Dropping Nap?

angeldelight

So it's five past nine and my 2 year 4 month old has just finally fallen asleep... this has been a common occurrence for the past month or two. Up until recently she hasn't needed us up and down the stairs so we left her to it but the last few nights we're up and down like yoyos before she will finally give in.

She still has a nap, it was 12-2ish now we put her down at 12ish but she might only fall asleep approaching 1 and we still wake her at 2. The logical part of me says ok get rid of the nap BUT the days she doesn't have a nap she is in the most horrific form and not just for an hour or two before bed, from about 2pm she's falling over and hurting herself, pitching a fit over everything, not eating, slapping us etc - all stuff she doesn't really do when she's rested so I feel like she's really not ready to drop that nap.

I'm stumped

Big Bag of Chips

It's all phases. She will drop the nap herself when she's ready. Bed time will most likely change regularly as she grows too. Around that age mine started dropping their nap. Some days they might fall asleep, other times they'd go 2 or 3 days without one.

I always find the idea of sticking to a routine a bit strange. A 26 month old is going to be different to a 19 month old for example. So the routine that might have worked well is always going to change at some point. Like I said its all phases.

Don't think too much about it. Don't be too rigid with what should or shouldn't be happening at a specific time of day, or age. If she doesn't seem tired at 12 or 1, don't put her down. You might get the odd day where she then is exhausted at 5, just when you don't want her to be, but these things always have a habit of evening out. For a few days just go with it and see what happens.

shesty

I'd give her lunch and put her down 12:30-1 and let her sleep with a cut off time of 3pm.I've been through this with my my older girl recently enough.What type of hour does she wake at in the morning? I would persevere with the nap though, she obviously still needs.it.Our girl is three and two months now and this is first week shes had no nap all week.She goes to bed very early though, to make up for it, because she's tired.She went through a lot of phases from two on, taking ages to drop off for a nap, to taking ages to go to sleep at night It varied from month to month.But I just felt she was not physically capable of getting through the day with no nap, she was exhausted come 3pm and it just wasn't fair on anybody, so I stuck with it.You know your child, if you think she needs the nap then stick with it.It is a phase.

Also I find that if she's overtired from being woken after a nap she takes much longer to drop off at night.It could be that with your girl too.

Marz66

I've been through that phase too. I would make sure the room is as dark as possible at bedtime, and tire her out physically in morning and afternoon especially with time outdoors.

My nearly 3 year old has recently dropped his nap and it is heaven - we at last have the holy grail of sleeping 7-7.

There was a long lead up where we weren't sure if he was ready to drop it or not.

Dravokivich

angeldelight wrote: »

So it's five past nine and my 2 year 4 month old has just finally fallen asleep... this has been a common occurrence for the past month or two. Up until recently she hasn't needed us up and down the stairs so we left her to it but the last few nights we're up and down like yoyos before she will finally give in.

She still has a nap, it was 12-2ish now we put her down at 12ish but she might only fall asleep approaching 1 and we still wake her at 2. The logical part of me says ok get rid of the nap BUT the days she doesn't have a nap she is in the most horrific form and not just for an hour or two before bed, from about 2pm she's falling over and hurting herself, pitching a fit over everything, not eating, slapping us etc - all stuff she doesn't really do when she's rested so I feel like she's really not ready to drop that nap.

I'm stumped

She's not the one giving in. Sounds like she's looking for your attention and goes to sleep when she is satisfied that she got enough of it.

ariana`

I'm not sure if it helps but my 2yr 3mth old is dropping the nap at the moment. He will nap every 2nd or every 3rd day. Some days it's a long nap 1-1.5 hrs and other days it might only be 30mins. He definitely is hitting the stage where he doesn't need it as much. On the days he doesn't nap he might be cranky around 5pm, i put on the tv for half an hour to give him some chill-out time and he's then in great form again until bed-time @ 7.30.

My older kids followed a similar enough pattern though i think they were closer to 2yrs 6mths when they were doing as he is now.