What time should her nap be? confused...

[KellyandBean]

My 19 month old has always put up a fight when it comes to naps. At 14 months i gave up on trying to get her to take two naps. The only way it was happening was if i took her for a car ride for both of them. She is an early riser (up usually by 6) so i pushed her to stay up until 11:00 to make for one big 3 hour nap. Well now she is fighting the one nap even though she is still only sleeping 10 hours at night so she obviously needs her 3 hour nap. I am finding myself driving her around to get her to go to sleep...she isn't cranky or anything but we usually have afternoon play dates and i know she will be a clingy cranky mess not to mention fall asleep late in the evening if we are in the car which could complicate things....so i force her to nap by driving her around. Anyway i'm just wondering if i should be trying to just push her nap back until 12:00 or even later to hopefully get her so tired she passes out in her crib?? Do you think that would help with the sleep fighting or would the overtiredness just make it worse? I know most kids her age take a nap right after lunch but aren't most of them up at closer to 7 or 8 am? Also anyone have kiddos that gave up naps (or you gave up fighting them on it even though they needed to still) around or before the second birthday? I feel like it is way to early for her to be going all day without a nap. Also it makes it hard for her to see her dad when he comes home from work at 6pm if she is going to bed then...and we can't have dinner together as a family either.  any advice or just stories about how your kiddo dropped naps?

[Verloren]

When DS first dropped to one nap it was around 11 am as well. It has gradually gotten later and is closer to 1 pm now. He is 2.5 and definitely not ready to drop the nap. I would try pushing it to 12 pm and see what happens.

[FrugalGranolaMom]

DS has always been an early riser as well and I believe he was around your DD's age when he started dropping his morning nap. When he first dropped it, his nap time started to be around 12-12:30. Now it's usually 1-1:30. I agree with trying to push the nap back to a later time.

[weliveintheforest]

I would actually try the other way, and let her nap earlier, and see how that goes for a while.  I'd rather have an earlier nap than no nap.

[sarahr]

When DS first dropped to one nap a day, at first that one nap was really early, like around 10:30. But then he was a mess in the afternoon. I gradually moved it later and now, unless he wakes up earlier than normal, he can usually make it to around 12:30 (normal morning wake-up is 6).

[nextcommercial]

My daycare kids all go down about 12:30.  They are very busy all morning, but seem to handle waiting til 12;30 to go down.  But, if I wait any longer, there will be at least one meltdown.

[Peony]

We so the same thing as the others. When we drop to one nap, it is early and then it gradually gets later. Usually down by 12-1. All my kids stop napping right at 2 though. 

[katelove]

My 16mo only has one sleep per day. It's usually about 4 hours after she wakes up in the morning. Today she woke at 5:45am and was asleep again at 10:00am. We've found the best way to get a good daytime sleep is to have a very active morning - walk, swim, trip to the park etc