When to stop daytime naps for a 2.5 yr old?

[maxmissie]

Hi there, my dd is 2.5 yrs old and currently has a nap in the afternoon for approx 1.5-2 hrs. She gets up usually between 6-6.30am and is usually asleep by 7.30pm. Some days she goes without a long nap and just has a short sleep in the car/pushchair and when at nursery (two days/wk) she has approx a one hour nap.

She goes to bed fine and although it would be great if she slept longer in the morning, on the days when she has less sleep she can still wake at 6am the next day so I'm not convinced that the amount of daytime sleep currently affects the amount of night-time sleep she has. If she has short sleeps at home she can be very tired towards bedtime and if I cut her nap short at home she can be very grumpy but is fine after a shorter sleep at nursery.

When she moves up to pre-school in Sept she won't be having a nap at nursery anymore, so not sure if we should drop her naps completely, shorten them or carry on as we are for now and start to reduce/drop them nearer to Sept. I don't want to leave it too long so she gets a big shock when she no longer gets naps at nursery but at the same time it seems to work OK at the mo.

Would be interested to see what other people have done/think please?

My DD is 2.2 and has basically dropped her nap herself but will sometimes still nap in the car or at home if she has had a busy morning. She wakes at 8am and is normally ready for bed between 6 and 6.30pm so she still sleeps about 14 hours

It's a long time till sept so I would keep letting her nap till she drops it herself. Maybe if she doesn't nap you could put her to bed a bit earlier??

Wish my dd would sleep as long as yours!! I can't remember the last time she slept past 7am!

Was thinking would see if she drops her nap herself or if it starts affecting her usual bedtime, e.g. she's not tired at the usual time or she's staying awake for a while after 7.30, then we'd shorten or drop it.

We still tend to get her ready for bed at the same time even when she's had less daytime sleep mainly because her 5.5 month old brother doesn't usually go to bed until 7pm and she likes to go upstairs after him! but will definitely try an earlier bedtime on these days.

I am lucky that she sleeps so long. I also have a DS 7 months. They have a bath together at 6ish and then we do story and DD goes to bed and then I take DS to our room to feed him before he goes to bed. My next challenge is putting DD in her big girls bed and getting them in the room together to sleep. Poor DS has been in the travel cot in our room but he still wakes loads so I'm nervous to put them in together but want a child free bedroom for us. I'm hoping that sharing will help him sleep better and not wake DD.

I would definately lett your DD nap if she still wants one as she will give it up soon enough.

DS1 still has one, he's 2.8 now. Lots of people keep hinting/saying he should have given it up by now, but tbh I'm in no rush. It certainly makes things easier for me having him out of the way for an hour or two in the afternoons, especially with a 9wo DS2, so I see no point trying to make him give it up.

Thanks for all the responses, my gut feeling was to stick with them so I will!

Febes - my kids don't share a room but I know quite a few people whose kids do and they generally seem to sleep well and don't wake each other up. We put our dd in a big bed in November without really planning to and it has been so much easier than we thought, she hasn't fallen out yet and she doesn't get out once she's in nor get out in the morning!! we made it really exciting for her and bought her a new duvet cover and blanket. one thing I do to stop her from falling out is to put her pillow right over to the side near the wall so that if she puts her head on the edge of the pillow it's actually in the middle of the bed. Good luck with it all!