Is my 2yr old telling me he is ready to drop his nap??

[* Paula *]

 

[* Paula *]

Well it has been a while since I last posted on here, and things have not changed much.

Thomas will nap anywhere from an hour to an hour and 40 minutes during the day, and is still not falling asleep much before 21:20 at night 

I put him to bed at 8pm, and he has been showing tired signs and rubbing his eyes etc, but it is like the minute I put him to bed he wakes up.  He stays in his bed, but will talk, shout and sing, until well after 9pm in the evenings. 

Tonight I put him to bed 10 minutes later than normal as we had been out at a BBQ.  He had been running around all afternoon, and I mean he did not stop at all, and I thought the minute I put him to bed he will conk out.  Boy was I wrong, it took until nearly 21:30 for him to fall asleep.  I acutally had to go in there and tell him off.

What is going on.

He has a radio in his room that plays nursery rhymes softly for him to go to sleep, I am wondering if this is starting to keep him awake, although when I put it on at nap time, it does not stop him from falling asleep.

Any suggestions would be really welcomed.  I am heavily pregnant at the moment, and need some time to relax in the evenings, but I feel I am constantly on edge until he falls asleep.

I also don't want to have him shouting and singing the house down at 21:00 at night when I have a newborn trying to sleep too.

[*Natasha*]

Perhaps you are putting him down to late? We had a 7.45pm bedtime for a while and DD was taking a long time to fall asleep so we moved it back to 7.30pm and it fixed the problem.

[* Paula *]

I have put him to bed earlier a few times during the week, as I was just so tired and could not run round after him, and it was exactly the same.  He sang, and shouted and talked to his teddies until well after 9pm.

The only pro at the moment is he is sleeping until after 8am.  This is great for a weekend, but not great when I need to get him to nursery for 9am and then to work 

[* Paula *]

I am really getting stressed abou this now.

Thomas napped for 1.5hours today.  Made sure he was awake by 2.

At 7:35 we went upstairs, brushed his teeth, puthim to bed and put his boots on.  It is now 21:00 and he is still awake.  He has been playing, banging his feet on the side of teh bed, and shouting.  I have just gone in and turned his radio off, as I think it is distracting him, even though it is sooo low, you can hardly hear it.  He is not happy, but hopefully he will be asleep in a few minutes.

I am going to take the radio out of his room tomorrow and see if this makes any difference to him.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

[andibig]

I had a thought (i have them occasionaly!!).since he is sleeping till after 8am he is probably getting the right amt of sleep.
so can you move his day backwards ie-wake him earlier in the morning so you can get the early bedtime.
does that make sense?

[* Paula *]

Sounds like a great thought.  Just now I need someone to get my big breggo butt and belly out of bed.  Thomas is my alarm clock, so he usually wakes me up

It is definitely worth a try, will see if I can get DP to wake me in the morning and try this.

How much earlier would you suggest?

[andibig]

How early do you want to get up?!!Just thinking as you are preggers and need your rest.

What about 7am then hopefully asleep by 8pm.

[* Paula *]

That sounds doable I think     I still have to go to work every morning, so at least that way I won't have to rush round getting myself and DS ready, eaten breakfast and out of the house in 45 minutes.

Guess I better go to bed soon if I am going to be up that early lol.

[andibig]

or you could just move it gradually back 15 mins every few days and see if that helps.
sorry thought of that after i posted

[* Paula *]

That sounds like a plan - Thanks 

[andibig]

Keeping fingers crossed for you

[* Paula *]

Thanks will keep you posted on how we get on.

[*Natasha*]

Good idea otherwise i was going to suggest limiting his nap to perhaps 1hr?

[* Paula *]

Well it was like Thomas was actually reading this post as he woke up at 7am ready to start the day.  I soooo was not ready to get up 

Anyway, he has had an hour and a half nap today, and I put him to bed at 8:00pm.  It has just gone 8:24 and he has been singing away, although, he does seem to be a bit quieter now, but can still hear him moving around.

So we will see what time he falls asleep tonight, and then see what time he wakes up in the morning.

Natasha, I was thinking about limiting his nap, but I am not sure if Nursery would actually do that