Signs that 2.5 year old is ready to drop nap?

[Mummy1982]

For ages my little boy has been on a really good routine, waking between 6-7, having a 1.5hr ish nap around 1.30/2pmabd then bed by 7.30.

Over the last few weeks he has been resisting the nap saying he’s not tired and it’s a struggle to get him in his bed, he messes around s lot, won’t lusten to the story and then screams out when I leave the room. Some days I had to get him up, other days after 30-40 mins of singing/chatting he would fall asleep. However then he would be up later - around 4 and he wasn’t tired at bedtime and we had the same problem.

We decided to shorten the nap but we still had issues putting him down and when he had any nap he wasn’t going to bed until 8.30-9pm!

So we’ve dropped all his naps except on his 2 nursery says (a Monday and Thursday) however we’re finding that by 5pm he is shattered and he’s now catching sleep when and where he can - yesterday he had 20 mins in the buggy at 10am which he never did before then another 20 mins in the car on his way home from my in laws at 5.00. This then messes up bedtime again as he’s not ready at 7 and keeps saying it’s not tired!


All his life he’s been in a routine and now I just feel he’s all over the place - I guess it’s s temporary phase until he drops his nap completely but I’m not sure what I can do to ensure he’s getting enough sleep without delaying bedtime so much!

[creations]

Hi there

One the NND (no nap days) are you putting him to bed earlier? the usual advice is if there is a NND then to bring BT super early, even 5pm!  It doesn't always result in earlier waking but if it does then the next day you might find it easier to get him to take a nap, even a capped nap.
Many people get through this phase with either a mixture of nap and NNDs which balance out reasonably well to keep things kind of predictable. Or they do a nap every day but much shorter until the final nap drop.
Then there are the kids who nap every day until suddenly they don't. Mine had to have 2hr nap daily and couldn't last without it, I tried capping with awful result, he was better on a long nap and shorter night and i just accepted late BT and earlier waking with the shorter night because he was in a great mood so the whole day was easier as he wasn't such a horrible grouch. Then he fell ill and during his illness napped 2.5hrs, I let him because after all he was ill. Well, that was his last nap. No more naps.  Nodded off the odd time in the car for a few mins here and there but he was done with naps.  The good news was that he was then able to do 12hr nights which he had never done before and the 12hr night lasted a good couple of years, he was about 5yo before his night length shortened a bit.

Sorry, no solution, just a couple of ideas.