Toddler - long nap in the cot, or a short nap on the go?

[Lostinspades]

We have an 18 month old who used to nap twice a day and was pretty good about napping on the go (in the car, in the pram). Now that he’s gone to one big nap (2-3 hours of at home), we’re finding him less good at sleeping on the go (maybe 1 hour in a pram). This would mean being a bit less flexible about when we go out and making sure he’s in his cot in the middle of the day.

Did anyone else experience this? Is it better to make sure he sleeps in the cot to get a full nap? Or can we compensate a little if we’re out by putting him to bed earlier in the evening if he’s only had a short nap? Any advice on toddler napping welcome.

When at home, 90% of the time DS gets a cot nap and that’s also what he gets on his 3 days at nursery as well. I’ve never really felt the need to be out all day on my days off with him. We’ll do an activity in the morning, home for lunch and nap and then another activity in the afternoon. He likes a routine.

We’ll generally have a full day out on one weekend day, when we’ll do a nap on the go and accept it’s shorter. I’ve never bought bedtime forward by more than half an hour, but obviously you can do if your DC is about to hit the floor.

Thanks. Our little one is also at home napping in the week. It’s really at the weekend when we have this dilemma to stay out or come back. If it’s just one day a week maximum, I suppose it can’t hurt too much

I wouldn't think about it too much. Just do whatever fits and see what you observe, if you find that a short nap is a nightmare for bedtime then you might want to try and protect it a bit more, or just have an earlier bedtime on those days?

For me, the peace of a long afternoon nap was always worth coming home for!

Yes both of mine did this.I just put them to bed 30 minutes earlier and they seem to make up the sleep then and don’t wake any earlier.

I generally just did what fitted in best with my plans on the day. If I was happy to stay in for a couple of hours to have a little break, do some laundry etc, then I’d do long nap in the cot.

I had to be out and about (especially the case with DC2, when you’re doing a lot more running around after DC1), then it was a shorter nap in the buggy. In that case, I’d do slightly earlier bed in the evening but would depend on how DC was feeling.

Of course if DC was poorly or very tired, I’d prioritise that and a long sleep if circumstances allowed (again, whether it’s DC1 or 2 makes a difference here!).

If you’ve got a kid who’ll be flexible about when and where they sleep, make the most of it! 👍

Yes my DD did this too around the same age. Most of the time we would be back home for nap, it was in all of our interests really for her to be well rested. It was a bit limiting in that respect, but if there was something specific we wanted to do for a longer day out we'd still do it and she would have some kind of nap eventually in the pram just shorter than usual and she'd often have it either earlier (nightmare later in the day!) or later than usual. We would bring bed time half an hour earlier if she had an earlier or shorter nap as she'd be absolutely flagging later. My DD became quite the napper and it wasn't until nearly 3 that she could manage without it really so that's when things became more flexible as a general rule. However a lot of other kids stop napping earlier than that.

Thanks for the tips