Nap help for my 2 year old. If they're over, I will cry.

[newmomnewjersey]

Any tips, advice, success stories, or commiseration would be appreciated. So my daughter is 28 months old. Up until about 6 weeks ago she was taking solid 90 minute naps (on average) every day and sleeping about 11 hours at night. Naps were consistent both at home and at daycare. She started fighting naps around Halloween, but would still settle down eventually and sleep for a good 90 minutes or so. The nap time duration has been slowly decreasing since then. For the last two weeks she's doing about an hour at daycare and maybe 40 minutes at home, if we're lucky. This weekend she flat out refused and didn't nap at all on Saturday. Yesterday she slept for all of 25 minutes. I have noticed that she's sleeping a little longer at night - what used to be 11 hours is now a solid 12-12.5 hours. (And I know I'm lucky here. She was a horrible sleeper until about 9 months old)

I would be fine with this, except that she is a holy terror for that hour before her bedtime because she's so exhausted. It's awful. I was hoping the nap fighting was just a phase, but it's not looking that way. I just feel like such a little person really NEEDS a nap during the day. The other issue is she never sleeps anywhere except her crib - she won't fall asleep in bed with me, on the couch watching a movie, etc. At least, she never has before unless she's sick. The only other way to ensure a nap is if we go for a car ride.

So my questions are: Do I put her to bed a little bit earlier and just give up on naps at home? There will be naps at daycare for at least another year, so should I instead enforce some type of "rest time" where we lay down together and do quiet activities like books or quiet toys and just hope she falls asleep once in a while? Should I plan an errand for the afternoon and see if she'll sleep in the car?

[hermione]

I would insist on a quiet time even if she isn't napping. She can lay in bed with books for an hour.

I would also try moving her bedtime up an hour and see what happens. If she's melting down for that hour anyway, it's worth a shot.

[Deleted]

Around 2 j started fighting naps. Now at 30 mos we still put him in his crib every day but he only naps a few times a week. The rest of the days he just has quiet time and sings to himself or reads books.

[justjen]

I'll sign on with commiseration. My 2YO rarely naps on weekends unless we drive her around in the car when she's sleepy. If we put her in the crib for "quiet time," she lays down for about 5 minutes and then literally jumps up and down on the mattress the rest of the time.

We can still get a good nap out of her *occasionally* and she apparently still naps at daycare (peer pressure/groupthink, we think), but I know our days are numbered.