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Sleep

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Toddler dropping final nap and sleep becoming very unpredictable

4 replies

BastetBaby · 02/06/2026 15:19

Toddler (2.5 years) dropping last nap and it's driving me insane.

For a while her routine was roughly: nap at 2pm. I let her sleep for as long as she wants (I have tried capping the nap - more on that later). She sleeps 2 hours. Goes to bed at 9pm. She'll then wake up 7, 7.30am.

But now... Won't nap until 3...4...5 or not at all....

If I cap a late afternoon nap, she's horrendously grumpy all afternoon/evening AND struggles to go to sleep at bedtime because she's overtired.

If she doesn't nap at all, she'll be horrendously grumpy but she can sometimes make it until bedtime - 7:30 and sleep until 7 the next day (yay!). But this is honestly quite rare. More often she can't make it and crashes at 5:30/6 thinks it's a nap and then is awake until 10:30/11pm (even if we cap it at 20mins).

She's also started waking at 5am, not going back to sleep again - but then falling asleep at 10am for two hours - and then still not going to bed until 10pm!!

It's the unpredictability of it that's the worst bit. I'm finding it really hard to get anything done (cook dinner for instance) or leave the house.

Is this normal??? Is the anything I can do?

OP posts:
middleagedandinarage · 02/06/2026 15:25

Totally normal, I found that the worst stage to navigate! I don't think a huge amount helps, it's just riding it out until she's able to go with no nap until normal bed time.
found any length of nap at this stage wrecked bed time so caping is a waste of time.

Peonies12 · 02/06/2026 20:37

Will she nap in the pram, just for 20 mins to tide her over, late morning? We always cap nap for mine since she went to 1 nap, max 1 hour or latest 2pm, and she's 19 months.

wendy1288 · 02/06/2026 21:21

My son is almost three but for about 8 months he has no nap every other day. The days he doesn't nap he goes to sleep for 6 and sleeps through till 6/6.30 so it she isn't napping for you id definitely bring bedtime forward.

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 03/06/2026 09:19

Very normal. At this stage my son wouldn’t nap in bed so I had to arrange my day around a long buggy walk or drive when I wanted him to nap just after lunch

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