Is DD dropping her daytime nap?

[INXS]

She is 26 months and just learned how to climb out of her cot. So she's now in a big bed as it was getting farcical (she loved climbing out of the cot, but insisted on help getting back in). She likes the bed, hasn't fallen out, enjoys it.

BUT she's refusing to nap, unless she dozes off in the stroller. If she does sleep in the day, she won't go to bed at night til after 8pm (I had worked quite hard to get her on a 7pm bedtime from about 10 months). Then she wakes up at 5 or 6 - too early.

We moved house right around Cotgate - so is she just feeling disrupted? Or is it the end of her naps?

Although I would mourn the passing of the nap, I'd cope - but what's really difficult at the moment is that as soon as I put her in the stroller, she falls asleep. So going without a nap will make the days really long - the weather is freezing where we are (as in, snowing) so dawdling around outside on foot really isn't an option. And I don't drive. So we'd have to spend all afternoon inside until she adjusts.

as soon as I put her in the stroller, she falls asleep

She still needs the nap then. It would be hard work to get her to sleep if she no longer needed it.

How about accepting stroller naps but indoors, with you pushing back and forth in the house? Or what about giving her a blanket and letting her sleep on the sofa?

Really, this is probably all down to the fact that she's come out of the cot without being emotionally ready. The fact that you stopped using the cot because of a behavioural issue is very telling. Her climbing out is/was behavioural - just bad behaviour you could have dealt with like any other unwelcome behaviour - by setting expectations and not tolerating unacceptable behaviour.

Her refusing naps in bed is just an extension of this same behaviour issue. If you had have daughter her that climbing out of the cot is not acceptable, it is not OK and she should stop doing it. Then it would be much easier to keep naps, because she'd lie in her cot in the dark, without an option of getting out. So would more often than not she'd just sleep.

She now has lots of other options that are not sleeping. So it's quite difficult to say if she's not napping because she doesn't need to nap.

Wow.

Wow what, fruityb?

FATE - the thing is that when she's sleeping during the day (in the pram), her night time sleep suffers. She's only getting 9 hours which doesn't seem enough. So isn't she adjusting the night sleep to account for the daytime nap that she may not need?

I have no idea how to get her to stay in her cot - you seem almost annoyed at me for that?!

No, not annoyed. Just trying to explain that this issue is probably the same and the climbing out of the cot thing. Its likely to be more about behaviour and less about sleep needs.

If you do get her to doze in the stroller, what kind of time is it?

I'd probably try for an earlier, and limited, lunchtime nap. Maybe an early lunch and a 11.30am nap, waking at 12.30pm. Or 12-1pm.

Its usually true that poor sleep = worse sleep.

So a good sleeper finds it easier to get to sleep, sleeps more deeply and so wakes less often. It self-perpetuates. The opposite is also true. In an over tiredness cycle the child will find it harder to get to sleep and then once asleep it is lighter sleeping, so wakes more frequently and earlier.

This could therefore explain your later bedtime and earlier mornings. They could in fact be a sign of baby not getting enough sleep, rather than too much.

My wow was actually at INXS not you! Just some tough love there!

Shit I want fate not you INXS!

Meant not want... I'm going now

fruityb

"In an over tiredness cycle the child will find it harder to get to sleep and then once asleep it is lighter sleeping, so wakes more frequently and earlier."

Yes this makes sense.

I could do a pram walk every day, it'd make for a much less stressful trip to the shops! Maybe I'll try it, and earlier as you say so it's not impacting on night bedtime.