Does your 2 year old still take naps?

Stifler's - posted on 06/28/2011

Does she go to bed early if she has no nap?

Katherine - posted on 06/28/2011

Yep, she get's psycho at around 7pm. Then goes and goes until 10pm. I'm just at my wits end here. @ Karen, I probably should do some quite time and have her watch a movie or something. I think I may do that.

Stifler's - posted on 06/28/2011

Mine went from 3 naps to 1 it was weird. He'd have 3 naps a day until we started going to playgroup and he stopped sleeping in the car on the way and would have one nap from 12 to 2 and then refuse to go back to sleep for his afternoon nap and then that transitioned to every other day. Why do people make playgroup at 9am when it's nap time???

Lady Heather - posted on 06/28/2011

She usually wakes up at 7 and then naps from 1-3 (she's doing it right now!) and then goes to bed at 8. It's working for us so far. Guess we've yet to hit that awkward transition phase like the the 2 naps to 1. That sucked so I can imagine you're not having much fun right now. Freja rarely sleeps more than 2 hours though. Maybe that helps? Who knows.

Stifler's - posted on 06/28/2011

I wish mine ever slept in past 9. I remember him doing it 2 weekends in a row, on Sunday when my husband had to get up to him if he woke up. He woke up at 5 or 6 the other day.

Nikki - posted on 06/28/2011

My daughter is 2 1/2. Some days she doesn't want to nap, but she's ready for bed at like 7pm on those days. They don't happen too often, which is nice. She usually has a nap around 1 or 2 pm for about an hour and a half. Then she's in bed around 8pm. Sometimes she's awake until 9 or so, but she stays in bed. She sleeps until 7-7:30am...I have learned the hard way that if she stays up later than 8:30pm or so, she's up at like 6am. So, she goes to bed early. Makes life easier. Maybe you could give your child a book or something. That's what mine does, if she's not tired, but it's bedtime, she reads a book in bed and knows she isn't allowed out of bed until morning.

Medic - posted on 06/28/2011

My 4.5 year old still naps every day and is always in bed by 730-8 and will sleep in till 930ish if we leave him alone. My 17 month old is the same. They both nap from 1230-230/3ish. I think my kids got my lazy gene.

Karen - posted on 06/28/2011

There are alot of people giving advice, but the one thing I have learned is that every child has different needs. I used to have one child that knocked out at 8pm, clockwork, nap, no nap, 1/2 a nap...whatever.. out like a light. she would even just go to bed and we would find her in there asleep.

now on the otherhand, I had another daughter that needed a nap during the day, and then stayed up until MIDNIGHT, because she faught sleep. I tried everything. Nothing worked. I finally just let her stay up with us / or if I needed quiet time, she could watch tv. and when she was tired, she would go to sleep.

not all of us need or have the same sleep requirements, even as adults. you certainly cannot MAKE a child fall asleep.

I ended up letting my daughter make a pallet by the foot of my bed and let her watch tv until she fell asleep. She had to go in there and lay down at a certain time, and if she didn't stay there, she would be put in her bed with no tv. eventually she would fall asleep and we worked our way through it. it lasted about a year, but it worked. I never thought I would allow my child to fall asleep with a tv on, but as a parent we have to break our own rules and just do what works. Thee are NO parenting rules that work for every child.

WE need our quiet time at night too!

Find something YOU can live with as a parent that will keep her occupied in the 8pm-10 pm time frame in her bedroom / your bedroom and allow her to have her quiet time doing that. It is a battle of wills. we just have to outsmart them and let them THINK they have gotten over on us!

Just give her a choice.

do you want to 'watch tv, read books,etc..' or go to bed with the light out? she will choose the activity you feel is a good quiet time activity. This way she thinks she is actually making a decision on her own(she is finding her independance). She is amost 3 you know!! LOL!! at least that is how she sees it!

Katherine - posted on 06/28/2011

@ Theresa, nope 1 hour and she's rearing to go. She'll STILL stay up late. But like everyone else said she get's cranky and begs to go to sleep around noon. I can't see depriving her of sleep. I just feel like I'm screwed either way.

