2 yo dropping nap?

[slgt]

I see a bunch of new-ish napping-related threads, so I'll add mine to the fray! DD 2 has not napped for 2 days in a row. She had been taking a late-morning nap for about 1.5 hours. She was sick earlier this week, and started taking big huge naps (2+ hours), but not until mid-late afternoon.

Also, she's been sleeping 10 hours at night for close to a year. This week she's been sleeping longer nights (11.5 hours), and she has not napped for the past 2 nights.

I'm being silly to worry, because it's just been 2 days...but 2 year olds don't drop naps, right? She'll go back to napping??? She doesn't melt down in the evening, but her behaviour does get a bit more challenging. Both days, she was in her room, door closed and not fussing for about an hour, but she was definitely not napping.

Sound familiar? Will she nap again?

[lmk1]

Hah, I had a post about the same thing a couple of months ago. Since then, some days ds takes a nap, and sometimes he doesn't. I almost prefer when he doesn't, because he then falls asleep at night easily and by himself early. Otherwise, he takes these monstrous naps like for 3 or 4 hours, and is up until midnight!

I also thought he was just going to stop napping, but he came back to it...just inconsistently.

[Snowflower]

We dropped naps at about 25-26 months. Works great for us...no more nap time drama/struggle/grumpiness and night time is a breeze at 7:00. But who know when summer comes we are a lot more active, and the sun is out so much later.. so basically I'm just following her lead. Nap, no nap- I'm not fighting it. Bedtime at 7 is pretty nice, though.

[Catherine12]

My ds stopped napping at 18 months. If you want her to nap, you may have to wake her up earlier so she is sleeping less at night. If you are fine with her dropping her naps, and she doesn't seem overtired, there's no reason not to let her.

[Ruthie's momma]

She may very well go back to taking naps. DD's napping schedule is somewhat interrupted whenever she has an illness. But, after a couple of days she always goes back to taking a nap. Her naps are often no longer than 1-1.5 hrs. On the few days when she doesn't take a nap, she is in bed by 7:00 (otherwise, 7:30-8:00). I am a stickler when it comes to my LO's sleeping. She gets at least 12 hrs everyday.

[hergrace]

FWIW, none of my kids napped regularly after 2 years 3 months. The eldest stopped completely, the little ones went through a few months of napping every 2-4 days. The little ones are now almost 3 and once every two weeks or so, one of them falls asleep in the middle of the afternoon.

[elmh23]

Last spring my 2 year old (he'll be three later this month) was done with naps. Since about October, he's been falling asleep in the car on the way to pick up his sister from school. Sometimes he'll only sleep for the 30 minute trip, or sometimes he'll go until we wake him at 5:30 for dinner (we leave the house at 2:50 to get his sister.) But those days when he sleeps longer than the 30 mintues are HELL at bedtime. It's much nicer to not have nap time, deal with a little bit of grumpiness at around 7:30, and have him out like a light at 8pm.

[Peony]

2 of my kids stopped napping at 2. They would fall asleep in the car but irregularly. The transition to not being grumpy at night took months though.

[Thalia]

We are kind of going through this transition right now. DD is 2.5 years old, and on the days when she doesn't nap, she'll usually sleep about 12 hours at night. On the days when she does nap (usually 1.5 to 2 hours) she sleeps about 10 hours, with a later bedtime, but the same wake up time. I generally prefer at this point that she get a nap, because she does seem happier with it. But if she doesn't get enough activity sometimes she really has trouble falling asleep later on, and we get in a bad cycle.

[brooklynbabymama]

dd had such a strong nurse-to-sleep association that her naps were the casualty when we weaned just before her 2nd birthday. now she basically only goes down if sick, super tired from an activity or if a temper tantrum catches her in the right phase of fatigue and she just winds herself down. she has a toddler bed and so is completely in control of her naps. agree with PPs, bedtime is awesome with no naps. she probably averages 10-13 hours of sleep daily, depending.