What do you do when your toddler drops their nap?

[milkyman]

My ds is 2,3 and has decided no more nap. I thought he'd sleep longer but he now gets up earlier. What do you do instead and how did you find it. My ds likes to watch cbeebies instead but I just feel guilty!!

I've tried putting him up for a nap but he just screams..!

Was them dropping a nap liberating as you are not stuck.

I nearly cried, tbh! I relied on DD's naps to get a break!

She copes fine, we just carry on with whatever we were doing.

Yep, I wanted to cry. I treasured those 2 hours of peace and quiet.

Now, I just get him all cosy on the sofa when he is feeling tired in the day (but doesn't want to nap) and put his favourite film on. He drinks his milk and has a snack and I sit with him with my cup of tea.

Sometimes he even dozes for a while!

Its lovely - its real quality time for us. All snuggled under the covers. We love it.

Agree it's a sad day when nap time ends. Try to have quiet time with a story or story cd or half hour tv instead. Nobody died from 30 mins of CBeebies do not feel guilty.

This is what cbeebies and netflix were designed for! We watch monsters inc and smurfs a lot at the moment!

I came on here just to say cry!

Sigh and feel a bit desperate? Mine both dropped theirs when they turned 1. One!

Cbeebies is fine.

might be a bit more than 30mins of cbeebies... he gets up so early he wants it in the morning and evening too... he does lots of stuff though... nursery, playgroup, beach, shops, mtg friends so probably should drop the guilt...

Cry here too, sorry.

I found there was a good few weeks where he still needed a nap every 3 days or so for an hour just to keep the right side of insanity (his and mine!) As he would get really shitty by late afternoon otherwise. After a couple of months he seemed to adjust and just some quiet time in the afternoon was enough.

Get through that and it is liberating. Free to spend the whole day out doing whatever.

pilchardprincess - one

yes i like the idea of spending thr day on the beach in the summer rather than rushing back for nap. tbh he was so grumpy when he woke up i started dreading naptime..

Oh yes, and he refused those naps in bed so it was either curled up on me on the sofa with Cars on in the background or me driving around with a takeout coffee from McDs for an hour as the car seat was guaranteed to send him off.

My DS (21 months) is currently in the process of dropping his nap and we tend to have 2 days with a naps and then 3 days no naps then back to naps again.

I feel I'm quite lucky in a sense that DS will lay and cuddle with his softies on the sofa while I have a cuppa and mnet/read a book so I'm still getting some down time while he relaxes.

my 2.5 y old dd has recently dropped her nap (though she still sleeps at nursery) and tbh I feel liberated! It means we can go out during the day and stay out if we want; we're not imprisoned by her routine any more. If she's tired or whingy then we have a quiet snuggle on the settee if 3.10 y old ds let's us and she goes to bed half hr earlier. Great all round!

lets us sodding autocorrect.