DD aged 2.3 wants to drop daytime nap, but we aren't ready! Any advice please

[pulapula]

DD has always been good at naps and night-time sleep. She has been having 1 nap a day 12-2 since aged 1, ans sleeps 7.15-7 roughly at night. For the last few days she's not slept but we've left her in her room til 2, and gone up when she calls, and tried to convince her to sleep.

We love our rest at lunchtime and were hoping she'd continue naps for a while, especially as we have a baby on the way. Should we persevere with trying to get her to sleep (we're considering moving her nap back to 1pm as she might not be tired at 12). She is grumpy/over-tired without a nap but guess she would get used to it. Any advice?

DS used to have a nap around 2pm but I have to say that he wasn't much older than your DD is now before he dropped his nap altogether. Trying later is definately worth a go because if she is still grumpy and overtired then she doesn't sound ready to drop it. After we dropped his nap, we replaced DS's sleep with quiet time looking at books or a bit of TV to recharge his batteries in the afternoon. Now he is pretty much 3, he doesn't seem to get tired at all.

I hope you have sucess so that you can get your rest, too.

DD is similar age and has been having her nap starting between 1pm and 2 pm for a while now. She is not ready at 12. She IS sleepy after lunch, sometimes immediately, sometime has enough energy for a play. It depends on how active her morning has been.
So I would definitely give her a chance to nap later in the day.

I would stick with it for the time being. My dd went through stages of appearing to want to drop her nap when she was the same age. Definately try putting her down later to start with. From when dd was 1 through to 3 her naps have been put back 3 times so she now goes at 2pm (she is now 3). We used controlled crying (not everyones cup of tea) when dd was 10 months old and periodically have had to use this technique again. She now looks forward to her nap and quiet time and it is invaluable for me because I now have a 9 month old. Keep trying if you can, you will appreciate it when baby no2 comes along. HTH

Thanks for your messages. Sounds like we need to tweak her routine slightly now she's a bit older.

We have had a grumpy afternoon (although she was a bit happier after tea) and so we are planning an early bath and bed.

We will try a later nap tomorrow, and see what happens. We were hoping she would keep napping til at least 3 years old, so we will persevere for a while.

Also at nursery (2 days a week) they have a scheduled nap period 12-2 so its good to try and keep her napping, as the staff there need a break too!

A quick update.

We decided on a later nap, and as she was up a bit early at 6.30, we aimed for 12.30/1pm. My DH put her down at 12.45 whilst I was out at the shops, but she was still chatting at 1pm, so I went up and sat on her floor to check she was going to sleep. It took about 15 mins for her to fall asleep and then she slept til after 3.30! So we had a lovely break, watching TV with our feet up, but we were meant to be visiting friends at 3pm so were a bit late! But it was well worth it.

So I think we'll see how she gets on at nursery today, and then try later lunch and naps at home.

Thanks for the support in convincing me not to give up too easily.

Hi my DS went through this about a month ago when he had just turned 2. A friend told me to get him into his grobag and let him lie on your bed watching Cbeebies for 10 mins as part of the routine as putting him straight to his cot was no longer working. He seems to use the 10 mins to get into the right frame of mind for going into his cot and I have had no problem with him since. Its also about 1 when I put him into his cot now.