Holly - posted on 06/27/2011

I tell my 2 year-old and my 3 year-old that I don't care of they nap or not, but they have to lay down and rest every day. What I do is I put their pillow pets ad blankies on the couch (far away from each other so they don't play or kick each other) and I turn on a movie. They can lay down quietly and watch the movie, or they can fall asleep. The 3 year-old only falls asleep 2-3 times a month and the 2 year-old falls asleep 3-4 times a week.

Samantha - posted on 06/27/2011

my daughter just turned three. she takes naps some days but more often than not she just needs to be put in her bed for a nap and she just lays there and sings and plays for a few hours, comes out of her room good as new no more attitude. on the days that she does nap i try not to let her sleep for more than 2 hours or she has a hard time going to bed. its nice when im really tired and she decides to sleep for 3 hours, those days getting to bed at 10 is nooo problem :)

Stifler's - posted on 06/27/2011

Is she overtired by 10 and therefore goes psycho? If we let Logan stay up past 7 he has a second wind and goes psycho and we have to fight him to go to sleep. He's only 17 months though and sometimes only has a 1 hr nap and then he's cranky all day.

Teresa - posted on 06/27/2011

I don't have a 2 year old anymore, but my 3 year old still naps most days. He ranges anywhere from no nap to napping up to 3 hours.



My girls would've quit napping right at 2, but I was not ready for them to give up their naps and resorted to driving them to sleep every day for 6 months.



I would say if she's staying up that late.... she either doesn't need a nap or needs a shorter one. What happens if you wake her up after an hour or so? When I first quit driving the girls to sleep there were quite a few days that they fell asleep in their dinner (and my son does that sometimes now), but they adjusted after a while and we just bumped bedtime up by an hour or so.



Good luck!

Katherine - posted on 06/27/2011

Ok, good to know I'm not alone here. SO good to know.

Sarah - posted on 06/27/2011

My son is almost 2 & his sleep schedule is soooo screwed up right now. I'm not sure what's going on with him at the moment! Some days he refuses to take a nap & then gets really cranky by around 4-5. Then once I *think* he's ready to go to bed by 7:30 or 8, he gets his second wind & tears through the house until 10pm. Uggghhh. He's been getting up earlier than usual too...around 6:30. He's wearing me out!

Katherine - posted on 06/27/2011

LOL!!! Happened to me last summer on the way up north.

Amy - posted on 06/27/2011

My 15 month old has been fighting naps lately and she is much too young to give them up! But I'm losing my mind, we just made a four hour trip to visit my parents and you know what's better then to listen to an over tired child cry and fight sleep? Listening to the 15 month old cry and the five year old yell/answer her back for two hours! Good luck I dread the days my daughter gives up her nap.

Katherine - posted on 06/27/2011

Yeah I get the non-sleepers. I swear I thought is was a full moon. Both of them claimed to be "hungry" so I got some snacks out, well it turned into a buffet and they ate it all. 9 at night. What the....?

*Fluffy Bunnies - posted on 06/27/2011

If it makes you feel better my daughter napped as usual today, but she's upstairs in her bed chatting away (it's 10:15 here). Her dad is laying with her, but I'm pretty sure he's already asleep lol. I have a friend who's son has always been a good sleeper/napper. He lays down on his own and goes to sleep (and she never did any sleep training). I'm a little jealous.

Katherine - posted on 06/27/2011

But why can't they just be normal LOL?

*Fluffy Bunnies - posted on 06/27/2011

My daughter is 2 also. She's always been weird with naps and sleep in general. She wakes at 7 also, but is usually ready for a nap around 11. She sleeps for 1-1.5 hours then she's good to go until about 9. Some days she does skip naps and she's usually really grumpy by 4. She ends up in bed by 7 or 8. It is frustrating and I agree that it's probably a phase. My daughter went through a few weeks of not napping and it was no fun.

Karla - posted on 06/27/2011

My 3 yo goes through spells where he doesn't nap. He has quiet time in his bed from 1-3ish and if he doesn't nap he goes to bed at 7 (and sleeps until 7). If he does nap, he usually goes to bed by 9. Hang in there, I find these phases to be really frustrating.