Nap help!!

SarahBBowers

Hello!  I haven't posted here forever but could use some advice or words of encouragement.  DD is 25 months.  3 weeks ago, we transitioned to a toddler bed because she kept climbing out of the crib and I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.  For the first couple nights, naps and bedtime were fine and I was shocked!  Then the trouble started.  Now for bedtime she actually does pretty well as long as I lay her down very sleepy.  She occasionally will get up once but then go back to bed and stay in bed.

Naps are another story.  She is refusing her nap every other day, and its with different people.  She is watched by MIL 2 days a week, my mom 1 day a week, I have 1 day off a week, and so does my husband.  Me and hubby tag team on the weekends.

We have good luck if we can rock her to sleep and then lay her down, but some days she just fights it so hard!!  Then shes up and down and it takes us sometimes an hour and a half of back and forth and rocking to get her to nap.

If she doesn't nap then she falls asleep eating dinner and bedtime is a nightmare.

We start bedtime routine at a little after 8pm (we work later) and she is usually asleep by 9. She gets up between 7:30 and 8.  Before we switched her she was napping 1.5-2 hours between 1 and 3.

I am pregnant with #2 and very exhausted and emotional, and I am getting so frustrated with her that I end up yelling, and then I feel shitty afterwards.  I am at my witt's end.  Is this the end of naps now?  Everything I read says she still needs a nap!  any advice?

thanks, 

Sarah

dufferoo

I can only share my experience, but we went through a similar phase shortly after transitioning to a toddler bed. It lasted longer than I would have liked, and every time we thought the problem was fixed, it would then get worse again, but here we are at 30 months now with a pretty consistent nap again. Here are the things we did (in order) one by one over the course of several months to troubleshoot the sleep issue: made the room as boring as possible by removing toys, placed a doorknob cover over the doorknob so he wasn't tempted to escape, removed the lightbulbs so he couldnt get up and turn them on, and we now lie down with him right in the toddler bed quietly with our eyes closed until we can tell that our son is sound asleep before sneaking out. These steps work pretty well for both me and my husband, though for some reason not quite as well when we are both home. My mother-in-law has her own routine that works for her the one day a week she sits, and my mom doesn't have much success on the day she sits.

TheStrongWave

Hi, Sarah! If there’s one time
of the day a child’s misbehavior seems magnified, it’s nap time. I know how
exhausted you must be because your situation reminds me of my sister’s. Her
three year old refuses to take a nap no matter what we say or do -- she sleeps
only if she’s tired. So we let her play quietly in her room for an hour and when she’s all drowsy
she automatically falls asleep. It took us a couple of weeks to establish this
routine, but hey, it all worked out. Hang in there, friend! It will get better.
*Hug*

Great to hear that you are
expecting your second child. I’m going to be praying for you, momma!

TheStrongWave

ForeverEverAfter

We ran into the nap refusal around 2. She's 27 mo now. She was never in a crib, floor bed to twin, so maybe it's a stage they hit regardless. We made her bedroom boring (one set of blocks, a reading nook with books, her dolls cradle and her bed, that's it). When we go up for nap we pick a book, she lies down in her bed and I read. She usually falls asleep during the book. Or I turn off the light after reading and lie down for a bit and then she's out.