Changing nap rountine for 2yo

[flossymuldoon]

My DS (25 months) sleeps between 7.30pm and around 6.30am. He has been going down about 9.30 and sleeping for around 3 hours.

I am going back to work in Feb and he will be at nursery 3 full days a week and there they do 'quiet time' between 12 and 2 and the kids that still need a nap will sleep then. I thought it might be an idea to try and change his naptime to early afternoon before he starts nursery and am in the process of moving his morning nap gradually later (so far it's at about 10.30am).

I have hear that toddlers are better if the nap is in the afternoon as then there are equal amounts of awake time between sleeps - is this true? I can't help but think that if he will only get 2 hours at nursery (which in reality will probably be about 1 1/2 hours once he has settled down!) that he won't be getting anywhere as much sleep as he needs.

Also, i am going to have a transition period where he will go to nursery 2 afternoons a week but the afternoon session doesn't start until 1pm, so if i move his nap then that will scupper naptimes altogether.

Just after any advice from anyone who has changed their routine from morning naps to afternoon, and any suggestions!

My ds is 29 mo and has had one afternoon nap about 1pm - 2pm only. I find if he goes over the hour it is more difficult to put him down at 7.30pm. He sleeps until 7am. Don't worry as he will just do what everyone else does in nursery. Good luck

I have never been a slave to nap times even when dd had one if I was out somewhere she sometimes missed it and always seemed fine. I think that you will find yourself putting him to bed before 7.30 on nursery days because particularly to start with they find it exhausting. That, plus the fact that he is having quite a long nap for his age means that probably you will end up with your routine just changing naturally.

Hi, my DS 24mths has about 1 - 1 1/2 hrs at nursery and he is tired when he gets home and bed about 7pm. They do the same, sleep about 12-2 but for ages after he started he still had a morning nap with us at home if he needed it (at the weekends). I found that so long as he got about 2 hours at some point in the day he was fine. Sometimes that is after lunch (1-3pm) and sometimes about 11-1pm with a later lunch.

I find at nursery they are so distracted that they can stay with it even if they are tired (i.e. my DS woke about 5am the other morning and was fine at nursery until the afternoon sleep, at home he would have been back in bed about 10am!). Plus they do what everyone else does.

I do find though that he can be a real nightmare in the evenings now - v tired but wanting to spend time with you so not wanting to go to bed. we just adapt his routine depending on his mood and it seems to work...

Good luck!