Toddler Nap Issues:)

Maybe you need to wake him up after 10 hrs of sleep. Move it so that he goes to bed later or gets up earlier. He probably just does not need that much sleep at night any more.

Then try to get him down for a nap at 12:30 or 1:00 and have him up at 2:00, but no later than 2:30. He needs lots of active activity in the morning and again when he wakes up from his nap..

Runniing, jumping, climbing. Keep him active. We used to get up from nap, have a small snack and then go to the pool in the afternoons.. Then come home and get ready for dinner with a quiet activity , eat dinner, have a quiet bath,then get ready for bed.. Usually they are pretty worn out at night.

If you get him up in the morning and give him active play time, he will be ready for lunch and then a nice nap in a cool, quiet room. Get this nap thing down before you move him to a toddler bed. 1 Thing at a time.

I wouldn't give up the nap this soon. You're going to need that time with number 2 on the way. Most kids I know don't give up their naps until age 4 or so. If he already shows signs of being tired, you might be missing his nap window and then he is overtired. If my daughter isn't down by 1:30, she then is cranky and takes forever to go down. 1:30 is the magic time for her. She goes down and is out in 5 minutes. Try moving his nap time a little earlier before he shows signs of being tired. Also, most books say kids ages 2-3 need between 11-13 hours of sleep, so if he's tired in the afternoon, he still needs the extra sleep.

I was under the impression kids at this age only need 10 hours at night to sleep. That migh be the fix you need.

I am going through the same thing with my 22-month-old, but she only sleeps 9 -10 hours at night! She used to do this and then nap from 1-2 hours in the afternoon. Her pediatrician told me that toddlers sometimes will do this as they don't need as much sleep as they did when they were babies. He says some kids will require as little as 10 hours of sleep in a day total. I think this is my daughter. As for your son, my advice is to wake him up earlier in the morning, and then put him down earlier for his nap. Another issue is that he may be overtired by the time 2 comes around. Maybe putting him down earlier before he is exhausted will do the trick! Good luck!

Hi J.,
oh tle terrible two's are almost upon you lol......try letting him fall asleep someplace else- like on the couch or in a chair etc- if he only sleeps 30-45 minutes that will keep him from being grouchy- it sounds like he is getting sufficient sleep at nite- so chose your battles with him carefully......if you see him getting sleepy just give him his comfort toys, blankets paci etc- and just let him fall asleep where he is comfortable.......I would not be too concerned because you don;t want to create a truma for him where he would be upset when the new one comes home.
good luck and blessings

Don't give up the nap just yet. Let him cry to out. As long as there is nothing in his crib that can harm him or that he can pull apart, and there is nothing physically wrong with him, let him cry it out and go check on him every 15 or 20 minutes and make sure he is still fine, don't make eye contact with him or talk to him too much. Hold him in your arms and reassure him for a few minutes, make sure he is dry, and then lay him back down.

I would start giving him "quite" time in his room. If he sleeps, Great! If not, you will still get a break. Both of my girls stopped taking naps well before 22 months. Every child is different. The quite time worked with my girls. Somedays you might find that he takes a nap and other days he might just play by himself.

Hope that is helpful.
S

Babies need different amounts of sleep--all of mine slept 12 hours a night at this age. They also napped. I'd suggest getting in a routine of lunctime, playtime, quiet time in his bed around 1:30. If he falls asleep, fine--he may be crying out of exhaustion; my kids used to do that if they were really tired. If he's in a good night routine, I don't think I would try a new bed, especially when there's a new baby on the way! The little one can be in a cradle or bassinet for awhile. When he's ready to move you might consider a regular twin bed--we had a trundle bed and moved our son to the pull-out trundle, not popped up. He had a "big boy bed" and didn't fall far if he rolled off. Plus it was easy to make the room look neat in the morning--roll it back under the bed! Hope some of this helps! Good luck and happy Memorial Day!

Many kids just naturally give up their naps at this age. Toddlers want to be in the thick of things. They're convinced that they're missing something if they take a nap. Which is probably why he cries himself to sleep.

My advice is to give it up. Put him to bed a little earlier at night to make up the difference. Not having a nap might make him a little crankier in the evening, but is that worse than the battle of wills over a nap?

Don't fight battles you don't have to.

T.
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