Is it possible that my 2-year-old daughter doesn't need her nap anymore? Lately she's really been fighting it, and if she does fall asleep it's very lightly and she wakes up easily. She's getting 12 hours of sleep at night--is that enough? I'm just not sure if I should just go ahead and ditch the nap or do something differently.
Thank you so much for the tips. We'll see how this whole sleeping thing goes. I love this website!
yes, i think 12 hours is enough for a 24 hour period, so if you want to keep the nap, you probably will have to shorten the night. our 2 year old sleeps roughly 10 hours at night and 1.5-2 hours at lunchtime.
Yes it's quite possible, my daughter did the same. As long as she's getting enough rest 12 hrs a night is great! In fact, if you force the nap, she may not sleep well at night. We found that we still do quiet time - resting with a book or video for an hour in the afternoon gives her the downtime she needs. You probably miss her nap more than she does.
You can go to www.webmd.com and do the research on naps for that age.
Hi A.,
Our daughter stopped napping around that age too. The doc said she probably still needed it, but I can't force her to sleep, so we would do an hour or so of quiet time instead. I tried the dark room, sleepy-time music, quiet room, etc and nothing would get her to sleep. Instead of fighting her I would have her lay on the bed or couch with her blanket and pillow and we would read books or once in a while watch some of a Disney movie. Sometimes she would end up falling asleep, most of the time not, but at least she got somewhat of a "rest" period. Good luck!
Both my boys gave up their naps entirely too early---for me! I wanted them to sleep, but they just didn't need it. They were both still 2 when they gave up their naps for the most part. With my first, I had him have "quiet time" on his bed, which was also piled high with books. Half the time he'd fall asleep looking at his books, the other half I'd let him come out an hour after he went in.
Quiet time didn't fly with my second, so it was harder. Often, he'd fall asleep around dinner time! But I tried to keep him up and moved his bedtime earlier if he didn't nap during the day. Surprisingly, he will still fall asleep at age 3 1/2 when we go to pick up his big brother from school at 3:30, depending on how busy our day was. I found that if you really need them to take a nap one day, plan ahead by taking them to the park or somewhere extremely fun, and it'll tucker them right out.
Good luck, it's kind of tough to lose your few hours of quiet!
Both of my kids (a boy and a girl) quit napping right after they turned two. Trying to make them continue napping was a waste of energy. Every kid is different so you shouldn't worry about it.
My 3-year-old twins quit napping at 2. I just made sure that there is a quiet time for about an hour each afternoon. Sometimes they fall asleep, sometimes they don't, but at least they are getting rest.
According to BabyCenter's sleep chart, a 2-year old needs between 11.5 and 15.5 hours of sleep per day. http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil... It could be that your little one is at the lower end of the sleep requirement spectrum. I feel for you - my oldest quit napping at 14 months. Even as an infant (3 months) I was lucky if he slept 45 minutes during the day! He was a great night sleeper, though, he started sleepng through the night at 3 weeks old. I was happy about that, although I almost had a heart attack the first time he did it! If it was me, I'd ditch the nap and count my lucky stars that she sleeps so well at night!
Yes, it is possible - my dear daughter was done with naps (with the pediatrician's blessing) at about 2 and a half. She was (and still is) a very high-energy child who has always needed less rest than average. My son, on the other hand, still took naps until he was nearly 5. As long as she will still take one, I'd keep giving her the time to do so, but I'd stop planning around long naps, and get ready for her to be done with them.
