Sleeping at night and Hardly a nap

GladFam

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been on here, but I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the following:

My 2 year old used to go to bed at 7:00 p.m. and was sleeping by 7:45 or 8 after rolling around a bit and storytime. Now we've pushed bedtime back till 7:30, do our routine, and he's in his room by himself just after 8 p.m. However, he now rolls around, talks to himself, etc...for up to two hours! Some nights I'm going to bed and he's still awake!

I don't want to complain because he does so good in his room by himself, but now he's not getting up till 8 a.m. and that's when I wake him. This lady has to go to work at some time! The other thing is that he's had trouble napping since we moved him to a toddler bed. He also doesn't nap really well at daycare, but he plays quietly and such while the other kids are sleeping. They are lucky to get 45 min. to an hour, and we're lucky to get the same at home. 

Anyone else experience this? Should we just drop the nap and try to correct bedtime? I feel like 2 is way too young to drop a nap completely since he's still tired and crabby some days. Anyone have any insight?

lhgd1989

My 2 year old son dosen't usually take a nap anymore. I do however make sure that he goes to his room and has some quiet time playing with quite toys and or books. Sometimes he does fall asleep but rarely. It give him sometime to wind down by himself and gives me a little break to get a few things done. He does really well with this. From what I have read, kids this age can go back in forth with napping so I still always try for the quiet time hoping he will fall asleep. His bedtime is usually between 7:30 and 8 depending on how sleepy he is. hope this helps a little

lana22

sounds like he might be overtired and too wound up to sleep. i would not drop nap. just before my son turned two he boycotted his nap for a few months but every day i put him in crib and stuck to routine and one day he started napping again. i knew he needed it, cause he was cranky and tired without it. he has a phase like that every few months but always goes back to napping. obv we have the day here and there where he sings for an hour and reads books, but he usually naps.

i would increase wind down time at night. take him up earlier and read more stories, talk in his room, etc. and make sure no tv before bed.

Beevol

I agree with @lana22 try moving bedtime earlier as opposed to later. Some kids stop napping by two, but I think you should wait to change the nap routine until after you've gotten bedtime figured out. I would move the bedtime ritual back to 7pm and see if that helps, depending on how long the ritual is (are we talking 5 minutes or 30?) you might need to move it up even earlier. 

DD is also really good playing/"reading" quietly in bed after lights out, but consistently the later we put her down, the longer it takes for her to settle.