2.5yo dropping final nap/split nights on no nap days??

[TinyTurtle88]

My 2.5 year old has started skipping his final nap. The first 3 times, we’d put him to bed at 6.30pm and he’d sleep through for 11.5-12 hours. Since then, he keeps having split nights on no nap days. Help???

I’m still offering the nap but if he refuses, we just carry on with our day. He’s obviously tired by 4pm but copes ok, not too horrendously grumpy. Then asleep like a dream at 6.30pm. But the split nights are killing me.

Do we just have to ride them out? Is it from being overtired? I thought split nights were due to under tiredness. On days he naps he won’t go to bed until 9pm, even if it’s just a capped 30 min nap.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any words of wisdom or advice?

I am having a very similar problem. My daughter is 2 and 3 months. She still has a 2 hour nap though but has been having split nights. I’ve tried earlier bedtime later bedtime shorter nap. Nothing seems to help.

her bedtime is 9 though and wake up 8. Whenever I do an earlier bedtime she wakes up a couple of hours later as if from a nap.

Sorry no advice but solidarity from a fellow exhausted mama!!

@JayJayj How long did you try a shorter nap for? 2 hr nap for a 2yo is quite long from what I’ve heard from others too. Perhaps try capping the nap consistently for 5 days before writing it off? From what I’ve read, split nights seem to most commonly be due to too much day time sleep. The reason I’m stumped about my situation is they only happen on no nap days.

From what I remember from bleary reading when this afflicted us at the 2-1 nap point, it’s too much sleep OR circadian rhythm being out - so (speculation) could it be that aome
days he naps, some not and his rhythm is confused? Or does he have different wake times when he has a split night? I think keeping a consistent wake time even when he’s knackered from being up for hours is supposed to help…

Splits nights can still be caused by being over tired.

Every thing I have tried has been a week at a time.

I have been tracking her sleep and she gets about 12 hours sleep in 24 hours regardless of how the nights go. Her over night sleep tends to be 10 hours. So she definitely needs the 2 hour nap. The HV said 1-2 hours is normal at this age.