HOW to make her nap?

luckiestwife

We took the paci away from DD two weeks ago (she used it for sleeping only) and she acts fine, sleeps at night fine, but stopped napping. ?She obviously NEEDS a nap - she has been beyond cranky all day, every day since. ?She rubs her eyes and breaks down crying over every little thing, from the moment she wakes up in the morning until she goes to bed at night. ?Sometimes if we leave her in her room long enough, she'll pass out from exhaustion, but then we wind up having to wake her up because she fell asleep so late that if she took a 2+ hour nap like she needs, she'd totally miss her bedtime. ?We've tried putting her to bed later and it doesn't work. ?Yesterday we put her to bed an hour early and she did nap, but today we tried it again and it's not working. ?We've been putting her to bed at night earlier, since she's so tired, and she's sleeping fine at night, but without the naps she's still really overtired. ?Will she eventually just grow out of this and start napping again? ?Is there another strategy? ?I've had several people tell me "well, when my kid was 2.5 they just didn't need a nap anymore." ?That's fine, but MY kid obviously still needs a nap. ?She can't even function normally since she's so tired. ?It's been 2 weeks of this now, and I miss my sweet well-rested child!

HisBetterHalf

Prob now what you want to hear but give her the paci back.   This is why I haven't taken DDs away yet.  I know it will be HELL!

triplea1819

i would just put her down early, so she does not get too over tired and get stimulated from adrenalyn.

 eventually she will get back to napping without the pacifier.  even if it is extra extra early i would put her down.  as you said she does need the nap.

luckiestwife

We threw them away, so we'd have to buy new ones - plus she's not even asking for it, so I'm scared to give it back when it may not even solve the problem. ?She's 2.5, so you'd think she shouldn't need it anymore, especially since she doesn't have any problems sleeping at night.

mrsflanigan

I would just put her down at her normal nap time. Is she still in a crib? She can have quiet time in her crib and you can have a break. If she falls asleep even better. Put some books, loveys, a crib soother whatever else you think will help her in the crib. Good luck and hopefully she will start napping soon.

hikerbeth

I would put her down at her regular nap time but just make it a "quiet" time. . . let her know that she doesn't have to sleep if she doesn't want to. . . she can read, play quietly, whatever.

I bet she'll go back to napping.  My DD naps 3-4 days a week and just has quiet time the rest of the time.

cornichon

I would also put her down for quiet time and odds are, she will fall asleep.. tends to work for my dd?