20 months old = no more naps?

Hey ladies,

Hope you can give me some insight on your experiences. Arwen has been having a really hard time falling asleep for naps lately. They generally wake up between 6 and 6:30 and I usually put them down for naps around 11:30-12. Lorien is very much ready for her nap and passes out right away. Arwen however for the past couple of weeks takes a REALLY long time to fall asleep and I'm thinking that she eventually does so out of boredom. She often will take an hour or more to fall asleep but then she sleeps too late in the day (2-2:30) and then has a hard falling asleep at bed time (7:30ish).

Yesterday, after being in her crib for 45 min and her sister sleeping, she was making so much noise that I decided to say heck with it and she didn't have a nap. She started to look tired around 4:30ish but was able to make it until 7pm and I rocked her for a few minutes and she was out and slept till' 6:30am today.

Is it possible that at 20 months she is starting to not need a nap everyday? I thought I wouldn't be dealing with this for another year. She moved to only 1 nap at 12 months (her sister still needed 2 naps until 14.5 months or so). Have any of you dealt with this situation? I have to say that she DID sleep an hour more during the night than usual so I guess she made up for the lost sleep from lack of a nap. Is that how it works?

TIA

 

For us that was a phase. I just kept the routine as close to normal as possible and they eventually worked their way back to napping. They were always content in their cribs talking/singing so I just let them be. One never woke the other if one fell asleep and one didn't. K&K napped daily until they were 4 and even after that they would still nap on random days. Night time sleep did not change as a result of napping changes for us. When they were ready to drop the nap they just didn't need that sleep, they did not sleep any more or any less at bedtime.

 

I would think it would just be a phase. Like Dianne said, keep everything as close to the routine as possible and hopefully they will get back to napping. My oldest DD napped until she was 4 also.

 

I have one (at 26 months) that resists naps...and on occasion does not take one. BUT (big but here) if she misses more than 1 nap she gets SUPER CRANKY, adn/or I put her to bed earlier (or she sleeps in after 2 days of an 'off ' schedule).

She fights it- but I found that she does need the 'rest' time and she will sleep 1- 1 1/2 hrs 6 days a week- the other day she does not nap or takes a short one.

Keep laying her down- my non-nap loving girl also takes a while to settle down- both at naptime and bedtime.

Some days- don't you have a hard time falling asleep right away ???

 

I would say it is a phase too. She may just be excited about something, think she is going to miss something fun. I have one of those, but, he does eventually go to sleep. At about two we changed what we said to them, they were not napping per se but taking a break w/a toy or book. They inevitably took a nap but they took their time, in their own way. Now we are looking at not napping but it is still more likely than not. They get really tired by the end of the day. I am just looking at keeping it a bit shorter otherwise they will not go to sleep.

 

Kaytlin started doing this last week too. I just kept the routine like normal and now she is napping like a champ again.

 

This is probably a phase. My boys went through one right about that time too. If they aren't bothering each other then I would keep putting her down.

 

I wouldn't give up just yet. My oldest is almost there, she's 3 1/2. She goes to school, is active and still sleeps 12 hours at night (sometimes more), but sometimes (a few times a week), she needs to nap for about 1 1/2 hours. Weissbluth told me that age 3, 90% of kids still take a nap, at age 4, 50% of kids still take a nap several times a week ... so it will go downhill between age 3 and 4, but I wouldn't give up just yet.