Need some napping help, before things get out of hand!

[newmamalizzy]

Let me preface this by saying that DD and I struggled over naps for months during her infancy.  It drove me crazy, made me furious, and really affected my relationship with her during what should have been sweet babyhood.  For the past 4 months, she's been on a pretty steady sleep schedule, and it's been amazing.  She generally went to bed at 7, woke up around 6 (with a few stops in between), then napped from noon - 1:30 or so.  Lately it's been taking a bit longer to get her to sleep at night, and this past week or so we've started having nap failures.  I just finished struggling with her for over 2 hours because I just wanted to get the darned nap out of the way today, but I have no interest in having a battle like this with her again.  So....what next?  How do I avoid a battle?  Clearly she needs something about her sleep schedule to change.  How do I figure it out without going nuts?  At 18 months, I know there are a few babies who drop naps, but I'd really rather that not be the solution.  Has anyone had luck with limiting nighttime sleep to regain a nap?  What about trying for a later nap and allowing it to be shorter?  Or am I just doomed???? 

One more detail:  All this seems to have coincided with her sleeping a bit better at night, often waking up just once (where she often used to have 2 bottles and several brief wakeups in between.  Maybe her better sleep at night is making her not need the nap (at least not at the normal time)? 

[waterinthefish]

I was coming to MDC to get feedback for an almost identical issue...... Waiting to hear the wisdom!

[waterinthefish]

w

[P.J.]

Sounds like maybe her bedtime needs to be moved back a little.

Our DS goes down between 8-8:30 most nights and for us that works. We get a couple hours off at night, and he gets enough sleep (up around 7am). He sleeps about an hour during the day, midday, similar to your DD.

Why not try either waiting til she shows real signs of tiredness and/or just not even try to put her to bed until 7:30 or 8:00?

[Verloren]

I'd try bumping the schedule back a bit. We recently bumped DS's nap and bedtme back by about an hour and he's been falling asleep faster. He also has a slightly shorter nap and nighttime sleep than he used to.

[KellyandBean]

Has anyone had luck with limiting nighttime sleep to regain a nap?  What about trying for a later nap and allowing it to be shorter?  Or am I just doomed???? 

THIS. I know what you are going through as i have also had a very difficult napper. It has been a constant struggle and i still find myself having to take her for a car ride 50% of the time to get her down for her nap. BUT, I've discovered that if she sleeps more then 10.5 hours at night i am in big trouble the next day as far as naps go. She will take a THREE hour nap from 11-2 if she goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 6am..otherwise i end up having to drive her around or just give her a quiet time and forgo the nap all together...which of course results in her going to bed early that night and sleeping 12 hours and screwing things up again THE NEXT day hah. It is such a endless cycle. But yes, cutting down on her night time sleep might help. It sounds like she is just ALMOST getting all of her sleep requierements fufilled at night so she isn't feeling such an intense need to sleep during the day...if you don't think she is ready to handle being awake for the full time ( i don't feel like my DD is at all) then i'd try doing that...maybe bedtime at 8 instead of 7 and you might even get a longer nap too. Also keeping her super active in the morning might help too tire her out.
 

[somegirl99]

We are in a similar boat, my 14-month-old DS likes to sleep in the mornings, then it takes forever to get him down for a nap, then he might take a 3-hour nap and be impossible to get to bed.  The change happened a couple of weeks ago.  Before that it used to be no problem for him to go to bed 7-8, sleep to 8-9 (with a couple of short wakings), and take a 2-3 hour nap.

I now am waking him up in the mornings and limiting naptimes, as the last time he slept in we ended up skipping his nap entirely.  For the most part it is working pretty well.