Tell me about your 2 year old’s naps/ sleep?

[Eatentoomanyroses]

DD is 25 months. Sleep had always been very dodgy. She’s a fan of the split night and frankly I’m on my knees with exhaustion. She will wake about 1am and be wide awake until 4am. My other Dd has been ill a lot lately and I’ve spent a lot of nights awake all night with her. So it’s either one or both of my kids up every night at the moment. Just wondering what time other people put their two year olds to bed and what time and duration naps are?
At the moment I generally put her down between 7:30 and 8 ish. Sometimes she goes straight to sleep other times she can mess about for a good hour. She has a nap about 11:30-12pm and I wake her at 1:30pm. She would have longer if I let her but do find she’s worse if I let her.

My DD dropped her naps completely not long after turning 2. We found she was exhausted by tea time though so we brought her bedtime forward to 6:30pm and saw a huge improvement in her night time sleep. That said, she did drop the nap of her own accord we didn't force it. She was just fighting it and wanting to stay awake so we went with it.

Maybe start shortening the nap and being bedtime forward? Might be hard work for a few days waking her up earlier from nap when she wants longer but worth a try and she will soon adapt.

@Overtherainbow9 thanks for replying. What time does your little one sleep through until if bedtime was 6:30? Must be nice to have an evening!!

She's older now, she is 4. Bedtime is now 7:30 and she sleeps until 6:30 usually which suits us fine as we have to be up and out early for work/pre school.

I think she was 2 and 3 months when she dropped the nap, some nights she slept right through until 6-6:30 the following morning. Other nights she might wake up once at some point but never for too long really. We only brought the bedtime forward for a few months to help her cope with dropping the nap, as she got older she just naturally started getting less grumpy and coped better so we managed to push it back later to the 7:30 it is now.

I really value my evening time, however I am home from work with her by 4 so feel like I get a decent amount of time with her after work/pre school. If I wasn't home until 6 for example I'd probably want to keep her up later to spend more time with her.

For my 2.5 year old 2 hours is to long. I now limit him to an hour. He normally goes down between 7.30-8pm and wakes about 6.30-7. He always wants to sleep longer and gets very grumpy with me but I need to do it otherwise he has us up at 5am. Hope you can get this sorted. Also I will add he has always been a good sleeper and know some kids just don't want to sleep as much. So be kind to yourself.

My 2 year old (in November) has just dropped naps altogether. He goes to bed at 7.30pm and wakes up about 6.30am / 7am.

My son has just turned 2. He dropped his nap just before his 2nd birthday. He now has the odd 5mins in the car once or twice a day.

Bedtime is about 6.45pm and he wakes at 6.30-7am.

My two year old has also dropped her naps, usually sleeps 7pm-7am. Occasionally she wakes in the night, maybe once a week.

My DD isn’t even quite 2 yet but I imagine by 25 months a 2 or 1.5hr nap in the day would be too long for her and would affect night time sleep! At 18 months 2 hrs would be too long of a nap now and I don’t even think DD has low sleep needs.
I would significantly cut the nap down for a few weeks and see where that gets you. Most 2.5 year olds aren’t regularly napping.

Dh is dead against the dropping of naps but reading this is making me think we need to look at it. I think I need to wait for her to have a half decent night though because she will literally climb into her cot for herself at the moment for lunchtime naps!

Yes they are. The average age for a toddler to drop naps is 3-5. The majority of 2.5 year olds are still napping.

DS1 (now a teen) dropped napping before he was 2 - shortly before his baby brother arrived.
DH and I then split the kids. I took the (bf) newborn. DH took the toddler. I got more sleep than I had done in 2 years ie the newborn, worh several night feeds, slept better than the toddler.

My 26 month old goes down between 7.15/8. Wakes around 8/8.30 and naps from 12.30/1 until 2.30/3.

@chelle0 good lord. I’m so jealous!

