Any minimal sleep in car means no nap?!

[CalaRei]

My boys will be two at the end of the month.  I feel like just now we're starting to get through the haze of poor sleep.  It's amazing.  But naps are killing me.

If it doesn't happen early, we're hosed.  Like 11 am latest.  And if we go out and they happen to fall asleep in the car for 3 minutes - no nap.  I feel like I'm trapped in my house until afternoon, and then I have to rush whatever we're doing so I can get home and make dinner.  Half of my day gets wasted.

I'm so tired of managing someone else's sleep I could scream.

Any words of advice?

[Peony]

All my kids have been like that and well before age 2, they stop napping by then! Yes, when I have a kid in that phase, I spent my life scheduling around naps. I have to make sure we are home before they get tired or else, 3 minute car nap equals very miserable day. It shall pass someday. 

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

Yep. Here too. DS woke up early this morning, and then fell asleep in the car at 10:45 for 15 minutes. And that was that.

(Early to bed tonight!!)

[mamazee]

My 2.6-year-olld has been giving up her nap, and since she's started giving it up, that's what I've found. She sleeps sometimes, but not if she has slept even just a few minutes in the car. My older one gave up naps at 18 months, so it is possible for them to stop napping at that age.

[Adaline'sMama]

If DD falls asleep for just a few minutes and then wakes up, no nap. It must be so much harder with two.

[CassnBeth]

My DD has been like that since....pretty much birth. Even five minutes of car sleep can throw off a whole day and, since she switched to one nap at a year old, those five minutes would mean a whole day of no sleep. I watch her like a hawk if we have to drive close to nap time and have been known to pull over and wake her. I try to avoid having her fall asleep in the first place by getting her to interact with me or a snack or some toy long enough to get home.

[Megan73]

I hear you. The only solution I've found is to use naptime to prep dinner (a slowcooker is great for this) so when the kid wakes you can get out and enjoy the afternoon.

[expat-mama]

ARGH! Yes. Me too. Hate that. 15 min car naps kill the prospect of a good real nap. Well, usually. Sometimes if I try REALLY hard, I can get him to go down for a nap 2 hours later. When I see him start to nod off back there I open the windows and start singing at the top of my lungs! Or I ask him to make all the animal sounds he knows over and over till we get home! "What sound does a pig make?" etc... It works. But it's a bit harder to concentrate on driving....

[BeckyBird]

The worst is when they skip a nap altogether, and you think you'll be able to get them to sleep early that night. Then, when they do go to bed early, they wake up at midnight, ready to play!

Or, when they skip a nap, and still won't go to bed early at all.

Can you tell I'm struggling with sleep issues at the moment? LOL!  23 month old DD is going through some new sleep regression phase or something. She's been fairly predictable up until this, so I'm caught off guard!

[coldandsleepy]

Uh huh... we often have exactly this problem.  If my son sleeps for 2 minutes in the car and wakes up while being smuggled inside, that's it, naptime is over for the day.

We have gotten a little better at sneaking him out of the car and into the house.  It seems to be helpful for him if I lay down with him and pretend to be asleep.  I also don't bother trying to take off his jacket/shoes etc until he's soundly asleep.  And I try really hard not to talk to him at all between the car and the bed.  But that's all pretty straightforward and intuitive stuff you're probably already doing... so no real advice here, just sympathy and the hope that it gets better.