2.5 y/o taking forever to fall asleep

snowflakemom

DD#2 has always been a great sleeper at night and a great napper. The past two weeks or so she started having trouble falling asleep at naptime. I started to wonder if maybe she was going to drop her nap but then she would fall asleep (normal nap time is about 1-3:30ish) late and sleep until 4 or 5 and I would end up waking her so it didn't interfere with bedtime so it seems like once she does fall asleep she will still sleep a good 2-3hrs.

Then, a few days later she started having trouble falling asleep at night, too. She doesn't get upset, she just lies in her bed and talks/sings to herself or looks at books in her room until she finally goes to sleep (sometimes not until 10pm). Her usual bedtime is around 8.

I don't really think her bedtime is too early. She definitely seems tired and doesn't fight me on getting into bed, saying goodnight, etc. It's just that she takes for freaking ever to fall asleep! Here we are again, it is almost 10pm and she is still awake in her room.

Any thoughts? Advice?

Zenya

That was the beginning of the end of the nap for us (actually though both of mine were barely 2).  

I had to choose - nap and 10pm bedtime or no nap and normal bedtime.

The transition is a PITA with them falling asleep in the car... being cranky etc but I can't face a late bedtime or a child awake for hours alone.

My (just) 3 year old has a 6:30 bedtime as a result of the no nap thing. 

eta:  for us there was no point in shortening the nap.  Even a 5 minute nap affected bedtime by 3 hours. 

sooosie

I would definitely shorten the nap so that bedtime goes back to normal.  Max has skipped naps a few times and gets crabby as hell - he's not ready to give them up yet but I won't let him go more than 2 hours.

lollitots

Sounds like the nap is going away. DD did that too. We ended up putting her to bed really early (like 5:30 or 6 pm) with no nap, and she would go to sleep and sleep right through the night. She was a cranky thing after 4 pm while transitioning.

littlemermaid

She is napping too late into the afternoon and then not having enough wake up time before bedtime.  I would try eliminating the nap or waking up earlier so the nap falls earlier in the afternoon.  You can't expect a 2.5 year old to nap until 5pm and then go to bed at 8pm.  3 hours of being awake at that age is just not enough for them to be ready for bed.

jlw2505

I would start by shortening her nap to an hour and have a set end time - if the set end time is 3pm, wake her up by 3pm regardless of when she falls asleep.  This should help keep her bedtime on track.  My younger DD is 3 1/2 and I noticed her having a harder time falling asleep about 6 months age.  At the time, she was still napping around 2 hours a day so now, during the week, she is only able to nap 1 hour max (she is at daycare and they wake her after that hour).  She has no issue going to sleep and some nights, she will play in her bed a bit before falling asleep but I have been told that some kids can take up to an hour to calm down enough to fall asleep.  My thought is that as long as she is in her bed and being quiet, her body is still getting rest.  If she is really crabby - I would adjust and play with naptime or bedtime.  SOme kids are too over tired at bedtime and need to go to sleep sooner.  She is now slowly giving up nap and I would guess over the next 6 months or so, it will be more or less gone but we will still have quiet time for at least an hour a day as we all really need that time to recharge plus she will have it at school for another year and a half.