23 months old - dropping nap?

[LettucesAndRoses]

Hello lovely people,

My DD is 23 months old and takes 1.5 to 2 hours going to sleep at night whenever she has an afternoon nap. The length of the nap and the bedtime itself don't seem to affect it, she just takes forever to go to sleep. She looks and acts tired but is agitated and won't settle once in bed.

I tried skipping the nap and she's asleep in 5 minutes but wakes up a lot so clearly overtired. I'll add too that if I let her nap as much as she wants to, she can go 3 hours in the afternoon so it feels like she does need the sleep but then the evenings are hell.

In case it's useful to know, she went from two naps to one at 11 months.

Any idea what's the best thing to do? I feel I've tried everything and just want an hour or two with my DH at night!

I would drop it.
My son ended up like that and it was honestly so hard, literally felt like I was spending all night evenings trying to get him to sleep.
He is out like a light within a minute now.
It can take afew days/week for them to adjust to having no nap.
Bring bedtime forward and gradually move it back once she's settled having no nap

Thanks for your reply @SunshineClouds1

How many hours of awake time did your son have when your first dropped the nap? Did he wake up a lot at the start of the night?

He woke anytime from 6-7 and we would put him down 1800, gradually moved this back.
Tbh he didn't wake once in bed asleep as he was knackered 😅

My little one dropped his nap just after he turned 2. He was the same as yours at around 20, he could easily nap for 3 hours during the day if I left him but he was up until 10 or 11pm every night. I started cutting his nap shorter and only allowed him to nap for an hour and a half maximum, and he would sleep at a more reasonable time in the evening. A few months later he cut the nap himself which meant I had to bring bedtime forward a bit at the start until he got used to being awake from 7am until 7/8pm every day.