Should I do bedtime at 20:30 instead?

[ecnatsid]

Hi,

My 2.5 year old has always been a great sleeper, in bed with a story at 19:00 and usually asleep within half an hour. Sleeps through, and has 12 hours sometimes more.

We dropped the nap a while ago, but recently he's been really needing a nap otherwise he would fall asleep at 4pm and that would effect his nighttime sleep.

We let him nap for 40-60 mins at 11:00 before lunch, this seemed to work well.

Now the last 3 nights he's been a nightmare to get to sleep it's taking until 22:00. It's a real struggle, there's tears and generally it's awful. We have a 9 month old to settle but thankfully my shift pattern is days so im home and have help from DH.

Should I push bedtime to 20:30? We've considered dropping the nap but he's really showing signs of needing it. This is a new thing, he's generally a good sleeper and had a great routine but this sudden change is causing him to be overtired

Are you doing the 7pm story and then he is still awake at 10? Do you stay with him till he falls asleep.

Eldest dropped her nap between 18-20mo. There was nothing we could do about it, she just flat out refused to lay down and sleep. She was horrific from about 4pm till bedtime but because she just refused to nap even at that time we had no choice but to push through. Honestly, after about three weeks she was absolutely fine and went through the day with no problems.

Id say if you want to keep the nap and are happy with less of an evening then go for it, but their body clocks do seem to reset themselves after a few weeks if you want to give it up. Regardless of when DD1’s peers dropped her nap (and a buddy of hers only just dropped his at 3.5!) they all seemed to go through a transition period that was hard work.

If he naps I would do bedtime later.

When my youngest was at this stage it was a 10/11pm bedtime no matter what we did. And similarly we had to time naps or she'd fall asleep on the afternoon school run. For us it went on for around 6 months, and we didn't find an effective way to get around it until she outgrew the need for a nap.

We would often take her out in the evenings for walks, a run on the beach etc which helped. And a few times a week my dp would take her out so that I had a few hours to myself. I remember being a bit judgemental before having children when seeing little ones out 'past their bedtime'. Since having my own children, there's very little I hold opinions about.

Planning things to do at home with dd in the evenings helped a bit too. Lots of long baths and baking and time in the garden. I sound a bit passive and twee here I know but it was miserable for all of us when we were constantly fighting against it. And having evening plans helped. She now goes to bed around 8/8.30 and is naturally a 'late to bed, late to rise' type when given a choice.

I think it took 6/7 months for DS to drop his nap completely. We ended up having a period where bedtime was later to allow for the nap. It was a lot easier than overtired and hysterical or bedtime being a riot. It soon settled down again.

We went for drop the nap and chaos from 4pm to bedtime around 6:30pm / 7pm option. It lasted a few months until DS got used to not napping, though he was grumpy early evening until much older. But for me having him active later in the evening wasn’t an option, I needed a rest and sleep for work the next day.