PLEASE HELP - 26 MONTH OLD REFUSING SLEEP

[mama2yh]

My toddler is 26 months old. While he has always never been that much of a great sleeper I have managed to create sleeping schedule that has worked for the last year and half;

Wakes up anytime between 7:30 to 8:00am
Nap time between 12-12:30 (sleeps for 1 and half hour to 2 hours max)
Bedtime: 8-8:30pm

BUT for the last 2 weeks he has been fighting his afternoon naps so much. He will cry, fight, refuse to stay on his bed and just playing difficult. Even staying with him while he falls asleep don’t seem to work. I really have to work hard to eventually gets him to fall asleep. And then come’s bed time. Same issues completely fights it. It literally been taking me up to 1 and half hour every night to get him to fall asleep. While before he would be completely out in like 15 minutes.

Today I decided to let him skip his afternoon naps to see how it goes. Tried to put him to bed at 6:00. I thought it would be easy. Nope! Same issue fighting, crying. He eventually went down after like an hour of complete meltdown from both of us.

He has also been waking up a lot more at night while before has never been issue.

Does anyone got any idea what’s going on? Why the sudden change? What can I do to get back into the rhythm. I will appreciate any advice please.

Thank you for reading

P.S: Im not a fun of CIO. It’s just one of those things I have never been able to do.

They start dropping their naps at that age so might be just not needing it and try a later bed time see if that helps. 6 is quite early even with no nap especially if they are still getting up at 7.30/8

The first thing that springs to mind is: molars. Babies cut their back 8 molars starting from around the 2nd birthday and these are by far the most painful teeth to cut.

The second thing that struck me was that you don't mention your settling method. It might be that whatever way your baby uses to be soothed to sleep is no longer working. This makes sence because it's affecting both bedtime and naptime. How does your baby go to sleep?

While it's possible that under-tired is the issue here, I feel it's unlikely that dropping the nap will be the answer. It would be one of the latter suggestions I'd give, not one of the first things to try.

My first thought was that if he's only waking 7.30-8, then he's not going to be ready to sleep at 12.

For context, my daughter is 23 months, wakes just before 7 and wouldn't go down probably until 12.45-1. I've always woken her up from her lunchtime nap at 2.15 (she used to nap at 12) and I've stuck to this, so essentially her nap is just now shorter. She'll usually go to bed around 7.15 after a few stories but still might chat to herself until 8.

I think they need a good 5 hours of awake time before sleep at this age. My 3yo followed the exact same pattern.

Sorry, that should have read 25 months, not 23.

@BabySleepTeacherUK

The first thing that springs to mind is: molars. Babies cut their back 8 molars starting from around the 2nd birthday and these are by far the most painful teeth to cut.

The second thing that struck me was that you don't mention your settling method. It might be that whatever way your baby uses to be soothed to sleep is no longer working. This makes sence because it's affecting both bedtime and naptime. How does your baby go to sleep?

While it's possible that under-tired is the issue here, I feel it's unlikely that dropping the nap will be the answer. It would be one of the latter suggestions I'd give, not one of the first things to try.

Thank you that you mention settling method. Now that I have came to think of it. I just weaned him from breast about 1 month ago and that's how I use to settle him. He will breastfeed for like 10 minutes and leave him in bed while he falls asleep.