1yo won’t nap

[VelvetPineapple]

My 1yo gets up at 7-8am. I try to make him nap after lunch about 1pm but most days he just cries and refuses to lie down, and instead wanders around the bedroom playing with his toys. Sometimes it takes me until 3-4pm to make him go to sleep, and then he sleeps till 6pm and isn’t tired at 8pm bedtime. He usually wakes 3-4 times during the night and sits up in bed crying until I make him lie down (and occasionally breastfeed him if he’s really distressed).

Today I didn’t try to make him nap. He didn’t seem bothered and went to sleep easily at 7.30pm. It’s now 10pm and he’s still asleep! I’m wondering if I should do this every day? But according to the HV he should still be napping at his age. I’m not sure what to do for the best?

I had to stop 'trying to make' my LO nap. Usually it will naturally happen in the car and buggy and so I let it happen and try not to wake until naturally wakes up. Whenever I tried to it'd be a battle of the wills where I'd be exhausted and need a nap while LO stayed awake and played on their own! If no nap works the n run with it is my advice I'm very much baby led in every aspect! My LO gets extremely distressed around 4pm if no nap has been had and life is grim between then and bedtime so best if a nap is had here!!

A big part of the issue is that I’m absolutely exhausted because of being woken up several times every night and running around after a toddler, so by 1pm I need a nap myself! If DS won’t nap I can’t either.

Then I'd suggest trying a quick walk in buggy and hopefully he will drop off quickly the you can go home, leave him safely in his buggy and nap too 😊 or quick car journey and take a blanket to pull over and nap too in the car?!

Agree with Namechange. Worked for us.

Also just thinking do you still share a room? If so could it be you who's waking him up during the night? Once I moved LO to own room I got much more sleep.