Transistion to no naps - 29mo

[deenz]

I have been getting quite frustrated by dd1's lack of napping.  She wakes around 6.30am (I think, not sure, only get her up at 7am), and bedtime is 7pm.  Naptime is around 1-1.30pm (depends when dd2 is going down).  I don't let her sleep later than 3pm (when she does fall asleep it's often after 2pm).  For 3 wks I kept a track of her napping/not napping, and she slept for 7 out of those 21 days.  There didn't seem to be any pattern (based on activity levels etc).  At this time she also learned how (got tall enough!) to open her door, and was coming out of her room, but we have stopped that (with a sticker chart).  However, since her and her sister's room are very close together, I worry that her 'antics' in her bedroom will wake dd2 (which she has done on occasion).  So I thought I would try putting her in her room only every second day.  This did not work.  So then I thought I would try for every third day.  So far this does not seem to be working either (ie. she does not necessarily go to sleep on that day).  She can be so very obviously tired, and still not sleep.  In fact she will often fall asleep if we go out in the car in the mid-afternoon.  I do notice that she seems a bit 'less tired' if she's had this 'quiet' time.    On the days I don't put her in her room, I just keep her downstairs with me, but 'ignore' her for an hour or two - she is very good at entertaining herself, sometimes I put a DVD on, though not very often.  Oh yes, I stopped putting her in nappies for nap time (she has been in underwear for 5m now during awake times) as she was spending her nap time taking her nappy off, and sometimes then pooping/weeing on the carpet  .  So now I just put a potty in her room - she seems to fairly regularly do something in there, and then 'need' to come out to empty the potty etc!  Dd1 was a very late teether and is still working on her incisors (they are just poking through) and does not have any signs of her '2yr' molars yet.  At night she sleeps well, although lately has been waking about once a night in the early hours crying, then when you go in there, she just needs 'a tissue' or to find her lovie or other such thing.

So my questions are: is this confusing to her/her body clock?  On the days she doesn't sleep, should I put her to bed earlier?  Is it normal to be sleeping this little at this age?  Now that she's ok with staying in her room (except the pottying stuff) should I 're-instate' regular 'rest' times?

(Sorry, this got very long!).  TIA!

[imsmum]

I would keep putting her in her room and try to do the sticker thing if necessary to help keep her quiet.  The problem with offering a nap every few days is--as you said--that there really doesn't seem to be any predictor as to whether she will nap or not so you may be limiting her opportunities to nap by not putting her in her room every day.

On the days she doesn't nap I would go for the earlier bedtime---maybe start off with 1/2 hour earlier to see how that goes--since you said that she seems to have trouble making it through the day without the nap. 

She's getting about 11.5 hours on average by the looks of it which is all my dd gets some days and she is 23 months.  I just was reading Dr. Greene's site.  He says sleep of 12-13 hours for a 2 year old is "normal" but 1 hour either way is fine but if your dd is waking at night she may be a bit overtired so the earlier bedtime may help that wakeup as well.

[J&Jsmom]

My son is also 29 months and is doing the same thing. Fights having a nap like mad - but he needs it and if we go anywhere in the car in the afternoon and he hasn't  had a nap, he's asleep in seconds. I haven't forced the issue - I always try to put him down but if he starts performing, I say fine: but it's quiet time now. Sometimes I just get him to lie down in his bed for quiet time and read books - sometimes he does this, other times not. And he also has a little brother who he can wake up so it's hard. Sometimes I say: Mommy's going to have quiet time now and try to lie on my bed and read a book and I encourage him to do that with me. Sometimes it works, sometimes he just jumps on me and thinks it's a big game.

On a few occasions, I've put the TV on and sometimes during that he falls asleep. On several occasions I've just left him to entertain himself and have come back to find him asleep on the floor. I haven't really altered his bedtime - I might bring it forward slightly if he seems really overtired but otherwise I'm just going with it. I think it's around this age that some kids just decide that they don't need it anymore (even though they do!)

[deenz]

It's not every napless day that she seems tired - usually the day after a nap day, she is absolutely fine.  She is not one to just fall asleep doing something, although the other day, my mother put on a DVD in the late afternoon (4.30ish) and dd1 fell asleep during it for about 5min.  And those little 5-10min naps in the car seem to perk her right back up again!!