Will 2.5yo sleep longer at night without the nap?

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Well we seem to be transitioning from 1 nap to none.  The problem I'm finding is that he's only sleeping about 10.5hrs at night (7-5.30) - this used to be 6.30 a few months back which worked well for us.  The days that he does nap he'll sleep for about 2hrs - he'll nap maybe only every 2nd or 3rd day.  But I'm finding he's a real crank without the nap and around 5pm he's getting tired and short fused (and so is mummy  :roll: ). 

Has anyone completely dropped the nap and consequently been able to get their child to sleep longer at night as a result?  This has been going on for months now and along with multiple night wakings/terrors every night etc I'm just so worn out and tired constantly (DH deals with most of his nightwakings), but I suffer from insomnia after these wakings whereas DH falls straight back asleep the second his head hits the pillow.   I'd be prepared to lose the nap if I knew that I'd get some pay off by a slight sleep-in.  I'm just worried that we'll end up with a real messy cranky pants if I don't let him nap. 

I know I could just remain with the status quo and let him nap on the days he wants to (the days he doesn't he comes out of his room and plays quietly, so that's not a problem although I don't really get down time as I used to).  But the days (like today), he decided at 2pm he was FINALLY ready for a sleep after me trying and asking since 12.30pm (he initially asked to go to bed then as well  :roll: ), but Danielle was waking up and I was feeling trapped in the house with him now wanting to sleep so I woke him up after 10mins. 

Any suggestions?

[jessica and emilys mummy]

I would try to move bedtime to 6.30pm.I know it sounds early,but I found it
made dd #1 sleep longer.Where naps are concerned,I would wait until your lo is ready rather than you trying to give him time.
Again.I worked this one out after weeks of tantrams,sleeplessness etc.

I don't know if I've helped in anyway.Let me know how you go.

[Jaime]

we seem to be in the same boat as you (doh!  just looked at your signature - jaina's only 4 days older than nathan  :wink: )

jaina's been going through a period - for a couple months - where she was an absolute bear without the nap, but kept trying to stay up anyhow.  she got to the point where she would refuse to sleep at the sitters' on the days she was there all day, and i would pay for it that evening.

during this time, she'd still been sleeping for me, but the time has been getting shorter.  instead of 2pm-5pm, she started going down later & later, until it was 3pm - 5pm.  she'd always crash, and she was a bear when i woke her up.

then within the past couple of weeks, she started not even falling asleep until around 4pm, and was an absolute crazy person when i woke her at 5pm.

she's also started trying to stay up later than 8pm in the evenings, using all sorts of stalling tactics.  when that doesn't work, i can hear her playing in her bed.  some nights it's been after 9pm when she finally conks!   :shock:

so (today!) i just didn't have the energy to try & wrangle her into bed.  she's potty training now & getting her in a diaper for naptime has turned into a power struggle.  she seems to be fine. 

i'm sure there are days where she'll need a nap, but she seems to have slowly.  i'm also hoping that with no nap she'll be more tired at bedtime.

hope something in this ramble helps.   

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Thanks for your replies.

Well after the awful power struggle a few days back, yesterday I decided to just get over the fact that he's dropping his nap.  So, he told me he wanted to go to bed, I walked him in there, he then said he'd wanted to be up and would play quietly, so I said OK in a really boring way so he new it didn't bug me  :wink: .  He came out and played for about 15mins and I just said to him he could either lie down on the couch or in his bed if he felt tired.  Well as soon as I left him alone about it, he jumped up on the couch and slept for 1.5hrs. :shock:   Well it wasn't the same "me" time since he was there, but at least he got the nap and there was no power stuggle.  This morning he slept until 6am, so that was an improvement as well.     Guess we just have to ride it out.

[Katet]

Nikki,
I'm with you on this one too... I have beeng trying to get Aiden down for 2 hours now... wanted an early one today so we get hair cuts & could go out swimming this afternoon (dh xmas party so finishing early)... even tried our bed (my resting too). well hoping he will go off in the car - 10mins better than nothing.
My Niece dropped naps at 26months & had "quiet play" for an hour in her room for a few months.
I guess it just means they are getting older... SO not ready for NO Me time!
But I do agree, just going with the flow seems to be best