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Time to drop then nap?

7 replies

Mazzatron · 06/09/2021 20:37

My son is 2 years and 8 months.

He's always been an early riser. 5:45 on a good day. He been fighting his nap since he turned 2, he completely refuses to lay in his bed and screams and shouts and messes around the whole time. He won't even do quiet time looking at books anymore, he's just so stubborn about the idea as he knows he might fall asleep. He just wants to play and doesn't want to miss out. I've tried offering the nap earlier and later etc. I've tried rewards, co napping (used to work really well for a 2 months or so).
However, he always falls asleep in the car and by evening is a hot mess, so clearly he is tired.

We put him to bed at 7. With good, consistent 30 min bedtime routine. Some nights he falls asleep fairly promptly but this week he is taking ages (over an hour) to fall asleep. He's singing, thrashing around etc.

He gained a new baby brother 4 months ago which disrupted and disturbed him quite a bit but the last month he seems to have accepted it.

I just don't know what to do. I feel like he's chronically over tired and we could cope with the early mornings when he went to bed well. Sometimes he sleeps through and sometimes he's up 2-3 times.

It's easy to feel like the only person with an almost 3 year old who sleeps so badly.

Anyone else going through similar?

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MovingSchmoving · 06/09/2021 20:42

Exactly the same here. No advice really just solidarity. Weirdly my DD is also 2 yrs 8 months and has a 4 month old baby sister! They are both terrible sleepers 🤦‍♀️
On days where she doesn’t nap she is really irritable and emotional by 5.30-6pm but then at least she goes to bed relatively quickly. On days like today where she does have a nap (won’t nap in her cot anymore it’s always in the buggy or car) then she takes over an hour to go to sleep. Either way she is up at least once every night and screams the house down if we don’t let her into our bed.

Sending wine 🍷

Mazzatron · 06/09/2021 21:09

@MovingSchmoving thank you - your message means the world I could almost cry. I meet so many people who's two year olds happily skip off to their naps, sleep through or sleep in til 7am etc.
I can forgive the 4 month old but I really feel down about the situation with my eldest. I feel like we are failing him because surely he needs more sleep?!

I know this is only a temporary part of life but it's so hard. I love and enjoy my kids obviously but the whole sleep part is really hard and stressful.

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MovingSchmoving · 06/09/2021 22:37

I feel the same way you’re definitely not alone! I almost can’t wait until they are older and (hopefully) sleep better. I’m due back at work after Xmas and have no idea how I’m going to function to be honest!

Tillg99 · 09/09/2021 02:11

I think it depends on the child. My daughter is 3 now and doesn’t nap unless she’s had a crazy busy day and will crash at 4-5pm. We give her 30 mins to power up again 😂 and then wake her up which normally means her bed time is a bit later. I think a child of that age needs about 6 hours after a nap before bed. So maybe it’s. sign to drop the nap. I would say try and see how it goes :) if you find they are getting to like 3pm super grumpy then a nap is definitely needed but maybe just shorten it :)
My daughter was 2.5 when my son was born and omg she was out of sorts. Even though she loved him and showed no signs of being unhappy, it subconsciously affected her sleeping and other behaviours. She’s 3 and a bit now and her sleep isn’t great. She needs a lot of time and attention to get settled and still wakes in the night once or twice. But dropping the nap stopped our early mornings. Not sure if my ramblings helped at all. But I can assure you’re not the only one with a three year old who doesn’t sleep great ❤️

Mazzatron · 26/09/2021 16:05

@Tillg99 thank you for your reply. Hearing other people with similar issues is a help in itself. We've dropped the nap a week ago. So far it's been variable. Some starts 5:15 but some after 6 which is amazing for us

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Laura2211 · 29/09/2021 19:41

My 2.5 year old will only nap in the car now. She can just about make it through this bedtime but twice a week i plan a trip out in the car deliberately to force the nap as I feel she isn’t ready to drop it completely. She has a 6 month old brother so I don’t have ages to spend trying to get her to nap at home. Could you do something similar & plan to be out in the car around nap time?
Either way, my toddler crashes out at 7pm every night when she doesn’t nap so I get a nice peaceful eve x

Mazzatron · 22/10/2021 08:19

@laura that's pretty much exactly what we do. He copes pretty well now he's almost 3 but now we have a 5 month old baby in tow I don't have much time to help him nap at home either! The baby often wakes him up early which is a real shame

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