Time to drop her afternoon nap already?

[Shakeitooff]

My 23 month old is waking up before 6am most days, having a 1 hour nap 1-2pm and then playing up until gone 8.30pm every night without fail.

She used to go down at 7pm and wake at 7am, no problems and it has now been like this for over a month.

She seems tired in the afternoons as she nods off to sleep with no problems (although has to be cuddled to sleep before putting her down in her cot) and I am having to wake her after 1 hour- she would gladly sleep for 2 hours if she could!

I am wondering though if we stop the nap, she might actually be tired at bed time? She never seems very tired at all. We have even implemented a calm, predictable routine again like we did when she was baby to make her sleepy, but she doesn't seem sleepy at all until around 8oclock.

It seems early to be cutting her afternoon nap, but I don't see what else we could do? My eldest child stopped napping completely on his second birthday so it doesn't seem impossible that she's ready to go without?

It worked for us. You may need to bring bedtime earlier.

Would she still go to sleep if you made nap earlier to increase the time to bedtime? Might also be worth looking at other factors: how light is the room? How much physical exercise and mental stimulation is she getting in the afternoon to wear her out? If we have had a late nap we try to wear out physically and mentally before bed! Personally I'm a fan of keeping nap as long as possible.

Our dd was an early riser at that age - 5am ish, and needed her afternoon nap of 2 hrs. She would then go to bed at 7pm. Maybe let her sleep longer at nap time and don't wake her. There is a theory that kids who nap well sleep well, or something!?
You want to keep the nap going as long as you can, my dd was still having naps right up to starting school. I was always v grateful for it after being up at 5am every sodding day!

Our son was always an early riser - 5am. However he just started refusing naps at about 20 months old. So he went to bed at 5pm. He's now 2.5 years old and with the 5pm bedtime started to wake 4am sometimes 3:30am so we've started putting him down at 6:30pm and he's back to 5-5:30am wakeup.

My point is yes drop the nap, bring bedtime forward and then look out for the signs that you need to start shifting bedtime later again.

If shes up before 6am, waiting til 1pm for a nap is quite a long time, her awake time is over 7 hours? But if waking up at 2pm, and going to bed at 8.30pm that's about the same awake time or less.

All children are different but I'd think an earlier nap might be better before trying no nap. When DS was that age he'd wake about 5/6am and then nap about 11am/12pm -1/2pm and then bed about 7.30pm. He dropped his nap at 2.5 years.

Is she getting enough physical activity in lockdown?

We had to cut the nap just before our eldest turned 2. Bedtime went from 9pm to 7pm, and it was wonderful having evenings back!

It was a shame to lose that hour in the day, but I decided getting a break at the end of the day was more valuable in the end. And she slept better for it.

Not a fun choice to make though!

I would make her nap earlier and put her to bed earlier. 8.30 is late for that age. I read this brilliant sleep book and it said the main reason for early waking in toddlers is going to bed too late. It may sound counterintuitive but they actually need more sleep to sleep longer. It means their brains are more relaxed and they sleep longer. Both mine started waking earlier around that age and I put them to bed earlier and it worked! I'd put her bed half an hour earlier each day until you get to about 7pm. Mine were asleep by 7pm at 2 years. She clearly needs the nap and I fear cutting it out will just make the problem worse. An overtired child sleeps less not more.

When DS was that age, I found two naps was too many, but one was not enough. But of course napping needs differ from one child to another. How much daytime sleep – if any – your child requires depends in part on how many hours she sleeps during the night. I think it’s recommended that children this age do best with a total of 12 to 14 hours of sleep.
I knew my DC were ready to drop a nap when they spent their entire naptime playing, giggling, talking to their toys, and weren’t super grouchy in the evening. I suppose you’ve got to ask, could she make it through the day with minimal behaviour changes or melt-downs?
Dropping the nap is meant to be a transition. There will be days that still call for a nap.

She won't nap any earlier than 1pm. I think I might take her out in the pushchair around nap time today to see if she is really tired or just stuck in the routine of being cuddled to sleep in the afternoons. She often wouldn't nap for my inlaws and although seemed really tired by 6pm, managed until then fine a lot of the time.
She's doing ok for exercise. Lots of time in the garden and we have a large kitchen which she runs and scoots around in all day. We also take her to a nearby field to rn around for an hour most days.
At nursery she would usually nap for a maximum of 45 minutes so I'm just not sure she's much of a napper.

@SallyWD we already put her to bed at 7pm, we always have. It's just that she's crying for cuddles/playing/singing/climbing around until 8.30pm most nights. Bath time is at 6pm and we wind down for 1 hour, reading stories,breastmilk etc until it's time.