Nap help

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Nap help. D (3 in November) is trying to drop her nap. She often sits in her room for almost 2 hours before going to sleep if she sleeps at all but when she does finally get to sleep, she often sleeps 2+ hours. Then I am forced to wake her so she doesn't sleep past 5.

Here's my problem: I don't care if she drops her nap. We would still do a quiet time for her. However, she is incapable of functioning on even a basic level of a 2 year old when she doesn't nap. She stumbles like a drunk, cannot follow the simplest direction, is constantly crying and whining and getting in trouble. Like it's basically a different child when she naps and when she doesn't. She's always been more challenging than C which is fine but she is literally unmanageable when tired.

So what do I do? For her health and my sanity, clearly we cannot drop the nap, can we? Is this a phase? Will she resume napping again?

She starts school 3 days/week after Labor Day so unclear if that will help or hurt the situation.

[alotofyarn]

E naps a lot of days at school, but very rarely at home. I have to get her down at noon though or it's not going to happen.

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[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Naps can't happen on weekdays before 1:30 once school starts post Labor Day. I was wondering if moving it back would help.

[Howfunitis]

M naps at the earliest 1pm. Latest 1:30 but not any later than that cause she wakes up past 4pm and then won't go to bed till 9ish and that's too late. We dropped naps this past weekend and I had a cranky super emotional child Monday and it wasn't good :/

[alison]

What time do you put her to bed when she doesn't nap? What works for us is doing bedtime routine at 5:15/5:30p and bed by 5:45. I guess a ridiculously early bedtime like that is what I'd try.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Bedtime is 7:30-8. She shares a room with C and wouldn't ever see M if we did bedtime that early. I guess that's one way to not deal with her though is just to put her to bed if she doesn't nap.

[scrub-jay]

What time do you put her to bed when she doesn't nap? What works for us is doing bedtime routine at 5:15/5:30p and bed by 5:45. I guess a ridiculously early bedtime like that is what I'd try.

Mine are all like this too. They also drop napping early, but go to bed early. It's genetic (Morning Lark gene as [MENTION=1013]Vanquisher[/MENTION] explained to me) so they just collapse if they're up past bedtime. Sorry it's not the solution you want though

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Nap help

Although as DH pointed out, it's not like she's getting quality time with him when she doesn't nap. She's so out of her mind tired that she's nearly impossible to manage and nothing pleasant is being exchanged.

It's just hard to envision how I'm going to put her to bed at 5:45 when I get off 3 days a week at 5:30, need to nurse the baby, and also deal with C. I'm just not even sure that's feasible. How do those of you with more than one kid out one to bed early and not the others? I'm definitely not going to be able to make C go to sleep at that time.

[Pollyanna]

I would just hang in there and see how she does once school starts. Early bedtimes are great if they fit with your family schedule but we were only able to make them work for our first kiddo. I'd keep up the same nap routine but end the nap at 3:30 even if she hasn't slept yet. That way she'll have down time and maybe some sleep. This is a difficult age because you'll find some littles still need the nap daily and others only really need a nap every other day or so. For ours it seemed the later they woke up the crankier they were. Afternoon naps are just rough in many ways. You guys will find your new normal once she pushes through this stage.

[OrionGrad]

Is it possible this is just a phase? DS1 has gone through periods where he takes forever to fall asleep at nap time, but then a few weeks/up to a month later he'll start falling asleep within a half hour again, and I'm always glad we didn't ditch nap time altogether during the rough periods.

[alison]

I'd just say as early a bedtime as you can swing things. If 5:45 doesn't work, then what about at some point before 6:30? There are plenty of times with the ridiculous bedtime that my kids haven't seen dh. It's a little heartbreaking to go on for days during the week without them seeing dad, but like you said, it isn't exactly quality time that they spend together when the little one is exhausted and off their rocker. M has always LOVED when C goes down mega early. More time to do stuff with me without her sister getting into stuff.

[Howfunitis]

I tried early nap time at 7pm and it backfired on me because she would wake up at 6:30am and then refused to nap/bath or do anything. At one point she woke up at 5am ready to start her day. So we went back to an 8-8:30 bedtime unless hubby is here than its more like 9-10pm bedtime which also drives me a little insane. Baby is in bed by 7:30-8pm