Time to drop the nap?

[alittleconfused1]

I posted before about my 2.5yo only napping in the car. She’s never napped in the cot but did use to nap in the buggy.

We have always been fairly fluid with her routine and she settled into a 6.30 get up, 12.30 nap and 7.30 bedtime herself and was like that for ages. When the nap struggles started I brought bedtime forward to 6.30 for no nap days and 7 if a short or early nap which worked fine.

All of a sudden she has started getting up at 5, she’s wide awake! I change her nappy, tell her it’s still bedtime and then put her back down (my rule is not up before 6). She basically lies in her cot playing or chatting or singing but is still wide awake. Normally around 6 she stands up, takes her sleeping bag off and yells for me! It’s all fine expect then I am wide awake too and I need more sleep!

I was always told early starts are often due to overtiredness and she looks very tired. So last night we did an early night and she was in bed for 6.45pm, she rolled around and chatted and sang for an hour before falling asleep so clearly wasn’t tired. But it meant she only slept 8-5 which let’s face it isn’t enough for an active toddler. She napped for about an hour and a half yesterday.

i wondered if I should drop the nap, my only concern is that when she gets up at 5 she is on her knees by 11.30! But then if she naps she often isn’t tired at bedtime. But I really can’t tell with her, she has no obvious signs, bonkers I know when I’ve been her mum for nearly two and a half years!! I’ve tried capping the nap to say an hour (sometimes she only does 30 mins) but if I wake her we have at least an hour or hysterics and misery and complete carnage.

i was just wondering if anyone else had had similar and if they dropped the nap? And what they did if their children were on their knees by lunch

i have tried later bedtimes too but that makes the early starts even worse! 4.45!!

NB quiet time alone in cot leads to hysteria and trying to climb out. I have done an hour of CBeebies on no nap days but don’t really want to do that every day

Thanks so much!

Unfortunately 5am with kids is a normal/reasonable time for a wake up. I'd just go with it for now, it sounds like she's doing well just playing for an hour in her cot.

Maybe for some but absolutely not in my book. In fact I don’t entertain anything before 6:30, ideally 7. Back to bed! It’s not reasonable to be up at 5am in the slightest.

To be honest OP I think she definitely does still need the nap, there’s no point having a miserable child who needs a kip. I’ve always just gone with the nap and come what may with regards to bedtime. Mine is nearly 4 and sometimes still needs his nap.

Also I do find with mine whenever he has a ‘brain leap’ he will drift off later or wake up earlier but we just have to go with it and it always settles. We never skipped his nap in an attempt to rectify it as I think it’s developmental.

Contrary to previous posters, I would say she's definitely in the nap dropping window, and I would try it. Even if she's ready, it's still a bit of a tricky adjustment – they have to go from ~6 hours awake to ~12 hours awake, which is a big jump however you do it – so I'd expect some difficult afternoons (get out of the house if you can) and some very early bedtimes at first.

If she is ready, you should see things getting much better within a week, although it might take a bit longer to fully establish. You might also find that she needs a nap every other day for a bit, then a couple times a week, before it actually disappears.

I can see some similarities to my DS who has recently turned 3. We dropped his nap to half hr around the time he turned 3 so he’s still getting some rest in the day but 4 times out of 5 it’s an easier bedtime experience and he’s sleeping until after 6 every day sometimes close to 7. He generally gets about 11 hrs over night and half hr in the day which seems to work well. We often give him a slightly longer daytime nap at the weekend if he seems particularly tired but not really more than 1 hr as otherwise his overnight sleep seems to be affected. I hope I’m not speaking too soon and the days of pre 6am starts are about to return! Most of his peers from NCT and nursery fully dropped their nap a while ago so I would definitely reduce it at the least. Realistically you might have a few tricky days where she adjusts to the new schedule