2yo nap problems

[anomaly13]

DS2 will be 2 at the end of the month. Right now he goes to bed around 7 or 730pm and is up by 6am, sometimes he falls asleep later but he is always up by 6 even earlier. His napping is getting a little frustrating. A few months ago he would go far a nap around 11 and sleep until 1230 or 1. Now he goes fro his nap at 11 and is still awake at 1 even 2, and will eventually sleep for 45 minutes to an hour. So going down at 11, when he shows signs that he needs a nap, ends up becoming a 4 or 5 hour nap of which he only sleeps an hour or so. He gets a snack before the nap. Most days it's not a huge deal, just me repeating to him to get back in bed and go to sleep. But on days when I have things to do out of the house if I don't get them done early in the morning, before his nap, then he falls asleep in the car and it is just as bad as no nap because I have to wake him to go in the sore or when we get home (it's too hot to leave him in the car). I know he is too young for no nap but I cannot get him to go to sleep. Some days I can lay with him and he will fall right to sleep, but I have a 3 month old and a 4 yo so that almost never happens. I try and keep everyone quiet until he falls asleep and then outside once he is asleep. I am so frustrated, I feel like half my day is spent getting him to sleep which isn't fair to my other kids.

wwyd?

[nextcommercial]

Is he allowed to watch TV? A lot of times, it's hard to settle down without something to focus on. If he can watch TV, maybe he can lie in your bed and watch a movie. (something slow and peaceful) Also, try having him go down at 12:00 or 1:00 instead. Keep him super busy until then and try a little after 12:00.

[ellemenope]

My DD makes is very easy to want to give up naps. Since birth, she has seemingly needed less sleep in the day than other babies and then would sleep 12 hours at night. Without a nap she rarely gets cranky throughout the day, and she NEVER gets tired. She has never just fallen asleep on her own. I am still waiting for the day I find her asleep somewhere. I want that picture of her sleeping on the steps! YKWIM.

That being said, I personally believe naps are really important at this age.

What I do is put her on my back in the ergo and do chores with her music on until she falls asleep. It usually takes 10-20 minutes. Then I lay her down in bed. I have been doing this for over 6 months. If I couldn'd do this, I don't know what I would do.

I am not sure if I understand your post. 11:00 might be his time. It was for DD for a long time. Then when he wakes up he should be good for the day. right? I guess I am not understanding.

[anomaly13]

after breakfast until nap time we either go for a walk to the park or spend the morning playing in the yard. so he is being really active and should be tired. at 10ish he shows signs that he needs a snack and he had been going for a nap around 11. I guess I do need to push his nap back to after lunch.

we don't have a tv, but i have put music on for him, something mellow and pretty low volume. that has worked in the past, but only a few times and once it stopped working i stopped using it because i found him climbing the shelf to mess with the cd player. i worried he would get hurt or try and play with the plug.

i think part of it is that the rest of us are doing (fun) stuff, usually i set my older one up for a craft and then once ds2 falls asleep we go outside. and once he wakes we have lunch and do another or more of the same craft and spend the rest of the day outside, so he's not missing out on everything.

Today for example i put him down around 11, after a snack, he was throwing little fits and i figured he must be tired. well he didn't fall asleep until 2:15 and woke up at 3:40, to me thats a pretty good nap, minus the 2 hours of messing around and not going to sleep. but he was not in a good mood afterward. Probably because he was hungry now that think of it, and yes I did feed him as soon as he got up but i did have to prepare the food and he was not happy it wasn't instantly ready.

Tomorrow we will keep really busy until lunch, which is what we do around here, and then try and put him down after we eat. I try and give him a nap when the baby is asleep too, that way I can actually have a break from the 2 littlest and have one on one time with my oldest.

[nextcommercial]

One thing that ALWAYS worked for my daughter. (I only used it occasionally)

I'd send her to her room to look for toys in her toybox that we could put away in her closet, or give to goodwill. She'd start looking through her toys, and messing with them, but soon, she'd be asleep on the floor in the middle of a huge mess. I had to clean the mess up later, but it gave me a few hours of peace and quiet.