Help with dropping the nap

[jessmke]

My DD is 2 yrs 4 months old. I would love if she was the kind of kid who napped until she was 5 years old, but I just don't think that is our future. The last several weeks she has taken forever to fall asleep for her nap, she rolls around and chats to herself and plays in her bed sometimes for an hour before finally falling asleep, then she will usually sleep for 1.5-2 hrs, but since it took forever for her to fall asleep she ends up not anywhere close to tired at bedtime. We've tried putting her to bed an hour late but she still tosses around and plays in her crib for an hour before falling asleep. So unless I am mistaken, I'm pretty sure she's ready to transition out of her nap. Problem is I have no idea how to do it! Yesterday she was happy and cheerful and did not seem at all tired in the afternoon so I decided to skip the nap. Everything was going well until I had to run to the store around 4 pm, I put her in the car and she was asleep before we even left our driveway! So obviously she was pretty exhausted, she almost never falls asleep in the car unless she is really, really tired. Then I didn't know if I should let her sleep as long as she wanted in the car or if I should wake her up, so I gave her about 40 min to sleep before waking her up (she was very disoriented and grumpy when I woke her up). Then it took her forever to fall asleep at bed time again. I'm not sure what to do, should I try to power through without the nap and avoid the car or stroller or anything else that might lull her to sleep (meaning we are stuck at home for the afternoon), or do I just go about our day and not worry if she falls asleep in the car/stroller for a short nap, or should I persevere with the nap and bump bedtime back even later?

Sorry this got really long, thanks for any replies!

 

[Teri7489]

I had this with my son 2 months ago and it was driving me crazy. He messed around every nap time, then eventually fell asleep which meant bedtime he messed around as well as he wasn't tired. I tried getting rid of his nap but it didn't work as he just fell asleep in the car so wasn't going to sleep at night until half 9 which couldn't continue. My answer was to wake him slightly earlier in the morning (so 7:30 instead of 8:15) It meant he was tired enough to nap, then tired enough to go to bed. Strangely he needed his nap brought forward a little as he started getting tired and needing it. I would have changed his morning rise time back again but with the nursery run it works better for us now. He definitely still needs his nap but just 2 months ago I was convinced he was ready to stop.

 

[jessmke]

Hmmm, maybe we'll persevere with it then. Isla already gets up at 7 am on the dot, so I don't want to encourage her getting up even earlier. Maybe I'll try to stick with the nap but wake her after an hour. I feel like she must need a nap if she sleeps for two hours. Often she'll wake after an hour or so, sit up and have a drink of water, then go back to sleep for another hour, so if she wasn't really tired then she would just get up when she first woke. Today she was up at 6 am (because she refused to eat lunch and supper the day before so she was starving!) so I put her down for a nap and she slept from 12:30-2:30, then I still put her to bed at 7pm like normal and she's been messing around for 30 minutes so far. This is so irritating, I just wish she could tell me what she needs!

 

[crownest]

I could have wrote this, my DS is 2 yrs 4 months as well I haven't a clue what to do

 

[nessaw]

This is my dd for the last 5 months or so. If she naps she does it after messing around in the cot then it impacts on bedtime. We have started to get her up after 45mins ish then we've both had a bit of time out and it means she goes to bed at 7. Sometimes She's asleep by 45mins so I figure she needed it. I tried wakindg up from the nap early but she was so grumpy it wasn't worth it!
Eta she had dropped it completely just after Xmas but has had a couple of sickness bugs since which have brought it back into play.

 

[jessmke]

This is my dd for the last 5 months or so. If she naps she does it after messing around in the cot then it impacts on bedtime. We have started to get her up after 45mins ish then we've both had a bit of time out and it means she goes to bed at 7. Sometimes She's asleep by 45mins so I figure she needed it. I tried wakindg up from the nap early but she was so grumpy it wasn't worth it!
Eta she had dropped it completely just after Xmas but has had a couple of sickness bugs since which have brought it back into play.

Maybe that's a better option than waking her up mid-nap, just giving her a set amount of time to fall asleep and if it doesn't work then get her up. At least it's "quiet time" even if she doesn't sleep. But like you say, if she actually needs a nap then she will go to sleep. I feel way more comfortable with that than waking her up during a nap, it goes against every fibre of my being to wake my kids up from a sleep!

 

[minties]

Dropping naps is one of life's miseries. I have never had it go smoothly. Usually a few months of crying, and falling asleep in the car etc always happen. My first two dropped their only nap very young, about 18 months, and it sucked.

Emma's only just dropped nap #2, so she's grumpy by 5pm. She gets up at 5am though.

 

[jessmke]

I seem to have figured out a solution to our napping problem, thank goodness! All I need to do is tell her what we are doing in the afternoon, and tell her we can't do it until she has a nap. For example, we're going swimming this afternoon but we can't go until you have a nap, or we're going to play at Annie's house but we can't go until you have a nap. Boom, she goes in her crib and straight to sleep because she is excited for the afternoon's activity. She gets her 2 hour nap and is still up early enough that bed time happens at the appropriate time. I'm so glad I found something that works because the few days we tried without a nap were an absolute nightmare!