Dropping the final nap - advice please

[Heepers]

My daughter has just turned 2. She sleeps OK at night (can wake up a bit but pretty normal I think) but I think she is moving towards dropping her final nap as she is getting harder to get down and then if she sleeps past 3, she won't go down til about 8.45 which is just too late for us.

At present she normally wakes for day about 6.30, naps at 2 (won't go to sleep before then) and I wake her at 3. She'll then go down at 7.30. The issue is that she is absolutely knackered from 3-7.30 so I feel that I should let her sleep longer but I let her go until 3.30 today and she is still awake...

Is this just a necessary part of moving towards dropping a nap? Should I suck up a later bedtime?

Any advice would be v gratefully received.

I’m sure my eldest carried on with a day time nap until she was turned 3. They’re all different though.

Can you just structure the day to do energetic activities in the morning and calmer activities in the afternoon? Lots of children seem to be more active / responsive in the mornings.

Thank you. I had fully anticipated another year of napping so am a bit fed up that she seems to be dropping it already...

My LO started to try & drop her nap before 2. She is now 2.5 & doesn’t nap at all any more. But she sleeps 7-7 rarely waking up so I’m not too disappointed

If she's still waking through the night then I think it's important to keep the nap. Otherwise she has no way to catch up on sleep after a bad night.

Are there issues with independent settling? This could be a problem arising from baby not being fully confident in independent settling yet, so can't sleep rather that not wanting or needing the sleep.

How do you get your toddler to sleep at bedtime? Does she cry? What about wake ups, how does she go back to sleep?

@FATEdestiny thank you for replying. She has been fantastic at self settling since about 5 months old (give or take the odd blip) but Recently She has had more trouble with independent settling (since her little brother arrived I think).

At bedtime we have a very regular routine but after weeks of her screaming at bedtime, we now lie on a bed in her room. If she's tired then she'll be off within 10 mins.

In the night, if she cries for more than a minutes then my husband goes in and shushes her and then leaves. However if this happens multiple times he'll sleep in her room (again this is since the new baby arrived 3 months ago and sleep is at a premium).

She 100% needs her nap still, I just can't work out whether to wake her at 3pm and endure the grump or let her sleep later but then have a ridiculously late bedtime.

In the daytime she's struggling to adapt to a new sibling so it could be down to this.

My 2.5 yr old sleeps 7-8pm - 7.30/8am no waking and naps 1-3 although we are reducing this to 1.5 hours. I’m surprised you can’t get her down earlier, have you tried much earlier? Like 11.30?! Know of an almost 3yr old who napped that early. I’d be trying everything not to lose nap at 2!! I hope you can get it back!

My daughter was exactly the same. My son kept his nap till 3 and half but my daughter it was 2. Whilst she transitioned away we let her have a bit of downtime instead with TV and resting.

@birdglasspen I know it’s a break from them but it’s actually great when they stop needing naps and you can just head out for the day without thinking ‘I’ve got to get back for the nap’ ‘where will they nap’

I second @Whstdoyouthink - bloody brilliant not having to take all the nap accessories on a day out any more (eldest was a buggy napper) or have the daily battle to get them down (nap hater).

DD2 is luckily still all over the place with her napping at 12 weeks, but I’m dreading it all starting again.

On the plus side, DD1 has had a 6.30 bedtime since 18 months when she started dropping her nap, and now DD2 goes down then too - free evenings are more enjoyable for me than naps, but I guess if you can have both I can see why you’d be reluctant to let them go!

Flipping heck @birdglasspen you lucky thing! I just don't think she'd go down at 11.30 (4.5 hrs after waking up) - even in the car she doesn't drift off. Enjoy all that sleep, I'm jealous.

Most 2yr olds still need a nap even if it seems like they don't (little tricksters) so I wouldn't drop it just yet, especially if she's shattered in the afternoon and waking at night. My daughter went through this phase for months and I ended up tucking her in on the sofa for 'quiet time' with a Teddy and something like antiques roadshow on the TV and she just dropped off...turns out she was used to the nap environment at nursery where its not dark, there's music in the background and noises from other children. This greatly improved her mood and also her night wakings - perhaps worth a shot?

@goodgrief100, thanks. My instinct is that she definitely needs a nap still! It's just if I give her as long as she needs then she won't go down in the evening. Would you wake after an hour/at 3 still?

[quote Heepers]@goodgrief100, thanks. My instinct is that she definitely needs a nap still! It's just if I give her as long as she needs then she won't go down in the evening. Would you wake after an hour/at 3 still? [/quote]
Yes I would wake her! I started following the same routine as nursery in terms of timings so it's lunch at 11.30 and then down for a nap at 12.30 (or quiet time if she wasn't feeling a nap at that time - she soon started napping at that time though due to the consistent routine) and then if she wasn't awake by 2pm, I'd wake her up leaving a good awake window for bedtime at 7pm. As you say, napping past 3pm means a really late bedtime and no down time for you!