15 month old on a nap strike, need advice!

[fernie momma]

Sorry in advance for the long post..

My 15 month old son seems to have gone from 2 naps to none in the last week or so, or 1 very short nap.  He does well skipping the morning nap, then I try to put him down around lunch or shortly after but he will fight it like crazy.  The last couple days have been 2 hours or more of trying to get him to nap and it just turns into tears for both of us.  He won't seem to nap in bed.  I've tried everything, singing, patting his back, nursing, white noise etc and nothing works, he just wants to get out of bed and will bite me if he's nursing. 

He's always nursed to sleep until recently at bedtime he will nurse for a bit then let go still awake and I will rub his back and sing to him until he falls asleep.  This process also takes awhile but nothing like the naps.  At night he is calm and doesn't fight it with all he's got.  I'm really having a tough time with the naps, I know he needs to sleep because he gets cranky later in the afternoon if he doesn't and he's only 15 months...He will fall asleep in the Ergo or the stroller but I don't want to have to go for a walk every time he needs to nap, sometimes I need to get stuff done around the house while he sleeps. 

Also, last couple times he finally did fall asleep after 2 hours of trying, I left the room to get something done and he was awake within 5-10 minutes.  I need some advice, I find I'm dreading naptime and I feel like half of my day is spent trying to get him to sleep!!  We co sleep and he naps in our bed and is still breastfeeding (mostly at night and when upset)  if those factors change anything...Thanks!

[sunwise]

Do you think it is possible that he is overtired from skipping the morning nap (even if he seems ok), and that is why he fights the afternoon nap so much? I know conventional wisdom says that sleep begets sleep (although that doesn't always work in practice at my house!), so maybe he needs to go down for a morning nap even if he doesn't seem tired. My 14-month old has lots of days where he only takes one nap (usually at daycare), and I can tell pretty much every evening that he actually needed two. Even on weekends we sometimes skip the second nap because my DH always wants to wait until we see "tired signs" - but I tend to think that by the time DS exhibits those signs, he is actually overtired.

I wish I had better advice for you! It is really hard to manage the naps, especially when they are in a transition phase. We haven't figured it out yet either.

Hope your little one gets back to napping soon!

[newmamalizzy]

I have to agree with the PP on this one.  My DD (19 months) needed her nap to start before lunch when she first dropped down to 1 nap.  She got up for the day at 5:30-ish and went down for her nap around 11.  Nowadays it's more like 12:30.  The later I put her down, the shorter the nap, and she's more likely to have trouble falling asleep if she's overtired, too.  It's tough when naps transition like this.  We're going through that again now, too.  One bit of advice - don't try for 2 straight hours.  Give it a time limit, like 30 minutes.  Take a short break, then try again. 

[Erin77]

I agree with those upthread- even if he seems OK, don't skip the morning nap yet. My 14 month old gets up at 6 am and goes back down at 8 am for his first. Even if he doesn't LOOK tired, he is asleep within moments when I nurse him and lie him down. He skips his afternoon nap 2x a week at daycare, but can't do without his morning AT ALL.

[graciegal]

My 14 month old is transitioning. We used to do up at 8am, nap at 12 noon and try again at 4pm with no success for the afternoon one. When we push the noon one back to around 1pm and no afternoon nap, she makes it through fine. It took a day or so but she is great. Gets a little cranky around dinner but after dinner she is a delight again. Bedtime is at 8pm. Dont be afraid to go to 1 nap. If that's the way it works, then that's the way it works!

[Quinalla]

The car is my lifesaver when she just won't nap for me, but she is really tired. 99% of the time I put her in the carseat, drive for 5 minutes and she is out with none or just a touch of fussing. It wasn't the case until she was about 11 months, she hated the car until then, but then a switch flipped and now if she is the slightest bit tired the car puts her right to sleep. Stroller works sometimes too. Just wanted to give some suggestions if you haven't tried it because sometimes you need something to break the no-nap cycle. The other thing I will do is take her to a totally different room and watch TV (yeah I know ), listen to music, read books, or just sit together. Sometimes she just needs to get away from the nap area so she can calm back down and get out of the MUST FIGHT NAP mentality.

If he is dropping the morning nap, I too would recommend putting him down earlier for the one nap, he may be overtired especially in this transition time. But yeah, I mostly just wanted to say I hear you and I have been there and it is no fun having a nap/sleep fighter!