Confused - should I encourage 23 month dd to drop nap?

[alittleteapot]

The last few weeks then she has napped she's not ready to go to sleep at night till nine or ten - just not tired. But she still naps fairly easily most days - has only ever napped in buggy or car - and will sleep quite deeply for at least an hour and often more if left. Have tried waking her sooner but she's really out for the count and haven't the heart.

I guess it's a transitional phase - she had a long transitional phase when she dropped her morning nap. But I'm pregnant and could do with going to bed at 9pm myself, so I'm also quite keen to move things along so that she's asleep by 8 or 8.30 latest.

If I can manage to get her to sleep by 12 I can get away with 8.30 bedtime but she's not usually tired enough to nap till about 1.

The other new thing is she's often saying she's hungry once in bed even if she's had a good supper. Tonight I gave up and got her up and she's just had a bowl of porridge followed by some shredded wheat followed by blueberries.

Any thoughts?

To me it seems a little early to be dropping a daytime nap - but then my 4year old still naps 2 or 3 times a week and still has a 7.30pm bedtime.... My DS2 who is 2.4 will go a whole day without a nap if there is lots going on but he would need to go to bed at 6.30 to make up for it.

What time does your DD get up in the morning?

She usually gets up about 7.30. Today she got up at 8, napped at 1 - 1.45 and has only just now, at 10.15pm, gone off to sleep.

I'm having this problem too - it's only just started in the last couple of weeks though. My DD is 23 months too.

I have friends whose children dropped their nap at 2 years old and others who didn't drop it till 3 or 4. So it's probably different for every child.

My problem is that if DD doesn't have a midday nap she's in a evil mood at 5pm. But if she does have one she won't go to sleep till 9 o'clock.

I was wondering whether this was the transition between nap and no nap too...

I reckon it is, it's whether to just go with the flow or try and be a bit more structured about the transition, e.g. allow a nap only every other day. Think it may be out of my hands though...

Have kept her awake today so hoping for early bedtime tonight. She stayed awake easily but it did involve her been carried quite a long way as if in buggy she would have dropped off.