giving up naps

[TheMysticMasseuse]

dd1 is 3y8m. until 2 weeks ago she's had a nap every day, without problems or complaints, for one to two hours. she'd go to bed happily and without fuss between 8 and 9 which suits us fine as a family.

Now she's started to fight her nap and i don't force her, because i figure she's got to drop it sooner or later (in fact she seems to be a rarity among her peers who've stopped napping months or years ago!).

however, when she doesn't nap, she's shattered by 5 pm- as in barely able to speak and definitely unable to eat dinner, tantrums, etc. because of the hours i work etc she still doesn't get to sleep until 8, although she then usually sleeps until 7.30 am next day. if she does nap, though, bedtime is an epic battle with her bouncing up and down until 9.30 or 10 which is tough.

what do people do? is this a normal pattern? do i force her to nap, or do i tough it out and she'll get used to it eventually?

we've given up naps with DS (3.7) unless he drops off in the care. i can't bear the night time battle if he does have a sleep. He's just gone to bed though. He wakes much earlier that your DD (about 6.30 - 7)

obviously meant drops off in the car, not care

Unfortuneatly it sounds fairly normal. Dd2 is 4 next month and normally sleeps for about an hour in the afternoon and then sleeps 7.30 till 6.30. Yesterday she didn't nap and by 5.30 was throwing herself on the floor and screaming if the least thing went wrong. Sometimes if she misses her nap she falls asleep at 6 and I carry her to bed at 7.

So, no help I'm sorry but we're going through it as well.

thanks choufleur. is he able to last until evening in a relatively human state, or does he also get very very tired?

he gets tired but the last hour or so before bed we usually just sit down and watch tv or read a book, nothing particularly active.

he's never been keen on naps though, it was a battle to get him to sleep during the day half of the time.

Is there anyway you can bring her bedtime forward mystic

I'd be inclined to keep the nap and the later bedtime, since bouncing at 9.30 is better than tantrums. Basically it sounds as if she needs to break up the day with a nap, and that letting her do so is easier on you both.