My 2.5 y.o. DD has been a pretty good napper for the last year or so. I put her down, tuck her in, and off she goes to sleep. Suddenly she is not napping AT ALL. I know that some children give up sleeping at nap times younger than others, but I am not ready to believe that is what is happening here, mostly because it happened so out of the blue.
So here are my "clues" as to what might be going on:
1. We spent a couple weeks at the beach back in August. She napped just fine there and didn't miss a day. Once we returned home, she wouldn't nap at all. The first week I kept at it and she would finally fall asleep at about 4 p.m. in the afternoon which is just too late (usually nap is at 1 p.m.).
2. On our vacation, we started to offer to leave her gate off the door if she stayed in her bed. It worked great, she went right to sleep with no worries. That has been still working for bedtime at home, but not for nap.
3. She still has all of her tired cues. She rubs her eyes, gets cranky, goes happily up to her room. But she just isn't sleeping once there. She is looking at books, taking everything out of her closet, stuff like that instead of resting off to sleep.
4. When she is at the grandparent's house, she still naps, for the usual 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Grandma lays down with her, tells her a story and off she goes to sleep. I tried that here but it doesn't work with mama. She will also nap in the car at her usual time if we are out and about.
5. There have been some huge developmental leaps since we got back. She is talking so much more, her drawings are more detailed (she is drawing "things" now, like people, etc.) and she is much more outgoing than she used to be.
I do make sure that she has the opportunity to rest, even if not sleep, every day. I am putting her down earlier at night and she goes RIGHT to sleep. But she isn't sleeping much more that an extra 30-60 minutes a night overall. I'm worried she isn't getting enough sleep.
Most of all, though, I am just not prepared for naps to go away. It seems way too young, and way too all of a sudden for naps to end.
Is there something I'm missing or could be doing differently? Is this just a phase?
I need ideas or help PLEASE!!!!!
So here are my "clues" as to what might be going on:
1. We spent a couple weeks at the beach back in August. She napped just fine there and didn't miss a day. Once we returned home, she wouldn't nap at all. The first week I kept at it and she would finally fall asleep at about 4 p.m. in the afternoon which is just too late (usually nap is at 1 p.m.).
2. On our vacation, we started to offer to leave her gate off the door if she stayed in her bed. It worked great, she went right to sleep with no worries. That has been still working for bedtime at home, but not for nap.
3. She still has all of her tired cues. She rubs her eyes, gets cranky, goes happily up to her room. But she just isn't sleeping once there. She is looking at books, taking everything out of her closet, stuff like that instead of resting off to sleep.
4. When she is at the grandparent's house, she still naps, for the usual 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Grandma lays down with her, tells her a story and off she goes to sleep. I tried that here but it doesn't work with mama. She will also nap in the car at her usual time if we are out and about.
5. There have been some huge developmental leaps since we got back. She is talking so much more, her drawings are more detailed (she is drawing "things" now, like people, etc.) and she is much more outgoing than she used to be.
I do make sure that she has the opportunity to rest, even if not sleep, every day. I am putting her down earlier at night and she goes RIGHT to sleep. But she isn't sleeping much more that an extra 30-60 minutes a night overall. I'm worried she isn't getting enough sleep.
Most of all, though, I am just not prepared for naps to go away. It seems way too young, and way too all of a sudden for naps to end.
Is there something I'm missing or could be doing differently? Is this just a phase?
I need ideas or help PLEASE!!!!!
