Help! 26 month old fighting naps

[sycorrell]

I have tried to read a bunch of other posts to see if anyone has had the same issue but I could not find anything.  My daughter is 26 months old.  She has been a good napper since about 4 months.  About a week ago she started fighting naps.  It seemed as though she was not really tired at 1 pm so I moved her nap back a bit to 1:30 - 2pm.  I will put her up there using the same routine I always have.  She plays - talks to her rabbit and blanket, sings, etc. - and is pretty good natured for a while.  But she also likes to throw those items out of her crib and than scream bloody murder until I come give them back to her (usually she will do this once or twice).  All this can go on for well over an hour.  Usually about the time I am ready to give in and get her out, she falls asleep, so she is napping until 4:30 or 5 pm which seems way too late.  [For example, the other day I put her in the crib at 1:30 pm, she finally fell asleep about 3 pm and slept until 4:30 pm.]  It does not seem to impact her night sleep - she is (knock on wood) going to bed as she normally does at the normal time. 

I was in tears today.  I am a stay-at-home mom but I also do some consulting work on the side.  I depend on her nap time to do conference calls, etc. and I am just about to start on a big project.  Normally I would put her in her crib and she would roll over and go to sleep in 10 minutes or less.  At this point, I am almost ready to cancel the job because I have no confidence on when/if she will nap.  I have no idea why the sudden change - nothing else has changed, no teething, etc.  When she does fall asleep, she sleeps for 1.5 - 2 hours so it seems like she needs the rest, that she is not simply outgrowing naps.  She held on to two naps until about 17 months so I figured she would hold on to an afternoon nap for a long time.

Her schedule used to look like this, in case it is helpful.  We have a solid bedtime and nap routine that have worked for a long time:

6:30 - 7:30 am Wake, then breakfast
11:30 am or so  - lunch
1 - 3 pm  - nap
6 pm - dinner
8 pm - bed

[Mom to M&M]

Her nap looks quite late depending on her wake time. Perhaps wake her by 7 if not up and then try nap at 12:30?

Also, could she be getting her 2 year molars? When my DD is teething it always takes her much longer to fall asleep.

[sycorrell]

I have had people suggest her naptime is late but she normally shows no signs of being tired before 1 pm.   Over the past few days, she does not even act tired at 1 pm, which is why I pushed it back to 1:30 pm.  Today, once again, it took her until 3 pm to fall asleep and she went in her crib a little before 2 pm.  I am not sure what would happen if I tried to put her the crib at 12:30 pm.

[sycorrell]

Oh - I will have to look at the molars, I am not sure about that.  She is pretty good natured about why she is not sleeping - basically, toddlers just want to have fun!  She is not whimpering or crying unless she cannot reach something she has thrown out of her crib.

[mari]

Give the earlier nap a go and see what happens.  If she refuses to nap, give her some quiet time but put her to bed earlier than usual to protect her nighttime sleep,  I bet that she will be back to normal within a few weeks.

[Mom to M&M]

I agree to give the earlier nap a try for at least a few days. I'd also really suspect molars. Teething can make them really wakeful and for us it always hits us harder at naptime. We're in this now with the eye teeth actually and Hyland's teething tablets about 30 minutes before naptime does help a little. Like Maris said, just go with it and I'm sure she'll be back to her normal napping soon. FYI, it's probably not very BW of me but on days when DD is really fighting her nap I'll take her out in her stroller, reclined with the sun shade pulled down, and with her lovey. She's always asleep then within 10 minutes and I either bring her back and "park" her until she wakes or transfer her to her crib.

[sycorrell]

Just to update you, yesterday I did a more extended routine before her nap and moved her nap time back to 1 pm.  We read stories, cuddled, talked softly, etc.  She still fought the nap for 25 minutes, threw her blanket out, etc.  but at least it did not go on for an hour.  She slept about 90 minutes.

Today, no luck.  On our way up, she kept talking about taking a nap, she seemed so tired.  As soon as she hit the crib, she was like the Energizer Bunny.   She fought the nap for almost an hour again.   If I go up to try to get her to settle down she just laughs and laughs - thinks it is so much fun.

[Mom to M&M]

She sounds overtired possibly?