We’ve been very fortunate in terms of night sleeping. Ours did 8hrs at 8w, then 12 at 12w and apart from illness has been consistent. They never liked a nap though, it was always a chore. At nursery they did at the beginning for an hour or so (12m), but now at 19m, they’ve completely dropped a nap unless it’s in a pushchair, car (and often not then!). Ours will now occasionally nap during the day (40-60mins every 5 days or so). They’ll go to bed and be asleep by 19.30, then wake at 07.30 ( which is great as I can shower etc before getting them ready for nursery at 08.00.

Some need more sleep that others, some like long periods of sleep, some like cat naps. They’re all different! I used to be jealous of those who slept for a few hours during the day, but actually I like having a proper evening in to cook, chat with my husband, have a glass of wine, play music, watch a film etc.

My 26month old dropped her naps at 23 months (was shocked as her sister napped until 3.5yrs old)- so bed at 7 up at 7- definitely needs less sleep than my first!

I'm genuinely shocked how many 2yo don't nap anymore? DS1 is 4 in April and only dropped his nap a month ago. DS2 is 2 in March and he still has a 3h nap and sleeps 7pm-8am(ish). I have a close group of friends from a due date thread on here with DS2 and out of the 8 children, all 8 of them still have a minimum 2h nap and have minimum 11/12h night sleep. I think a nap at 2yo is very normal and I actually think it sounds like she's habitually waking in the night because she knows you'll go in there.

The majority of 2 year olds do still nap. This is just a few anecdotal stories.

My DD is a bit older (2y8m) and she goes to bed around 7:30pm (usually asleep by 8/8:15) and wakes 7/7:30am. She naps 1pm-2:30pm and definitely still needs it!

@ClubhouseGift I don't think the posters here who are saying their children dropped a nap at 2 are telling anecdotal stories. They're talking about what happened with their own children (myself inc!)

However, I was surprised when my son dropped his nap. It happened very quickly and I did worry he wouldnt be getting enough sleep but he seems fine.

Exactly! In my NCT group, mine has stopped at 18m, one stopped at 11m, the other three are still napping for an hour, 2hrs, and one still has two naps!!

My DD is 2.5 and also an awful sleeper, was often awake 1-4 with no hope of getting her back to sleep no matter what I tried. She dropped naps entirely at 18 months and now goes to bed at 6.30, asleep by 7 then the last few months she has 70% slept through til 7/7.30.

Yes they are. That’s exactly what an anecdotal story is: their personal experience, based on no factual evidence or research at all.

MN seems to have an above average amount of early nap droppers (no judgement in that, just something I've noticed compared to friends/family).

My 2.5 year old sleeps about 1900-0630 and naps about 60-90 minutes on non-nursery days. On nursery days, she sleeps about 15 minutes in the car there and back and then is exhausted and fairly intense to be around so I get her to bed ASAP.

She's definitely going longer in better spirits than she did even a couple of months ago, but isn't ready to drop her nap.

She also used to be a fan of a split night, I changed nothing (because I'm lazy, I used to just drag her into bed with me and let her waffle on about her nonsense) and it stopped again. Which I appreciate isn't hugely helpful when you're exhausted.

Every child is different. Mine are 4 and 2 (19 month gap). I synced their naps so they both napped at the same time after lunch - otherwise leaving the house would have been near impossible.

They have recently both dropped their naps, though they'll occasionally drift asleep on the couch of their own accord in the afternoon.

They usually go to bed at 20h30, and wake up around 8h.

My 2yo is a bit older than OP's though, as he was born in may.

OP, have you tried giving your daughter toys to play with, so she can entertain herself until she drops asleep again without you being necessarily awake ? My kids have a story box (basically a story-telling device where they can choose stories to listen to, audio only) and they frequently use them to fall asleep or when they wake up and are waiting for me to get them. But any other toys can work too.

Also, when she wakes up do you come and play with her til she falls asleep again ? Is she crying/distressed or happily playing ? I think perhaps you need to make it clearer to her that night is a time to sleep or at least play quietly, and you're not going to be entertaining her during that time.

About dropping naps - it's easy to know if your child is ready. Mine would get awfully grumpy around late afternoon if they hadn't had their nap. So give it a shot and see how she reacts, you'll quickly see if she's fine without it or not !