Help With Naptime

[Aliyahsmommy]

The last couple days I have been having trouble getting my 2 year old daughter down for her nap. Usually she just lays down, talks to herself quietly, and eventually falls asleep.
Yesterday she hurt herself while playing quietly and so I let her come into my room to lay in my bed and watch cartoons, thinking she would eventually fall asleep. Fast forward to 2 hours later, me laying with her, TV being turned off, and a 45 minute tantrum, and then finally sleep! She really needs her nap so skipping it is not an option.
Today I lay her down with her bear, cup of milk, etc. She is fine for 10 minutes, but then starts calling for me. I go to her room and offer to read a story, which I do. She then asks for another and I tell her no it is naptime. Now she is crying and calling my name from her room. We do not do CIO so if she doesn't stop soon I will need to go to her, but this will ultimately just lead to more crying and a tantrum so I am at a loss! I'm going to try and go lay in her bed, but would love some other advice. Help please?

[Aliyahsmommy]

Well her is an update. It is 30 minutes later and I laid with her this whole time and she just played, which is what I figured would happen. And now I left her room and she is crying again.
My husband just got home and now she wants her cup filled so he is with her. And now he decided just to skip her nap, but I know we will be sorry later.

[foreverinbluejeans]

If kids are tired they will sleep.

[sarahr]

Originally Posted by foreverinbluejeans

If kids are tired they will sleep.

Ha! Not my kid. My dd just gets more and more hyper when she gets tired.

For the OP, can you try starting naptime a bit earlier? Maybe she's getting overtired, so she can't settle down to fall asleep.

My dd went through a nap strike, but then she surprised me by starting to sleep again. We were able to stick with quiet time through the strike because she was happy to hang out in her crib playing with her stuffed animals for several hours. I don't know what to suggest if your LO won't do that, but I would try to enforce quiet time as best as you can.

[Mom2M]

My DD also gets hyper when she gets too tired and we found that starting nap a half hour earlier worked. If we missed that window of opportunity she would stay awake and be miserable later.

Deb

[bstandlee]

Originally Posted by foreverinbluejeans

If kids are tired they will sleep.

Definitely not my kid either.

If starting earlier doesn't help, maybe starting nap time a little later than normal. I've recently moved DS's naptime later because I noticed on days when I try to put him down for his nap earlier than normal because he's showing signs of tiredness he resists and doesn't even go down at his normal time. But then again, everything about DS' sleeping is opposite of most kids, so who knows!

[Aliyahsmommy]

It might be that I am getting her down too late as she is the type of child that has trouble falling asleep when overly tired.......the other problem is that the other kids in the house do not nap and so she then doesn't want to. The last few days I have let her skip her nap, though twice she fell asleep in the car and today in a chair so I do really think she still needs one. I think tomorrow I will try an early nap and see how it goes.
And I have to agree that not all kids will sleep when tired as my daughter doesn't want to miss the action. She will stay up until she is no longer in control of her emotions or behavior and is out of control if we let her and if there is something to stay up for..........and we would all be miserable........