Juggling Nap schedules......aaargh!! Help Please!

I dropped my second child's nap right at 2. He went to bed 45 minutes earlier - and would sleep a solid 12-13 hours. I loved it, and he was ready. Never had any tantrum problems or anything. With my current toddler, I may do the same. She only sleeps 10-10.5 hours at night, and then does a 2 hour nap. I'd love for her to do all the sleeping at night. Then she won't get up so damn early!

11 months is too early to go to 1 nap. 12 months maybe, it really depends on the kid, but I do think you should respect her normal schedule if possible.

My oldest gave up naps when he was 4. His younger brother gave up naps when he was not even 2 1/2. He would have given them up much sooner, but he was in daycare full-time. So, for at least a couple of months, I was a little sleep deprived, as he would not go to bed until midnight. He simply wasn't tired. I had to get up at 6:30 to get the kids ready, so it was not fun. Thankfully, we were able to enroll him in afternoon PreK in the fall. He went to daycare in the morning and PreK in the afternoon - no nap!

I believe in following your child's cues. It really sounds like your kids are done napping. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you firmly believe she needs the sleep. It seems like she has shown you that she doesn't. Even though my youngest was keeping me up late because of naps at daycare, the transition to no naps made him a little cranky for a week or so. Still, he had very clearly demonstrated the fact that he no longer needed a nap.

I would focus more on the baby napping. If the baby takes a nap in the morning, maybe you guys could do something while your son is at preschool. You could go to a park or go to the library or even try the grocery store. Give it a shot. If it's not working after a week or so, try a different routine. But I would definitely try letting your daughter give up her nap.

I had three kids in six years. At one point I had one in half day K five days a week, one in preschool three mornings a week (in another town) and a newborn.
I just let the baby sleep when and where she needed to. In the stroller, the swing, the car seat, whatever. Having a real schedule was simply out of the question. We were on the go a lot and frankly I didn't like being tied down.
Don't worry so much about holding on to your two year old's nap, mine were all done at that age. Sure more sleep is ideal but so is getting 6 to 8 servings of vegetables every day and most of us don't hit that mark.
Try to be more flexible. Get your chores done in short spurts throughout the day rather than trying to squeeze it all into a preset two hour time frame. For example I often cleaned the bathroom while my kids were in the tub, or folded laundry and paid bills and stuff while they were watching a video.

Why do you believe your two year old still needs a nap? She seems to be telling you she no longer needs a nap, and she hasn't given you reason to believe she still needs a nap. My boys both gave up naps before 2 1/2 and neither one of them ever went to bed at 6:30pm. Most kids stop napping before they are three so they can start nursery school. I don't see the benefit to trying to force a child to go to sleep. Encourage her to have quiet time instead while the baby naps, whether that be on the sofa watching a movie or reading books quietly in her room.

The baby at 11 months will likely be dropping a nap soon.

If this child was in child care they'd be down to one nap per day already. In child care when a child turns one year old they move to the toddler room, some facilities have 2 toddler rooms. One where they are still learning to walk and toddle and the other is for older toddlers from walking really well up to their 2nd birthday when they move to a pres-school room with lesson plans and a curriculum that is for educational purposes.

A 2.5 year old is really too old for a toddler bed but if that's all you have then it will have to do. Most toddler beds are done with baby bed mattresses. They're built for the weight of babies and not pre-school age kids.

So if they start acting like the bed isn't comfortable then it's likely they weigh too much and need to go to their regular bed that they'll have until college. We started them off on queen size.

Back to my point though.....this baby is well old enough to stop taking any naps except the same one your child is taking. Keep them awake until lunch them put them both down. I've never been a big fan of waking sleeping children but sometimes you have to.

So for the kids I'd do breakfast, stuff, snack around 9:15, stuff, lunch around 11 or 11:30 then down by noon so that baby could have a good 3 hours if they need it and they should both be up by the time you have to go do kid pick up and any errands.