2.5yrs - is no more naps the only solution?!?

[lazzaroo]

So, where do I start with my little ones current sleep habits! I feel like we're all over the place!

Main issue is that she is not settling at the moment until about 9pm. Given that I am ofte in bed myself by 9.15am (she is also prone to early rising!!) this feels too late for a 2.5 year old!

It doesn't seem to matter what we do with her naps either! at first I thought it was that she was sleeping too much in the day, she can sleep up to 2 hours if I let her. But on the days when she only has a short nap (like today - 50mins and was up at 5.15am), she is still taking ages to settle. As I type this I am repeatedly returning her to bed and listening to her chatter!

Yesterday we had a rare lie in and so I decided not to let her nap, she coped okay with that, just becoming a little fractious at about 6pm. I (stupidly) thought she'd go done easily at 7-7-30ish but she didn't go to sleep until 8pm and that even took a little while. oh, and then she was up at 5.15am.

I hate that at bedtime I end up losing my patience and don't know whether to keep trying to find the magic solution or just embrace the situation and try to live with it (I'm pregnant by the way so am even more tired than normal!!)

Some nights she also wakes and is inconsolable until she comes in to our bed. Guess that's another problem but at the moment by 3am I'm too tired to fight it!!

lazzaroo im in the exact same situation as you. there are some ideas on the thread i started here ' how long does it take your toddler to get to sleep'

i also co-sleep in the middle of the night - wouldnt care about that if i had something of the evening to myself

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1518648-How-long-does-it-take-your-toddler-to-go-to-sleep-at-night

link to other thread

Thank you for replies. Always re-assuring to know we're not alone! Last night she slept from 9pm to 7.20am! it was amazing!!! don't mind the later evenings so much if she's going to lie-in oast 5am!!

so, today i limited her nap again to 1 hour. I'm still waiting for her to get to sleep (!) but will then go to bed myself with fingers crossed!! xx

Lazzaroo - are you me?
Having exactly the same issue with my 2.5 year old and not sure whether to drop the nap. My problem is she is screaming when I leave the room at bedtime ecause she's clearly not tired and wants company.

It's crazy isn't it! just when I get one problem sorted somehitng else changes!!! I'm not sure my little one would cope with no nap every day so I'm testing the shortened nap for a few days and see if that helps. I'm hoping that after a few days she will be more tired at bedtime and so can move her bedtime earlier again (but keep the lie-in!!)...probably asking too much!

She's asleep now but it took over 30mins to get there. She doesn't really get upset, just keeps getting up or calling me back into the room to show/tell me something!

If she wakes up at 5am again tomorrow I'll be back to square one!

Letr's hope someone has a bright idea to help us out soon!

Hi lazaroohopeyour bedtimes going better.
This weekend dd missed her nap on Saturday as we were out, she was then as,eep by 7 pm within five minand slept until 8 ish. Am rapidly. Oming to conclusion that she does not need the nap but can't face dropping it as dd2 is 15 months and sleeps at lunch so itsmy break from child are in day!!

It's been a bit of a mixed bag. She's had a couple o days with no nap (not through lack of trying!!) and we have continued to limit sleep to no more than 1 hour on oter days BUT she still takes bloody ages to go to sleep. I am currently waiting for her to go to sleep, periodically returning her to bed when she thinks it's funny to make a run for it. Once asleep she is sleeping much later in the mornings. Maybe I'll never have it all ways!

My 2.5 yr old is also the same. She currently has a 45 min nap at nursery and at weekends anything from no nap to 2 hours it doesn't seem to make a difference. She doesn't fall asleep until 8.30 (at the earliest) and expects us to sit outside the gate, otherwise she screams the house down and she is then up about 5.30/6. She occasionally still wakes up in the night too, this morning we have been up since 3 and she has refused to go back to sleep. My husband an I take it I'm turns to try and deal with her but I feel that we are pandering to her and we might be best just leaving her to cry it out. We have had issues with sleep for a long time and 18 months ago the neighbours complained about her so we have been paranoid ever since about not letting her cry. I think our next step will be to try and drop the nap, but this means she often falls asleep in the pushchair on the way home and then feels refreshed and ready to go for hours. I am 18 weeks pregnant and am praying that we are due a good sleeper!