dropped morning nap - too tired to eat lunch

[Evita]

After much procrastination (much of it on here!) for the last 2 days I've dropped dd's morning nap. She's almost 17 months and her afternoon nap was getting later and later and beginning to interfere with her night's sleep. But previously she would sleep 1-1.5 hours in the morning around 10am, then wake up for lunch about 12ish. Now I've shifted her lunch to 11ish but she's so tired she sits slumped in the high chair and only manages maybe half of what she would normally. Anything I can do about this?

On a more positive note though, she's been having a great 2 + hour sleep after lunch and last night slept her first solid 12 hours in ages. Keeping my fingers crossed ...

prettycandles, so how much does your dd manage in her afternoon nap now? I'd ideally like dd to do 2-3 hours too and she did for the first 3 days then yesterday and today she's slept for only an hour which I don't think is enough given she only has an 11 hour night. Maybe I'll try to reinstate the am nap tomorrow morning and see what happens.

Evita, I haven't had time to read the whole thread, but my DD is nearly 18 months (similar in age to yours?). Did you have a particular reason for dropping her morning nap?

My DD tends to sleep 7.30 til between 6.30 and 8am, (though she tends to wake at about 7am). During the day she has 1 nap: it is either before lunch (about 11.30am), in which case she will have lunch late (between 1 and 1.30pm), or, depending on how stenuous the day has been, she may nap after lunch for between 1 and 3 hours! I can usually tell which type of day is will be: by the time she has woken, what we have done during the morning etc.

That won't help you at all, just thought it may give you an idea of what I do.

Mum2Ela, thanks for that. Blimey a 1-3 hour nap sounds ok to me! I can't really tell yet how it's going to go with my little one. She was sleeping well until I disrupted her schedule. I dropped the morning nap because I thought her afternoon one was getting too late (she often wasn't waking til 5pm) and then her bedtime later too. But in general she had much more sleep that way so I'm not sure now if I made the right decision. I guess I also thought that around 18 months they do go to 1 nap a day?

Evita - perhaps you should stick to your new routine for a bit and see if she gets used to it. You said that she only slept for an hour today and woke up. How was she when she woke up - did she seem like she had had enough sleep? Often if my DD does this she wakes up grotty and I cuddle her back to sleep becuse I know if she gets up - she will be devil-child!!

Mum2Ela, it was dp with her today as I was working and he said she woke up screaming. I'd have been tempted to try to ease her back for a bit longer but he got her up. It seems she managed the rest of the day ok but was shattered when I got home and flaked out the moment she hit the cot! I think she's so exhausted when she goes to bed now that she sleeps v. heavily and then wakes v. early. Or earlier than she used to. Today total sleep in 24 hours has only been 12 hours. Not good.

Well, just to carry this on for anyone who can still be bothered to listen to me whittering on, I gave dd a morning sleep today as she was just sitting in a little heap on the bed looking glazed since she woke up at 6.30. She went out like a light at 10am and is still there now (11.30). I'm beginning to think she's just not ready to drop this nap yet and I should wait maybe another month before I try again. There's no real rush. She just seems to need her sleep.

i think what u need to do (this is only my opinion) is take your lead from your dd. i said dd2 dropped her morning nap ages ago, but that was her doing. the afternoon nap is still in place as she seems to need it. if your dd still seems to nap in the morning then she does need it. dd1 was still napping until 3yrs old. now she stays awake all day except when she ill.

You're completely right misdee, I need to follow her. I think the reason I've fretted about this so much is because I've felt I was 'forcing' something that she wasn't really ready for. Today I did the old routine of 2 sleeps, she slept well and was fine all evening, not cranky and tired. So we'll see how it goes.

What about keeping her 2 sleeps like you say, but make sure that you wake her up on her 2nd sleep no later than say 4pm? then there will be enough time for her to get tired again before bedtime. My daughter (20 mnths) dropped 2 sleeps at 1 yr ish. I was finding 2 small sleeps a problem. So I took her out and about to keep her occupied in the morning then put her to sleep at lunchtime and just fitted lunch around the sleep. She sleeps for 1.5 - 2.5 hours a day for her nap now and about 12 hours per night. Bear with it, and go with your gut instinct!

Yes, I was going to suggest the same thing, why not go back to your previous schedule, but wake her from her afternoon nap? And as for how much she manages on the afternoon nap, well today was a classic: a busy morning, so she managed to skip the am nap, early lunch, then down at 12.30, so I had good hopes for a 2-3hour nap; at 2.00 I took her big brother in for his nap (they share a room) and he asks 'Why is * asleep?' at the top of his voice - so she promptly wakes up, screams because she's still tired, and I had to evacuate her so that ds could go to sleep. So that's it, she's up for the rest of the day, and what annoys me is that she would have gone back to sleep for anyone else but me. Ggggr.

I've kind of decided the same thing, make sure her afternoon kip doesn't go on too long. to be honest I'd probably have kept with the 1 nap thing if it didn't seem to be affecting her night sleep so much. She went right down to only sleeping 10 hours and then sometimes only 1 hour in the day. Not enough! If she did a regular 12 hour night I think I'd go with the 1 day time sleep but so far she's rarely managed that kind of night sleep.

Evita - I agree. Let her sleep if she needs to sleep. DD only slept for 20 mins all day today, and went to bed at 7.45 as usual. But then other times she will sleep for 3 hours, all afternoon! Let us know how it goes. x

Hi Mum2Ela, thanks so much for being so patient with my ditherings. Well, for the last 3 days I've just gone back to the old pattern, 1.5 hour sleep in the morning, same in the afternoon and she's definitely sleeping better at night again though today woke at 6.15 ... groan ... I'm going to sort of play it all by ear I think. If she looks worn out in the morning and has woken early then I'll put her down for a kip and if she's full of beans and woken at a reasonable time I may try giving her just the 1 nap. I do think she's a girl who seems to need sleep. After 3 hours awake she always starts to flag or get fed up and impatient with things.