Advice on nearly 3 year old dropping nap please!

[InsaneDame]

DS2 will be 3 in April, for the last few weeks he has been refusing naps about 2 - 3 days a week. The last 6 days (including today) he has only napped once. He seems in good spirits without the nap, not struggling too much with tiredness. My problem is that since he isn't napping he is in bed asleep by 7pm, the majority of the time he will sleep through but sometimes wakes once for a wee then back to sleep. But because of the early bedtime he is waking up around 6/6.30am (before he was going to bed about 8ish and sleeping until about 7/7.30). He woke up at 5.20 yesterday, we left him in his bed until 6.45 but he didn't go back to sleep. This means he is getting an hour less sleep since dropping his nap and we aren't happy with him getting up so early - he wakes his big brother up who could really do with the extra hour.

How did others deal with the nap drop? Will he just adjust to sleeping a longer night over time? Thanks!

Yes he napped yesterday after waking at 5.20 but he woke at 6.10 today so I thought he might nap again but he wasn't interested. Wouldn't even drop off in the car which is usually a guarantee!

I introduced "quiet time" in the afternoons. I'm a very routines way, we would fetch a fluffy blanket and pillow and set up a bed on the sofa. Toddler would get about 90 minutes in which I never, ever planned to go anywhere or do anything.

He didn't go upstairs to bed anymore, but had a long lie down on the sofa. Sometimes he would sleep on the sofa, some days he wouldn't. But either way he got a good rest, even if he didn't sleep.

The transition to when no sleep or rest time was needed took a long time, probably 9-12 months of gradual transition out of the lunchtime nap.

Thank you for that advice. He sometimes says to me that he wants to 'build a bed' on the living room fluffy rug and rests there with a pillow and blanket so maybe I should encourage that more and for longer.

Watching with interest as we are in similar position. Dd doesn't want to go to sleep but some days gets sleepy at 2.30/3.00 and by that time it's too late to nap so a bit stuck.
Some days we do the quiet time thing and she is ok. Each day is different depending on what we do

Sun how old is your DD and when does she go to bed and wake up in the morning?

Our dd is 2.3 and has recently decided she doesn't want to nap in the day. This usually means she's in a horrible mood by later in the afternoon so have been resorting to taking her for drives in the car around the time she gets tired. Not ideal but means she's in a better mood.

She is 3.2 and goes to bed around 7.00-7.30 was around 7.45//8.00 and getting later just before dropping the nap. She has always been an early bird and wakes up around 6am. If she does fall asleep in day now I try to wake her after half an hour or so

You don't know you're born!!!! I can't help sorry but how did you manage to leave him in his bed? When ds1 is awake we have to get up with him.

I do what FATE does. DD1 has about an hour on the sofa under a blanket then is bed 7.30-8.00 ish.

katienana He just doesn't get out until we get him out. He just laid there singing/chatting to himself - he went quiet on and off so maybe dozed. My eldest (now 7 years old) wouldn't get out of bed until we got him until he was 5.5 years old! I remember hearing him wake up one morning at 7.30 when he was around 4 years old but we fell back to sleep and left him until 9.20! He had laid singing quietly all that time

You've done well to get to 3. Both of mine dropped regular naps around their 2nd birthday, though DS2 still napped when he needed to. That was harder, as it meant that our routine changed from one day to the next, but he kept that up until he was 4. With DS1, I was pregnant and knackered, so insisted on quiet time, even if that meant us both just chilling out in front of Nick Jr (It had lovely things like Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and Kipper on, plus proper old school Thomas the Tank Engine back then!) and we managed to shuffle his bedtime down to sometime before 10pm!

And I consider him staying in bed until we get him as small pay back for the two years I had getting up to him 4 - 6 times a night! I knew I was born then.....

He woke at 5.40 today

Hi...DD 2.10 has been refusing naps on/off for a 6 months now so I have given up trying! Same problem tho....no nap equals bedtime at 6-6:30pm!...and wake time 6-6:30 (was 7:30-7). However, I have just bought a gro-clock and for the last week it has worked a treat! Big reward for waiting for the 'sun' before getting up 😉
I've been moving the time forward by 5 mins each day so now she goes to bed at 06:30 and waits until the 'sun' at 7am 🎉
...might be worth a try x