last two weeks; this was her schedule-ish:

Wake Between 6:00 - 6:30
Nap:  1:00 - 3:00ish
Asleep for bed:  8:00ish

Now, we're looking more like this (days of no nap):
Wake:  5:00
Nap:  Attempt at 1, but resisting it 4 days of the week
Bed:  (I was picking her brother up from camp last week at 5:00 and she was falling asleep in the car on the way there; we had one night where she never woke up again until 5 the next morning.)  It's a hot mess though if I try to keep her up anytime past 6:30 on a day where she doesn't nap

Days where she does nap:
Wake:  5:00
Nap:  1:30 - 3:30
Asleep for Bed:  Between 8 and 8:30

Any advice; is there a magical formula for nap 1 day; 2 days off?  Maybe I should try putting her down at 2 instead of 1 and capping her nap to an hour?  Thank you!  P.S. I did just get her a wake to sleep clock, and we're currently training her to at least stay in her room/bed until the color changes.

[deb]

We went thru about 3-6 months of "fake it till you make it," after which we decided to prevent naps entirely because ANY nap, even a 5-minute power nap, meant a 10:30PM bedtime.

[FrankiesMom12]

Thanks Deb - Today she refused to nap, but then fell asleep in the middle of playing at 3.  I let her go until 4:15 and bedtime has been a fight/struggle tonight.  I'm not sure what to do because she will literally fall asleep in the middle of playing or eating or whatever.  I'm sort of hoping this is just some sort of regression that will correct itself in a week or so.  Or maybe preschool two mornings a week in the autumn will help.

[deb]

Structured schedule probably will, yes. Also, don't forget that in the fall the time change will eventually switch everything up again; we've been known to use that to our advantage.

We switched out naptime for "quiet time" around 2.5 years: I got a mental break, and DD played in her room after lunch while I put on one of her Music Together CD's, which last about an hour. Maybe once a week she'd fall asleep in there (and we'd have the late bedtime that day) but I still got a fairly consistent break.

[FrankiesMom12]

Thank you, I think the music for 1 hour is a great idea.  I'll try that.  About what time did you try nap at that age?  And what time did she go to bed if she missed her nap?  Thanks again!

[deb]

We did our Quiet Time after lunch, when her nap used to be. If she did have a nap, we usually couldn't settle her till 10PM, sometimes later, so we avoided naps most of the time unless she was patently OT or sick.