Winding Down

rsideemd · August 2014

Long story, short... We though DD was dropping her nap completely, because she would be awake until 11 or so at night if she took one. Apparently that was a phase, because we've found out she still needs one. She's basically miserable without a nap. She currently naps between 1.5 and 3 hours a day beginning at 12:30. She goes down fine in her crib and hardly fusses, but it's now taking her up to two hours to fall asleep on her own at night. Is it normal for her to need that much time to wind down? I'm wondering if her nap is too long and if we need to start waking her up from it or if I should just let her sleep. She's put in her crib at 8 and wakes up at about 6:45.

It's not a problem for us that it takes her that long to fall asleep, I just want to make sure she's getting enough sleep.

kjsmith9 · August 2014

Do you think she might be overtired by 8pm, and could maybe have trouble falling asleep because of that? DD is 20 months and typically sleeps from 7am-7pm. She also naps anywhere from 1 to 3 hours each day. I honestly don't see it changing any time soon (she has slept the same hours at night since about 6 months old).

Addy1227 · August 2014

My LO was doing almost the exact same thing!! I would put him down at 8 pm, he'd get up anywhere from 7-8 am and then take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. It started taking him hours to fall asleep at night and I would take him to the park and really tire him out and still he would be up until around 10 playing in his crib. For the last 3 days he hasn't napped at all and has been sleeping from 830 pm to 9/930 am.

I don't know if he's actually ready to drop his nap or if I should be waking him up in the morning to see if he'll still take his nap. He's been very emotional and clingly so I'm kind of just going with it. Wouldn't want to mess up an already emotional toddler's sleep, plus I think it might be a phase, he's 19 months so a little young to drop his nap but not unheard of.

honeydew01 · August 2014

My DD is 17 months old and just 1.5 months ago she dropped her second nap. she is napping at 12 for 1.5-3 hours and we put her down between 6:45 to 7 for bedtime and she takes an hour to 75 minutes to fall sleep. We've tried giving her more physical activity between her nap and bedtime, we've tried earlier bedtime, later bedtime (7:15 the latest) and she still takes that long to wind down. She used to take half an hour to wind down and go to sleep but it's taking her much longer for some reason. I'm not going to drop her nap any time soon though.

ashiscute · August 2014

DS is 23 mos and he usually goes to bed between 8- 830 and wakes between 630- 7. He usually naps from about 1- 330 so about the same bedtimes as your LO. He seems okay on that amount of sleep. I don't think it's odd for kids to take a bit to wind down at night but 2 hours does seem excessive. You can try putting her down 30 mins later or so and see if that helps.

I think your LO is quite young to drop her nap. I definitely would try anything to avoid that.

maybebride · August 2014

Mine (20 months) does the same thing, I would say, most nights. And, really, it happens most often on the nights where he has had a bad nap or a nap off schedule. Yesterday, for instance, he went down for a nap later than he should have (installation and delivery guys at the house most of the day) and we had to wake him for an errand. So, not only was it a late nap, but not a good one. He was showing signs of sleepy at 7:30/8:00, but I stretched it until 9:00 (bad mommy) and it ended up being almost two hours before he fully went to sleep.

I would definitely not consider dropping the nap at this point. DS CAN go without a nap and remain happy, but I would never do it on a regular basis. Could you maybe move nap time up by even a half an hour and same with bedtime?

ZaydensMomma · August 2014

We actually just got through this a week ago through trial and error. DS would take a 3 hour nap at noon but would not go to bed until 11-midnight on good nights (2 o' clock in the morning on bad ones!) and he would still wake up briefly during the night. We tried seeing if an earlier bedtime would work so we would start doing calming activities at 6-7, bedtime routine at 7-7:30, and then bed by 8. It did not work out for us whatsoever. Even though he went to bed at 8, I guess he took it as "just another nap" and he would wake up at 11 and wouldn't go back down til 4 in the morning. Anyways, we started only giving him an hour and a half nap at noon after some vigorous play at the town park and a refreshing walk at 8 in the morning. In the late afternoon I take him jogging with me in the stroller around the neighborhood and then let him run around the yard for about 30 minutes while I catch my breath afterward. He still doesn't go to bed super early (his bedtime is usually 9-10 now). But that is a definite improvement from a couple weeks ago considering the fact that he started STTN once again.

Story short, our problem was that he wasn't getting enough vigorous physical activity and his naps were too long. My LO is one of those "can't sit still" types. He LOVES to run around and explore everything around him. Maybe you can see if our solution will work for your DS? Like Nicb13 said, it really is just trial and error.

Winding Down

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