Advice on dropping final daytime nap in 2.3yo :(

[jamandjerusalem]

DS is 2.3 and has always napped around 1pm.

Recently he's started waking uber-early - 5am this morning with a cry of 'ICE CREAM NOW!!!' followed by lots of singing and shouting. This has been going on for a while, and usually we leave him until he cries, at which point we go in to put the light on and sling a few books in his cot, until we can bear to get up.

This morning we left him to cry for the first time ever and he continued to cry/shout/sing for an hour and a half (our poor neighbours). I then went in at 6.30am and whispered that it was still night-time and that he should try to go back to sleep. Miraculously he did for an hour!

Anyway, the long and short of it is that he's still awake now and I don't think he wants to go for a nap.

So how do you drop the final nap? Just don't put him down?? Friends have said they do quiet time around the time the nap used to happen, which sounds sensible. Should I try putting him to bed a little earlier in the evenings? Help!

(sorry that was so long!)

It is a tricky time and we are just going through it for 2nd time now.
What we did with our eldest and r trying to repeat, is to try and make the lunchtime nap shorter and shorter, then put down earlier for bed, eg 6 or even ealier if they are clearly shatterred.

To make the lunchtime nap shorter, you have to wake them, try gently making room brighter, taking off duvet etc or put them down earlier for it ( ie if usually 1 pm to 2pm) try and get them down at 12 before lunch and they may only sleep for 1/2 hour and wake cos hungry. We tried to do it with gentle nudges, as i hate waking kids up. What also worked was a short time when my eldest napped every alternative day.

Another friend of mine just really kept her DS busy with fun things, snacks fresh air etc for a few days, with no nap - hard work then put him down early. Then his body adjusted after a few days he didn't need nap. He changed from 5 or 6 am nap 1 hr at 1.30 bed at 8 ish, TO... wake at 8 am ! bed at 6.30 ish
hope this helps,
and hope it work for us as we start the same !!

Thanks Gelamum, sorry it's been a couple of days before I could reply and thank you!

DS did well on Sunday - slumped a bit mid-afternoon, but then was sound asleep by 7pm. He woke at 5.15 the next morning, but I managed to get him back off to sleep which almost never happens, and then slept until 7.30am! Happy days.

This morning he woke at 6am, and has been pretty tired all day, but I'm trying to get him through it with activities and a bit of quiet time now, and will put him to bed a little earlier tonight if necessary.

Hoping and praying that tomorrow morning will see an improvement, and that this fuzzy inbetween stage doesn't last long.

Thanks again!

DS is 2 and a couple of times a week I'll put him in his cot and he won't actually sleep - he'll talk to his toys or sing to himself, but just having a rest seems to help.

If he isn't asleep I'll go and get him after an hour or so

Ok, so, DS hasn't napped for 10 days now, and things are up and down.

We've had a couple of days where he's slept until 7am, but he mainly wakes around 6.15-6.30am, and has started waking more in the night and needs us to go in and settle him.

I'm finding this so hard because when he wakes in the night - this morning at 4am - I get a surge of adrenaline which then prevents me from going back to sleep. So everyone else is asleep but me! I am shattered.

I'm just not sure dropping the nap has had the desired effect, but perhaps I'm not giving it long enough for the change to properly take place. Or I'm too tired to have any perspective on things.

Can anyone offer some advice as to whether we should carry on down this path now that we've started, and what I can do about getting myself back to sleep, and what to do about DS's night wakings/us having to settle him. We really are in a pickle

I am just starting to think seriously about stopping DD's nap because she has a good hr or 1.5 hrs then is still singing and shouting at 9.30 or even 10pm sometimes and it's driving me nuts.

Yesterday I didn't let her nap and tried to put her to bed about 8pm. She slept from about 8.50 but did lots of shouting in the night, and howling noises, WTF??

I am thinking that the unsettled nights might be due to getting overtired, I am going to plough on with no naps and try earlier bedtimes.

Am still up lots with 10mo DS so I get really peeved when my sleep is further spoiled by DD as well

Not sure about getting self back to sleep, I am so tired all the time at the moment I conk back out when I go back to bed.