2.5yo sleep and bedtime routine gone wrong - time to drop the nap?

[YRGAM]

DS sleep routine has been very solid since he went to his own room at 6 months - strong sleep associations, usually sleeping through, not tired or grouchy in the day. He's never been a big napper, more than an hour in the day has been pretty rare.

For the last couple of months his bedtime routine has broken down - general craziness during the story, not settling once I leave the room, inventing reasons for me to come back in, and so on. This has coincided with some terrible twos behaviour. For anyone with a similar experience, does this sound like the nap needs to go, or is it just an extension of him asserting his agency generally? Thanks!

Yes, sounds like it's time to drop the nap! Sorry. You could try it for a few days and see how it goes.

What is he like at nap time? My youngest recently dropped his nap and he would happily go upstairs with me and get into bed but then he’s just lie there chatting and after about half an hour start saying mummy I can’t sleep can I get up. So it was obvious that he wasn’t tired enough to naturally fall asleep. But we also noticed that on the days he did go to sleep the bedtime was getting quite a lot later. So as the PP said just give it a try. It won’t necessarily be gone forever just because you try it. My son went through a period of 2 or 3 months where he was napping every other day or every three days. And then gradually he just wasn’t tired when we went to put him down. He’ll still catch a little sleep if we’re driving home from somewhere in the afternoon but on balance has adjusted really well to not having one and I just make sure I get him to bed very promptly in the evening as I know he is very tired by then. Everything you read tends to say that problems at bedtime are a strong sign that the nap may no longer be needed (however much you may want it to stay - I know I did!).

It’s the nap. My 2 year 4 month old had a great bedtime routine. We’d have both her & big sister in bed, going to sleep by themselves between 7-7.30pm without fail. The last couple months, we’ve fought sleep until 9-9.30pm🥴 We’ve reduced & reduced nap to just 20 minutes but still, battling sleep. So as of last weekend, we dropped the nap. And bam, asleep with no fuss at 7pm! She’s kinda not 100% ready to drop it, if we are out in the car, she’ll sleep. Occasionally she nods off on the sofa. Def quite grouchy around 4/5pm. But equally, she was knackered from late nights & needing to be up to get ready for nursery at 6.30/7am in the week. So, overall it’s what’s needed.

Annoying though, DD1 happily napped for 1.5 hours until a couple months after her 3rd birthday & went to bed at 7pm! Obviously no.2 decided no thanks really early 🙈

I think we're getting to this stage with our 2.5 year old ds. He's never been a good sleeper but we'd been a routine of sorts for a while. Recently he's going to sleep later and later, taking longer to nod off and sometimes still getting up early.

My conundrum is, although he hasn't napped at home in ages, I know 100% if we're out in the afternoon he will sleep in the car/buggy. He also always sleeps at nursery, so I'm wondering if he does still need some form of nap? He gets pretty wired when he's tired, so instead of winding down / quiet time he ends up running around like a mad thing while I try to stop him falling over.

We're aiming for just cat naps and trying to get them in early and see how we go...