naps for 2 year old

[Parker]

How do you know it's time to stop the nap?
My DS2 has 1 hour at 11.30 but is taking a long time to settle for his nap and at night and yet can't really cope without it!

My 2 and 5 month old has an afternoon nap at about 2ish. He loves it and settles really easily. Nights are a different matter as he tends to oversleep in the afternoon (upto 2 hours )and then won't settle at night. Recently tried cutting it out but that didn't work as he kept falling asleep at funny times as so knackered.

Try cutting his nap back to half an hour, it sounds like he is nearly ready to drop it. Its frustrating isn't it, personally I hate being tied to the house in the afternoon and he always wakes up so grumpy.

My dd2 is 2.6 (nearly!) and still has about an hour in the afternoon, she goes down about 1o'clock and she does still need it or she's unbearable by teatime!

Could you move his nap to after lunch when e might be a bit more tired, but limit it, the possiblity is that he's overtired by bedtime if he's sleeping in the morning.

Anyway that hour in the afternoon is my MN time!

dd still has a nap for up to 2hours + at about 11.30am (later when she's had playgroup). She's 2.8.
We did try dropping them the other week and it was ok for the first couple of days but then she ended up exhausted.
It has only very recently started affecting her bedtime routine and she's taking quite a while to drop off now.
If she gets much worse I will have to start phasing them out a bit more seriously or only letting her sleep for an hour. I just hate to wake her! It goes against everything!

Thanks for the messages. I found if he had his nap later then he wouldn't go to bed at 7 which is the golden bedtime for our other DS1 who is 5.
Kaz33 Do you think half an hour is enough?
I dont think he(We!) could cope all day as he wakes at 6am and he would just fall asleep on the school run and we cant have that!!
Our DS1 had a nap after lunch until he was 3 and a bit so I was banking on a nap for as bit longer!
Lucyfercat I wondered if it could be overtiredness too at bed time - it seems to take him a while to settle after a busy day.

Yes cupcakes I remember the nursery exhaustion! but then( when DS2 starts nursery in April) as the nap will be later it cant be too long as we will have to fit in lunch, nap and back at school to pick up DS1 by 3.10!! and still in bed by 7 I hope.

my three year old still has a nap in the afternoon (if I force him

ds2 stopped napping around the age of 2. He just didn't need it anymore. He used to get up really early but started sleeping later when he dropped his nap. At around 2.5 if he even had a 15 minute nap he would be up till 9pm instead of 7pm - they are all so different. Ds1 also napped till 3 and would have continued if I had let him.

Sorry to be thick Stripey but how did you know he didn't need it any more and did it affect his night time sleep?

Well basically he would refuse to sleep at nap time but if I did manage to persuade him it would be so hard to get him to go to bed at his normal time. He was still in his cot so we would put him to bed but hear him awake and messing about through the monitor for ages after we put him down.

On the days he had no nap he would go straight off and sleep and wake up later the next day. I think to start with I gave him a nap maybe every 3 days and then just on the days when he seemed really tired until he didn't nap at all and as I mentioned if he did by some fluke nap after this he just wouldn't settle at all at night.

Thanks for the help Stripey. I always tend to see our two boys as being the same but of course they are v different. I guess I was just thinking that without his nap he would get overtired and not sleep well as this is what DS1 still does!
I think I'll see how it goes over the next week and maybe cut him down to half an hour as some days I hear him messing around for ages on the monitor too!

my dd is trying to resist naps a the mo, is 2 on 1st Nov.....didn't nap yest or today, but did drop to sleep as soon as she hit the bed on both evenings......only way I seem to be able to get her to sleep at the mo, is in the car or in the buggy....just bed is not doing it.

thats OK Parker. How old is ds2 btw?

I was actually happy when ds2 no longer needed daytime naps as he would only sleep in his cot which meant I couldn't leave the house. Once he didn't need them anymore I was happy to be able to go out shopping etc without worrying about naps etc. Good luck just miss a few and see how he is.

dd started dropping a nap at around 18 months and by 2 it was all gone - we're talking we could drive around in the car for 1 hour and she wouldn't be asleep gone. I'd have loved her to nap more. When she did nap though it could be quite long and it definitely helped to wake her earlier

my dd is 3 now and if I let her she would still nap in the afternoon but I make her solider on. I found it a sort of natural progression like most things with baby to toddler. sometimes we welcome that afternoon nap but have to suffer the consquences in the evening.

Babies tend to sleep in 45 minute 'cycles' - our 2 year old surfaces from sleep every 45 mins or so. If you are going to restrict your DS nap, try waking him after 45 mins or 1.5 hours. Waking after one hour will wake him while in a deeper sleep and cause grumpiness.

Stripey DS2 is 2. I'll try 45 mins today if he needs one Grizzly or no nap if poss.Can't believe we're actually reaching the end of an era!!